We start by finding a place of ease, child's pose, (yes this is a resting pose but if we engage slightly we can find strength and comfort in our upper body through the breath). A teacher once said to me imagine you have little suction cups on the tips of your fingers, one could even say frog hands. As we rest here we find length through the arms teaching or directing the breath to travel from the core to the finger tips passing through the wrist joint, holding us up.
From here we tuck our toes and with the strength of the core rise to feel the mid point~our hips, the place from where life stems. If we now consider our toes and ankles, observing here we can shift our upper body to replicate our lower body. Rooting down our lower limbs we extend from the core allowing the breath to rise, engaging the muscles that hug the ribs, slightly externally rotating the shoulders joint. As we disengage the shoulders the breath has the freedom to move down the arms, giving life and strength to the muscles that wrap our bones.
We remember that by extending towards the fingers the wrist is just another place where the breath is able to unfold, find new direction and spread into the hand. The wrist is not meant to be a stopping point for our strength but a gentle traction of the joint and a continuation of the arm. (One other thing that I try to remember is that no pose is static and when I feel compression of a joint it is time to shift the weight of my body and by movement of the breath I will gradually find the place of ease).
Rae's reflections as a participant of last year's 2017 yoga challenge.
Thank you for sharing~RMY