You’re probably still in the throws of summer fun. August has been one of my favorite months for years. September has been my least favorite month for equally as many years.
August was vacation, sleeping late, less email, more time outside. September was a new school year for kids, new transitions, getting up early again and getting back into the routine.
Kind of curious, though. I like beginnings and routine. My mother says that I loved getting the new crayon box when school started, and a new notebook and pencils and book bag. There is something in a fresh start that feels good, hopeful, full of possibility.
So why the disconnect between August and September?
I’ve finally realized it’s the clean-up. I was digging to find some rationale behind this fleeting idea about August needing some time for a designated “summer clean-up” before the new start of September. I found a great description in an article Important Last Step to Make Your Next Project Successful that pulls from project management theory the four stages of a project.
1.Planning
2.Preparation
3.Execution
4.Clean-up or Finishing up
The first three make sense when it comes to summer for most of us. But step number 4? Maybe you have been like me, squeaking the last bit of fun in until the very last moment of Labor Day weekend and then slamming into the wall of September.
Ahhh… perhaps some time for summer clean up is in order to complete the project cycle. This year I’m being intentional about that week before Labor Day as a week of summer clean-up. Celebrating the fun, framing some summer pictures for my desk and buying a new box of crayons.
In yoga, the pose of savasana, at the end of the practice is the final clean-up pose. You are allowing the activity of your practice to come together and settle into your body. Though right before that rest, I always need some kind of twist. Twists are know for the powerful detoxifying that comes from wringing out the internal organs to clean things up. But that’s not all.
I have a special relationship with one floor abdominal twist in particular. It has a very long name in Sanskrit and I could never remember it when I was in yoga teacher training. It’s called Jathara Parivartanasana. It was a mouthful and it’s a pose you move into slowly and hold for a few breaths and then repeat on the other side. This was just enough time for my teacher to come by and say very slowly ja-tara-par-e-var-ta-as-sa-na. When I do this pose I still hear her soothing voice saying the name. Sanskrit is a lost language but is said to have power in the sounds of the words.
The pose is also called Jathara Parivrtti, and a “superpose” by Olga one of my favorite yogi’s. Why? It has incredible “nutritional value” and many benefits as Olga describes.
” Jathara Parivrtti works great for rotating the spine and stretching the muscles of the lower back. If you change arm movement, you can target the upper back, shoulders and neck; if you change leg position and movement, you can work with abductors, rotators, hip flexors and hamstrings.”
Want to give it a try? Here’s a video demonstration from Jonathan FitzGordon who claims this would be the one pose he’d pick if he could only do one pose the rest of his life.
Want to try a variation of this twist in a chair? Here’s a great guide from Eve Johnson.Hoping you can plan some time for a summer clean-up–and some twists.
Be well…it’s a state of mind