Tias Little - Gut Feelings
For two hours, Tias Little, a remarkable yoga teacher with a masterful knowledge of anatomy, taught about the third chakra - aka the gut.
For the first hour, he led us through the following sequence of poses:
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog -- with wide legs, heels spiraled outward).Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend),
Trikonasana (Triangle -- Tias said if you have only 1 minute to do a yoga practice, practice this pose, 30 seconds on each side),
Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose),
Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide Legged Forward Bend),
Parsvottanasana (Intense Side Stretch Pose),
Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolve Triangle),
Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog),
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog),
Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Big Toe Pose),
Matsyandrasana (Lord of the Fish Pose),
Upavistha Konasana (Open Angle Pose).
We ended the first part of the class with Sukasana, (Easy Cross Legged Pose).
Then came the slide show. We saw the musculature of the abdominal compartment. Tias showed us the psoas muscle, which governs upright posture. When we are tense or anxious, he says, we shorten the psoas muscle. He then showed us a picture of the Buddha, and points out how supported the Buddha's belly is, how straight yet relaxed he sits.
Tias showed a slide of a skinny fashion model, and told us to observe the "flat belly syndrome". The model's belly is concave, her shoulders hunched. There is a complete lack of energy in her baring. A goal of practice, he told us, is not to have a flat belly, or 6 pack abs (which he views as an armoring of the body), but to cultivate ease in our belly. Ease in the belly helps cultivate a balanced digestive tract, which is necessary for physical, emotional, and mental health.
Then came the questions -- first from a woman who wanted advice about yoga for an eating disorder. Tias said to do grounding poses, concentrating on standing poses with grounded feet, and twisting poses to clean the abdominal organs. Another person asked about chronic overeating. Overeating, he said, is a way of deadening the body and emotions. He recommended a heating practice to get prana flowing, and supine twists.
After two hours, Tias barely scratched the surface of this huge topic. I came away, as I always do when I study with Tias, with an awe of how remarkable our bodies are, and how profoundly yoga can affect not only our bodies, but who we are, and how we live our lives.
Comments
This article was very helpful to me. I am teaching a class on the core today at 1330. Tias' concept of cultivating ease in the belly provides another nugget for my class to chew on. I will incorpoate this thought in my class today. Many thanks!
Posted by: Bobbie Brooks | January 15, 2006 09:54 AM
While I enjoyed the content of the article, I couldn't help but notice the contradiction between Tias referring to 6-pack abs as 'armor' in the article and the photo of tight abs displayed to the right of the story titled Slim Down? Just a reminder to ensure that your advertising is complementary to your editorial content.
Posted by: madeleine | January 18, 2006 12:51 PM
Thanks so much for the great description of Tias' class...this is wonderful to be able to attend the confernece vicariously...
BTW, it's ileopsoas (not soaz)
Posted by: Susan | January 18, 2006 01:32 PM
This article helped me very much. Tias has an incredible ability to show me how amazing my body is and how through yoga I can rediscover it each time. I am teaching a class about the third chakra on Saturday and this is exactly what I need. I had a chance to learn from him when he was in Atlanta last month and I will never forget the experience.
Thank you
Posted by: Lisa Washington | January 18, 2006 02:28 PM
Great summary I loved hearing about this class! I wondered if there was any more information as to why Tias chose the poses he did and sequencing. I love that he had a photo of a fashion
model. It is sometimes challenging as a teach students to relax their bellies, when we are daily bombared by images of models with the posture that Tias described.
Posted by: Elise Collins | January 18, 2006 02:36 PM
just a little thing but it's not Soaz muscle...it's psoas muscle....
Posted by: Mary Roberts | January 18, 2006 04:12 PM
Very interesting. And what comments &/or poses do you recommend if one is having trouble digesting emotional bad news?
Posted by: Vicky Barris | January 19, 2006 08:23 AM
Not all asana have to be restriced to the mat. In particular the ones that assist the bowels to function. When sitting down to empty the bowels, Gomukhasana arms, torso twists and sucking in and rolling the belly (having fully breathed out first), all help to maximise evacuation of the bowel while also cleansing and massaging all the digestive organs.
If you do this on the matt then just leave the gut to settle the cleansing effects will be lost, peristalsis will slow and there is a risk of constipation. Once food has reached the end of the digestive tract it's best to let it out as soon as possible.
It surprises me that Yoga teachers tend to avoid the subject of elimination and ingestion yet this is just as important as expiration and inspiration (pranayama).
Most accept that it is possible to eat oneself sick by eating the wrong foods in the wrong way and in wrong quantities. Therefore if we discipline ourselves to eat (and excrete) in the best way possible, then we will have gone a long way towards obviating the need for some of the remedial asana work that would otherwise be required. Stop hurting yourself (Ahimsa) and there will be less healing and cleansing work for the body to do. The body cannot progress to a state of enhanced health until it has first cleansed itself and repaired any damage.
Look after your gut and (with the help of asana) the rest of the body will look after itself.
Posted by: Rick Dyer | January 19, 2006 04:43 PM