Vajroli Mudra

Hi, we're here with Ilana and Betsy, and we're going to work on a pose that's, it's a mudra, it's not an asana, it looks like a modern asana, very close to one. But originally it was a mudra called Vajrali Mudra. I brought it in from a later chapter to a substitute for one of the poses I dropped out of the sequence. And you may be very familiar with this exercise. Nowadays it's called Paripurna Navasana, which means the full boat. It's done a little bit differently in, in, in this, in this, in this sequence. So I'll ask my helpers to stretch your legs forward into Dandasana to begin please.

And both of them can bring the hands back onto the floor behind the pelvis just a little bit. And with the fingers pointing forward toward the feet, arms strong, and you can lean back a little bit onto your tailbone, but keep the chest lifting. Very nice. And I'll ask you both to bend the knees, bring the feet on the floor. Now Ilana will represent as usual the less challenging position. All I ask her to do is to bring her feet off the floor and bring the shins more or less parallel to the floor, keep the knees bent. That's right. You can bring the feet a little bit higher if you like.

Betsy will take the feet off the floor and with an inhalation stretch the legs out in a diagonal direction. And you can, I'm sure that a lot of you are familiar with this as a full boat. Of course nowadays it's done with the arm stretch alongside the legs, but in the old days they kept the hands on the floor this way behind the pelvis. Pressing through the heels and the bases of the big toes, keeping the legs strong. Betsy is doing the full exercise over here on my left. And let's see, Ilana can you straighten the knees a little bit more? Yes she can, very nice.

Can you draw the thighs in a little bit tighter to the torso? A little bit? Yes, very good. And lift the chest a little bit more. The boats are sinking on both sides, good. And then inhale in the exhalation, lower the knees, bend the knees both, bring the feet down on the floor, very nice. And sit back in a cross-legged position. Well done both, as always. Thank you, Vajrali Mudra.