Monday, August 31, 2009

166/241 - Spiral Lines

Saturday Off.

The day 235 meditation introduces another type of line in body work. These are spiral lines. There are at least two of them. They run from the arch of the foot, through the front of the leg, then travels up around the body and ends up at the base of the ear on the same side it started. I don't have that clear a picture of this line, and its not clear to me to what extent a spiral is a line in the first place, but I think I get the basic point.

Gates says that we use these lines of connective tissue when we do twists. In Bikram, there are really only three twists. Standing Bow involves a very slight twisting of the spine. Triangle is a bit more pronounced. And then there is the final spinal twist. In the last one, we're told to twist like we are wringing out a towel. Even though we haven't been told this way, I like to think of my spine resembling a double helix, or recombinant DNA, in this pose. In this way, I get a bit of a charge about trying to mold my spine into the basic shape of life.

Given that, I think its nice to try to picture these spirals of connective tissue that weave through our bodies. In the end Gates talks about growing used to the spiraling energy that flows through our body. I guess the picture of these spirals of connective tissue might help with that, but I still like the image of twisting my spine into DNA better.

2 comments:

thedancingj said...

I like your double helix, too! :)

Duffy Pratt said...

Yeah, I've always been fascinated by the idea that structures at the smallest level tend to repeat themselves at larger and larger levels.