Hi! It's beetee here. Thanks for reading my weekly Yoga Quick Dives!
If you find yourself too busy to read (or if you hate reading!!), did you know that you can listen instead? Go on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to my weekly Yoga Quick Dives on the go. But if you are, like me, a 'visual' type of brain, you may still find reading much more memorable and enjoyable. Let me know!
This week's quick dive: the Body's Anatomical Positions, the Body Scan Mindfulness and What on Earth is Digital Fashion.
The Body's Six Anatomical Positions
When teaching yoga, I always encourage my students to stop looking at me or people around them for demos during class. Instead, engage your active listening and follow my verbal cues. Active listening helps you stay focus, learn to filter out all the noises that don't serve you, and stop comparing your body's shape and capabilities to anyone else's. To be able to use active listening in your yoga practice, it is important to have some basic understanding of the common anatomy language that your yoga teachers often use, so that you have an idea what they talk about. Thanks to its precision, using the anatomy language helps avoid ambiguity and confusion.
The anatomy encyclopedia is huge! But we have to start somewhere. Today I'd like to introduce to you (or remind you of, if you already knew it) the 6 basic anatomical positions of the body. Here they are:
Flexion: when you move your extremities forward in front of you. For example, hip flexion happens when you kick one leg forward from a standing position. Shoulder flexion happens when you bring one arm in front of you. The exception in the semantics happens when we talk about the knees: knee flexion happens when you move the knees backward.
Extension: when you move the extremities backward. For example, hip extension happens when you kick one leg back from a standing position. The exception also happens with the knee, vice versa.
External Rotation: there's a rotation away from the midline. Hip external rotation happens when you turn your toes outward.
Internal Rotation: there's a rotation towards from the midline. Hip internal rotation happens when you turn your toes inward.
Abduction: think 'abducting someone'. This means taking them away or separate them. Your legs and arms' abduction happens when you are in a standing star-fish position.
Adduction: is the opposite - when you 'add' things together, or bring them together.
I know these (slightly) technical terms sound dry and boring. But if you want to improve your practice and movements, not just for yoga, being aware of them of them is very useful. It will help you become mindful of your movements and avoid injuries. Still confused? Let's chat!
The Body Scan's Mindfulness
Now that you have some knowledge of the body's anatomical positions, I'd like to propose this week a Body Scan Mindfulness to activate your body awareness, stress awareness, and relaxation. If you're not familiar, the term 'Meditation' might sound very far away, to the point of being inaccessible. That's why I call it a Body Scan Mindfulness instead. All we need to do is to be mindful of our body by scanning its different parts, from top to toes, inside out. You can do it anywhere, seated or standing or lying down or while walking. Very often we store stress in our body by tensing the muscles without even knowing it. So just take a minute or two (or longer if that suits you) to be aware of where you store your stress, and then allow it to float away from your body. Body Scan Mindfulness could help you sleep better, improve focus and even sometimes cope with pain.
If you need a guidance for your Body Scan Mindfulness, try my Youtube audio Full Body Scan. Do this as many times as you need to. Eventually, see if you could self-guide your body scan, starting with just 2 to 3 minutes in between your meetings. Let me know how you go...
Anything above the Earth and below the Sun is Life. Hopefully something useful to you, or at least something that will bring a smile to your face. 😊
What on Earth is Digital Fashion?
Did you know that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions? Did you also know that fashion houses destroyed (slashed, discarded and burned) their past season's unsold inventory just to maintain their products' exclusivity and price levels? In 2017, Burberry destroyed over $36 million of clothes and perfumes.
So what are the solutions? Some, who must be hard core fans of the IoT, have come up with a creative solution: Digital Fashion. In 2019, an SF-based C-level spent $9,500 on a dress for his wife. Hard to say which material it was made of, because it didn't exist in tangible matters: it was a digital dress rendered on to an image of his wife, which can then be used on social media (*raising eyebrows but #OOTD #stayhome #photooftheday ✔️✔️✔️). Furthermore, with the rising of NTFs or Non Fungible Tokens, you are assured that $9,500 dress is yours and only yours.
Yay or nay? Let me know what you think. Pro-digital fashion or not, it's maybe about time to rethink our fast fashion consumption and its impact on life.
By the way, Happy Singles' Day! Be happy - single or double, or triple - but stay away from the e-commerce screens and don't jeopardise your wallet or your Planet!
Thanks for reading! But don't leave just yet!
Ask me TWO questions or leave me TWO comments below. I'd love to hear from you.
Until then, take a deep breath and keep your worries away!
Love,
beetee
Yoga Quick Dive is a series of weekly newsletters that should take no more than 5 minutes of your reading time. Let's deep dive quickly into 3 topics: Body, Mind and Life.