Yogic North: Dude Where's My Compass?

Traditionally, yogis got up early and did sun salutations.

To face the sun that early in the morning, they had to face east (sun rises in the east).

So, over time, the front of the yoga mat came to represent east.

Now this is even if the mat wasn't facing east. It was still called east.

Just because us lazy westerners refuse to wake up early, and start banging out surys, doesn't change the traditional name, of the direction of the front of the mat.

Gonna repeat...so even though it's 10pm at night and you are facing true north, if you are standing on you mat about to go into a sun salutation, you are facing yogic east.

Go ahead, turn your mat around 90 degrees. Yep, still facing yogic east. The front of your mat is always yogic east.

Now, why is this important, and why am I banging on about compass points?

Well, it's just that some pose names are called 'east pose' and 'west pose'. In fact, sometimes during a yoga class, the teacher will say "east pose".

Ok. So we've established where yogic east is (the front of your mat). Now if we take it a step further, we could say that the front of your body is the east side of your body.

So, when you are stretching the front of your body, you are stretching the east side.

Here we have east pose (purvottanasana). Aka upward plank. Purva = east = front of the body.

Now if the front of the body is east, what is the back of the body?

Yep, west.

So, if you were in a seated forward bend, what do you reckon the pose would be called?

Yup, west pose. So paschimottanasana is west pose (paschima = west = the back of the body).

Look at the dude doing the forward fold and have a think about what he's stretching.

It's not just his back. He's actually stretching from his calves, through his hamstrings, up around his butt, then down his back, all the way through his shoulders and up into the top of his neck.

So the WHOLE back of his body is being stretched. The WHOLE west side. Not just a bit of it.
There's a term for what he's stretching. In anatomy, there's a body of work called Anatomy Trains.

And this links parts of the body together. All the parts of the body that we just went through, that the guy is stretching, is called the superficial back line (SBL).

The last thing to cover off in this pose (oh yeah, before I forget, in east pose, the superficial front line is being stretched)...so last thing...oh yeah, if the front of the body is east and the back of the body is west, then the left side is north and the right side is south.

Now, I haven't heard of a north or south pose, but if a teacher refers to north or south, at least now you won't be caught out....Can't have readers of How To Be Your Own Yoga Messiah getting caught out by know it all teachers.

Ok, we're done, J.