A MUSICALLY INSPIRED MOVE
Twist your torso with care in this aspirational pose,
Bharadvaja’s Twist is an aspirational yoga pose that can look and feel like pure music, so demonstrating it at the Royal Conservatory’s Telus Centre for Performance and Learning makes perfect sense.
This intermediate move requires healthy knees and rather mobile hips, so please proceed with immense care and patience when attempting.
1. Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched.
2. Lean to the right before folding your left leg under into Half Hero Pose, placing the top of the foot on the ground directly beside the hip.
Be sure to keep the ankle and foot in one straight line.
3. Next, fold the right leg into Half Lotus Pose by using your hands to mindfully manoeuvre the foot into the crease of the opposite hip, keeping the ankle centred over the left thigh bone.
4. Twist your torso to the right and use the right hand to hold the right foot.
5. Reach diagonally across the body and tuck your left fingers under- neath the right knee with palm facing down.
6. Finally, turn your gaze down and to the left.
7. Fully inhabit the experience for five expressive breaths before unwinding the twist and switching sides. An Ancient, Timeless Composer Bharadvaja is one of the yogic seers credited with composing the hymns collected in the Rigveda, the oldest of the four sacred texts, from the ancient Indian subcontinent, known as the Vedas. The Rigveda represents the oldest scriptures of Hinduism and they are likely the world’s oldest spiritual texts still in use. YuMee Chung is a recovering lawyer who teaches yoga in Toronto. She is on the faculty of a number of yoga teacher training programs and leads international yoga retreats. Learn more about her at padmani.com.