Yoga warriors are everywhere. ADVERTISING Yoga warriors are everywhere. Ministers, maids, and environmental warriors fighting for a clean planet; writers, realtors, healers, business warriors, and school warriors on soccer or debate teams – all warriors on the frontlines of life.
Yoga warriors are everywhere.
Ministers, maids, and environmental warriors fighting for a clean planet; writers, realtors, healers, business warriors, and school warriors on soccer or debate teams – all warriors on the frontlines of life.
Our yoga pose this month, the Noble Warrior Pose, endows the true warrior’s intention to cultivate peace, even in the midst of war.
In Warrior 1, Virabhadrasana, the back leg roots down, drawing power from the Earth, the front leg lunges, ready for action, and the arms stretch to the sky, expressing devotion. The whole body becomes a vehicle for compassion, commitment and spiritual strength available within each of us.
This pose challenges us to choose our intentions wisely. Intention is, after all, what defines us. Only through right intention can we find lasting peace in the world.
Our inner life — our implicit experience made of beliefs, habits, feelings, and thoughts — can be confused by the false ego, which scatters attention. Noble Warrior tames the ego, cuts through darkness, and encourages the truest, best person we can be.
Realizing we have the power to lighten darkness stirs an indescribable ecstasy. Try it and you’ll see — even in the dark.
Virabhadra’s Story
In the Sanskrit language, Vira means hero, Bhadra is friend, and Asana is the pose. Bhadra, for whom this pose is named, was a powerful friend of the cosmic dancer, Shiva. In the ancient story of romance and tragedy, Shiva falls in love with Sati, his heart’s desire. Together, they are the soul of the universe.
When they marry, her father, King Daksha, ruler of the ego, condemns them. He spreads rumors and slander about Shiva. Heartbroken, Sati sits in meditation and self-immolates. Enraged by his wife’s brutal death, Shiva rips a dreadlock of hair from his head, flings it to Earth, and creates Virabhadra, whom he commands to find the king, behead him, and drink his blood.
Virabhadra’s journey to slaughter the ego, his sword overhead, comes alive in warrior’s pose, where the internal battle between the true self and chaos can be witnessed and resolved.
When the heart is kidnapped by the dysfunctional ego, creativity and fearlessness can tame the ego and restore the true self. Luckily, yoga poses are not just physical. The mind does the directing, reaching, and aligning. Centering in the core integrates the whole, frees up egoic tension, and focuses the yogi toward one aim, to be skillful and wise in the present moment.
Steps for
Warrior 1 pose
Warm up first with three to five Sun Salutations. Breathe slowly and deeply through your nose for the entire practice. (Sun Salute: https://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-features/yoga-mindful-life-lighten-sun-salutations).
1. Stand in mountain pose. Place hands on the waist and with an exhale, step your right leg back about one leg length. Adjust to feel stable. Plant your right foot on the ground at a 45-degree angle, right toes pointing toward the upper right corner of your mat. Left foot faces forward, in line with the right heel, but on parallel lines for balance, not a tightrope.
2. Square the front of your pelvis to the front edge of your mat. Firm your leg muscles; lift the inner thighs toward the pelvis.
3. While exhaling, activate the pubococcygeus muscle by reaching the tail bone down and toward the pubic bone. Squeeze the abdominals and navel upward and back to the spine.
4. With right leg firmly anchored, exhale and bend your left knee over the right ankle with shin perpendicular to the floor, aiming the inner knee over the left middle toe.
5. As the right hip point turns forward, press the head of the right femur back to ground the heel. Lift up the spine to the crown. Arch your upper torso back slightly.
6. Lift your arms vertically, parallel to each other, and widen your collarbones. Palms face inward, reaching actively through all fingers to the sky. Ground through both feet, lift the rib cage away from the pelvis, and feel a line of energy run from the back leg, across the belly, chest, and up into the arms. Place palms together if possible, like Virabadra merging heart and soul in the ancient tale.
7. Keep your head neutral, gazing forward, or tilt it back and look up at your thumbs. Firm scapulae against the back. Breathe in graceful strength through every pore.
8. Stay 30–60 seconds. To complete, inhale, lift your core and straighten the left knee. Return to mountain pose. Repeat on the opposite side.
Yoga is the key to the best possible version of yourself. Precise activations of the body stir kundalini, which rises up the spine like the sun. Warrior 1 pose helps us reach for the stars while staying connected to our greatest supporter, gravity.
At the end of the legend, after Virabhadra has destroyed the king and his lands for Shiva, the wise one comes to see the carnage and is so sad for the king’s losses that he gives him another head!
In the paradigm shift we are facing, we can create carnage or compassion. We find courage to create the future we desire, or we suffer.
We, like Shiva, must choose.
Marya Mann, PhD., co-author of Healing Our Planet, Healing Our Selves, is an energy medicine specialist and yoga teacher. Info: marya.mann@gmail.com
