Andreas Ervik, 2012
The Meditating Goof
Found here.

Veron Urdarianu

Veron Urdarianu

Found here

The Scared is Scared

Bianca Giaever asked a six year old what her movie should be about, and this is what he told her...
the Scared is scared from Bianca Giaever on Vimeo.

"...if something feels like you are closing you should just say 'OK! I'm fine'. I usually let it go and I think of something that I really like to do. You just think of something else until the nervous has gone out of you. I let that thing disapear out of my head, out of my earholes, out of my mouth. PHEW."

Kids are wise little things...

Hands

Vintage Czech Glass hand pendant on brass chain from iswasandwillbe.

Wolfgang Laib

Pollen works by Wolfgang Laib, found here and here.

His Pollen From Hazelnut is on view at MoMA now. I wish i could go and see it!

Headstands, No Hands.

Linda Brownlee's photographs of 18 year old twins Jay and Perry Howell have me mesmerised.
GRACE.

Found via Nowness.com

Indeed!
Found here

Timothy Lee

Secretive Skin by Timothy Lee.

"We gotta start teaching our daughters to be somebodies instead of somebody’s."

-- Kifah Shah

"...I need to take what has been given me, and treat it with respect and love. Making sure my body lasts as long as my head and heart do...."

-- That Kind Of Woman

Click here to read this beautiful response to a question...

Robert Kinmont

From the series 8 Natural Handstands by the artist Robert Kinmont.

Rhythm

Rhythmanalysis - The faces of yoga from Daphne Christoforou on Vimeo.
See more of Daphne's brilliant illustration and animation here.

Notes on Blindness: Snow

Notes on Blindness: Snow on Nowness.com.

Found here

Feel!

images found here and here.

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape… Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.

-- Andrew Wyeth

Cat anatomy!

Found here

Found here

The Gospel Song

Where did we go when the blue sky turned to liquid
And the cold trees stood naked
Oh high up on the mountain
We were growing up, so strong
I have found a flower, that is growing in the forest
And we talked by the hour
Oh we were not lovers, but I loved you
Oh Oh love 

And oh beautiful clouds
I go sailing through
Oh golden clouds
I been sailing through you

Well my mother was a gardener
Of things unspoken
And my father came around me
Like a broken little soldier
And my sister, she is wondering'
What the hell is all around us
But this beauty of all

And what you do is sacred
And what you say don't matter much
Yer moving your lips
But your mind is on fire

And oh the steam is rising
Like it did once
Oh a love came down through me from above
And sang up to my god
And he saved me once again

And if you have a brother
Then you can understand
What it is to love
And to grow up to love
and things get shattered

And oh beautiful clouds
I go sailing through
Oh golden clouds
I been sailing through you

Listen to Frazey Ford sing this BEAUTIFULLY here.

Sunday tune

Sunday tune

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”

~ James Baldwin

Found here

~ On Guard, Ladies! ~

I'm trying Fencing today...oh dear...

Image of fencing lady from the 1920s from SurrenderDorothy

Start each day like it's your birthday and ALWAYS give a little more than you promise.

Pose of the week

Salamba Sirsasana (Supported Headstand)

To loose the unnecessary tension in the body (especially the shoulders!) needed to do this pose you have to find adequate support from your bones. The grounding is important. A well grounded body can become still, like the way a bowl of water becomes still if undisturbed - unlike being still like a brickwall - the bowl of water always has the potential for free movement. 
Also, always keep in mind that it is the quality of the pose that is more important then the length of time you hold the pose. 

Practice

The biggest challenge coming in is maintaining the moment by moment attention needed to preform the pose. It is only when you are able to proceed with complete attention on what you are doing and feeling, rather then what you are anticipating, that this pose becomes truly safe. 

Based on the variation in the second image,  learning how to take weight into the elbows, forearms and the crown of the head is an essential first step. You need to strike a balance between pushing the base of the pose into the floor to help maintain a lift in the shoulder girdle and (as much as possible) thinking about your weight being transmitted through the bones of the upper arms into the elbows and through the spine into the crown of the head.  There should be no compression in the neck.

Note, the abdominal muscles are not what haul you up and keep you in the pose. Although you need good core strength, the belly actually remains fairly soft and the abdominal muscles really only act to help you balance the weight of the pelvis over the head.

It is worth experimenting with the different variations to find the right one for your body. If your upper arms are fairly short and your neck long then you might be better of trying the tri-pod (1st and 2nd picture) or taking a lift under forearms, like a folded blanket. If your upper arms are comparatively long then you might want to try placing the elbows further away from the head or taking the folded blanked underneath the crown of the head. Play! There is a variation for everyone, you just have to find it.

Sequencing
Salamba Sirsasana requires stability at the base, long, strong shoulder muscles that also know how to release, the muscles of the neck and spine need to be strengthened and you need a length in the hamstrings and shoulder flexors before attempting to lift the legs. Great preparation poses include;

• Adho Mukha Svanasana
• Salamba Sarvangasana
• Uttanasana
• Virasana
•  Dolphin pose 
• Plank (including side plank and forearm plank)

Follow up with Adho Mukha Svanasana and Balasana.

Benefits

There are numerous benefits to the body when you turn yourself upside down; you are reversing the effects of gravity for starters, allowing all the oxygen rich blood that pools in the legs and feet throughout the day to flow down towards your vital organs and brain (which makes you feel like you've had a double espresso!), it can certainly help strengthen the arms, shoulders, legs, and spine and i've read claims that it can stimulate the pituitary and pineal glands and improve digestion. But, for me, one of the biggest benefits is the challenge to the nervous system. You need to beable to manage the fear, anticipation and desire that arises from attempting this pose to beable to make it safe. A big challenge!

Contraindications and Cautions

• Back injury
• Headache
• Heart condition
• High blood pressure
• Menstruation
• Neck injury
• Low blood pressure: Don't start practice with this pose
• Pregnancy: If you are experienced with this pose, you can continue to practice it late into pregnancy. However, don't take up the practice of Sirsasana after you become pregnant.
• Sirsasana is considered to be an intermediate to advanced pose. Do not perform this pose without sufficient prior experience or unless you have the supervision of an experienced teacher. Some schools of yoga recommend doing Sirsasana before Sarvangasana, others vice versa.

City Map Quilts

Quilt of London by hapticlab.
Found via thejealouscurator

Goodbye January!

found here

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn for LIFE magazine, 1968.

“Huh,” Hepburn snorted when asked to sit still for LIFE’s photographer and the picture on the cover of the issue. “I haven’t done that sort of thing since 1944. Me posing like a starlet? You must be really desperate. That’s funny. That’s very funny.” Grudgingly, she assented and arrived at the studio at the appointed time with her fold-up minibike, some sand-colored gabardine suits, a faded olive fatigue jacket her brother wore to World War II, black turtleneck sweater and a couple of perky, peaked caps. “I hate the yellow background,” she grumped. Click, click, click. She struck another stance and turned on a smile, or what she calls “my girl Scout look,” Click, click, click. Then, whipping off her jacket, she demanded: “Look, tell your editors I never do anything standard, and this is all the old bag would do.” Whereupon, Miss Katharine Hepburn, without so much as wrinkling her ladylike self and pinking only slightly, turned herself base over apex for fully two minutes, without wavering a fraction, stood on her head.

Found here