Patricia Walden's Asana for Upliftment: Aging & Backbends

Patricia’s iconic backbends

As the only North American with a Senior Advanced certification in the Iyengar Method, Patricia Walden shares her years of experience learning and studying with BKS Iyengar and the Iyengar Family through her classes, workshops, books and instructional videos. Many yoga students know her voice from the Audible version of BKS Iyengar’s Light on Life. I listen to it often, picking up new jewels as I am better able to merge my intelligence with its message. It is this ability that Iyengar Yoga seeks to cultivate and it set the foundation for Patricia’s December backbending workshop hosted by Marla Apt, and Iyengar Therapeutics

Patricia refers to Mr. Iyengar, as Guruji (from the root Guru or bringer of light). Anyone touched by Iyengar Yoga has experienced some of that light. It is a result of the refined instruction BKS Iyengar’s phenomenal life’s work has given certified instructors of the Iyengar Method of teaching the 8-limbed path or Astanga Yoga.

Patricia explained that one of the definitions Guruji gives for yoga is “When the intelligence of the brain merges with spiritual heart.” She recalled that his daughter, Dr. Geeta Iyengar often referenced the Sutra III:35 of Sage Patañjali:

hrdaye cittasamvit

Guruji transcribed this in his book Light On The Sutras of Patañjali  as "By samyama on the region of the heart, the yogi acquires a thorough knowledge of the contents and tendencies of consciousness." Samyama is the intergration of Dhāraṇā (concentration), Dhyāna (meditation) and Samādhi (union).

Patricia began the workshop by bringing our focus onto the sternum, a physical place that serves as the doorway to the spiritual heart, a vast space. Coaching us inward with reverence for the Sage Patañjali and BKS Iyengar, we honored them with an invocation. The deep gratitude and reverence, humbles us to receive the boundless lessons of Iyengar Yoga.

Wisdom is a positive consequence of age, Patricia explained. While we may have challenges with different parts of our body, we have gained wisdom, which is more critical than the backbends. "As our bodies change, our mind changes too; wisdom comes," she continued. She proceeded to take us through a series of standing, seated, and forward bend poses followed by prone backbends concentrating on the areas that get dull as we age while still focusing on the sternum and spiritual heart. Guruji distinguished horizontal actions from vertical actions. The extension vertically is from the intelligence or mind, and the extension horizontally is from the spiritual heart, where wisdom comes.

Patricia began going to Pune, India to attend the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, RIMYI, in 1976. For many years, she had the good fortune to watch wisdom at work, witnessing BKS Iyengar evolve his back bending practice as he aged. She recalled him saying about his asana practice, “I used to play, but now I stay.” She noticed how he used more prop support to stay longer in asana like Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, two-legged inverted bow, Urdhva Dhanurasana, upward bow, and Natarajasana, an asana named after Siva, Lord of the Dance. Patricia reminisced about practicing with Guruji. She recalled how if she started to practice beside him, she had to commit to stay, she couldn’t stop. She giggled explaining that while he appeared to be still in whatever pose he was in, it was extremely rigorous and challenging.

During the workshop, Patricia took us through a Krama or ordered sequence. She distinguished each sequence as "family of poses" that prepare our bodies and minds for backbends. Now in her 70s, Patricia continues her backbending practice, but prepares her body more than she used to. She addressed the fact that as we age the light we worked so hard to bring into places like the roots of the thighs and groins, our armpits, thoracic spine, and knees dull with age. It doesn't mean it goes out - it means we have to spend a little more time to shift the dimness to make it brighter and sharper. In this way, we assure a safe and healing backbend practice as we age.

As an example with Adho Mukha Svanasana, or downward dog, she gave several detailed instructions such as spreading the skin of the palms and backs of our knees, rotating the triceps inward (alerting the armpits), pressing the roots of the thighs, and tops our knees back while extending our heels down by lifting the lower shin up and back. She brought our attention to all the parts of the spine, the thoracic spine, the lumbar spine, and the lower spine —asking us to lengthen and "intelligize" the entire spine, and proceeded with more detailed instruction.

These instructions are just a taste of what a Senior Advanced Certified Iyengar instructor brings to students. From standing, kneeling, seated, and prone asana, Patricia’s instruction sometimes adds elemental cues like earth, water, fire, and ether. It goes deeper and deeper into back bending actions through every koshas or sheath of the body. Students who have cultivated their ability to hear and follow without resistance are taken to a place that alters their perspective of what they are capable of.

It is but a millisecond glimpse into the probable 31,557,60 seconds BKS Iyengar explored his own body and those of his students every year for seven decades. Through his expedition, he developed the precise words to instruct from gross to subtle actions that enable transformation in mental, physical, and emotional mobility and freedom.

The instruction Patricia provided early in the workshop applied to the asana that followed. She sequentially and systematically woke our spine, and the spots that dull with age. She increased our ability to extend vertically and horizontally from the outer skin to the inner body. All of which created the space we needed to come into a full back bend from the floor: Urdhva Dhanurasana, upward bow. Whether with various setups of prop support or flat from the floor, her entire class enable us to experience the back bend with more receptivity, space, and freedom. With all of the necessary actions of the body intelligized, our mind could merge completely with the heart. We could experience the true upliftment an Iyengar Yoga back bend provides regardless of age.

Thank you, Patricia; what an excellent way to end a very challenging year!

Namaste