🧩 Planning with Purpose: Headstand, Backbends & the Arc of Practice

When you practice at home, it’s easy to fall into familiar patterns—reaching for the poses you know and moving through them on autopilot. Seasoned practitioners benefit from periodically refreshing how we plan a sequence—not just what we practice, but how we organize it.

This week, we’re looking at the relationship between inversions and backbends—and how to structure a practice that supports both steadiness and vitality.

Why Start with Headstand?

Practicing Śīrṣāsana (Headstand) at the beginning of a session helps to steady the senses and draw the mind inward. It establishes a tone of clarity and attention. When followed by backbends, the result is often a lift in mood, vitality in the chest, and renewed energy. This combination can be especially helpful when you feel dull, unmotivated, or unfocused.

Even if you’re not working with Headstand right now, you can substitute a supported inversion like Adho Mukha Śvānāsana (Downward Dog) with head support to establish that same inward focus.

Bringing Pacing and Variety into Practice

One way to bring depth into home practice is by adjusting not just the poses, but how they’re arranged.

Viṣama nyāsa refers to placing unrelated pose categories back-to-back—like moving from a twist to a backbend to a forward bend. This kind of contrast keeps the nervous system alert and the mind engaged.

Viloma, on the other hand, involves repeating a single pose several times throughout the session. That pose becomes a kind of thread that runs through the practice—something you revisit and refine as your body warms, your awareness shifts, and your breath deepens.

B.K.S. Iyengar describes this approach in Ārogya Yoga, noting that the pivotal āsana may be used three or four times in the sequence. For example, Viparīta Daṇḍāsana can be done at the start, middle, and end of the sequence (p. 297).

Here’s one way to work with the viloma method using Dwi Pada Viparīta Daṇḍāsana (on a chair) as your anchor:

  1. Adho Mukha Śvānāsana (Downward Dog)
    Open the shoulders and lengthen the spine.

  2. Dwi Pada Viparīta Daṇḍāsana– Round 1
    Legs bent, bolstered support, short stay. Focus on ease and quietness.

  3. Uṣṭrāsana (Camel Pose)
    Build active extension and lift through the spine.

  4. Viparīta Daṇḍāsana – Round 2
    Legs straight, reduced support. Stay a bit longer, explore breath and steady gaze.

  5. Bhujaṅgāsana + Śalabhāsana (Cobra and Locust)
    Strengthen the back body.

  6. Viparīta Daṇḍāsana – Round 3
    Your final stage, then gradually come out and observe.

  7. Setu Bandha on a bolster
    Let the system settle.

  8. Savasana or Viparīta Karaṇi
    Rest in the vibration from your practice

You can modify the number of rounds or level of support depending on your time and energy. The repeated pose gives the session a rhythm—it’s not just variety, but refinement.

Final Thought

Sequencing isn’t just about order—it’s about pacing, contrast, repetition, and reflection. The methods described here offer different tools to help your practice stay alive and purposeful.

Try pairing Śīrṣāsana with backbends this week, or use a viloma approach with a pose of your choice. The pose itself may not change—but your relationship to it will.

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How Do We Know What We Know?

Exploring the Three Sources of Right Knowledge in Yoga

In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we’re invited to pause and reflect not just on what we think—but how we know something in the first place.

In Sutra I.7, Patanjali outlines three valid ways of gaining knowledge:

Pratyakṣa – Direct perception
Anumāna – Inference
Āgama – Testimony or reliable authority

These are referred to as the three kinds of pramāṇa—or ways of knowing that are considered trustworthy.

Let’s take a look at how each one plays out in everyday life—and on the mat.

1. Pratyakṣa: Seeing for Yourself

This is knowledge that comes from your own direct experience—what you see, feel, and sense.

In yoga, this might mean noticing how your shoulders feel after practicing Gomukhasana. Or realizing that your breath changes when you adjust the position of your head in a forward bend. It’s what you observe firsthand, without relying on anyone else’s interpretation.

The challenge? We don’t always see clearly. Our habits, assumptions, and emotional filters can distort perception. Which is where the other two forms of knowing come in.

2. Anumāna: Inference

Sometimes, you don’t see the fire—but you see the smoke and know something’s burning.

In class, maybe you see a student struggling to balance in Vrksasana and infer that the weight isn’t evenly distributed. Or you adjust your hand in Downward Dog and realize the shoulder tension eases—so you infer that placement matters.

This is reasoning. It fills in the gaps between what we sense directly and what we conclude based on patterns.

3. Āgama: Reliable Testimony

This is knowledge passed down from a trusted source—like a teacher, text, or tradition.

In Iyengar Yoga, that includes what we’ve learned from B.K.S. Iyengar, from our mentors, and from the long lineage of practitioners who’ve come before us. When someone with deep experience tells you, “Keep the head of the femur back,” you might not feel anything change right away—but you trust the instruction enough to keep exploring it.

It’s not blind faith. It’s informed trust.

The Yoga of Inquiry

Good practice weaves these three ways of knowing together. We listen to the teacher (āgama), test the idea through action (pratyakṣa), and notice what happens over time (anumāna).

Together, they give us a fuller picture—one that helps us navigate the complexity of the body, the mind, and life itself.

When the Mind Wanders – Two Techniques from the Yoga Sutras

If you’ve ever found yourself halfway through a pose only to realize your mind is somewhere else entirely—planning dinner, revisiting a conversation, drifting into judgment—you’re not alone. This is part of the human experience. The practice isn’t about never being distracted. It’s about recognizing when you are, and learning how to return.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras offer more than lofty ideals—they offer practical techniques for working with the mind. Two of them are especially relevant when it comes to rising thought waves: one helps us redirect the mind in the moment, and the other helps prevent those thoughts from building in the first place.

1. Subduing the Thought as It Arises (Yoga Sutra II.11)

“These fluctuations are to be subdued through meditation.”
(dhyāna-heyāḥ tad-vṛttayaḥ)

Here, Patanjali is referring to the subtle mental patterns that take shape in our consciousness. When we sit, breathe, or hold a pose with attention, we begin to see them. The practice is not to fight or suppress them—but to notice their rise and gently guide the attention elsewhere.

This is what B.K.S. Iyengar called cultivating the witness consciousness—observing the mind without getting pulled along by it. You start to feel when a thought is forming, and in that moment, you can return to the breath, the body, the present.

That moment of return is the practice.

2. Preventing Disturbance Through Mantra (Yoga Sutra I.29)

“Through repetition [of Om] and reflection on its meaning, obstacles are removed and consciousness turns inward.”
(taj-japas tad-arthabhāvanam)

This is a technique for preparing the mind. Instead of waiting to get distracted, we anchor ourselves in something steady—like the repetition of Om.

Geeta Iyengar, daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar, emphasized the transformative power of the Om mantra. She viewed it not just as a sound, but as a bridge to inner peace and spiritual connection. Om, she said, is the sound of the inner self—a way to align with the universal rhythm and settle the mind into something deeper.

When practiced with quiet reflection, japa can shift the inner landscape. The thoughts don’t have as much fuel. The breath slows. A new kind of quiet becomes possible.

Neither of these techniques is about perfection. They're about attention. About noticing what the mind does—and remembering that we have the tools to come back.

Whether you pause in the moment (II.11), or set the tone with mantra (I.29), the effect is the same: greater steadiness, deeper clarity, and a more spacious relationship with thought.

That’s where practice begins to change us.

📖The Breath Knows What to Do: Pranayama in the Yoga Sutras

We don’t usually think about the breath unless something feels off. But in practice, we start to notice how much it reveals. The breath reflects what’s happening in the body, the mind, and the nervous system—sometimes more honestly than our thoughts can.

In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali doesn’t introduce pranayama as a dramatic or advanced technique. Instead, he describes a shift in attention—one that begins when the body is steady and quiet.

II.49 – “Pranayama is the regulation of the breath; the control of inhalation and exhalation. It is to be practiced only after perfection in asana is attained.”
(Translation: B.K.S. Iyengar)

In our own practice, that doesn’t mean asana must be perfect. It means we’ve developed enough awareness and stability to start paying attention to the breath—without needing to adjust or perform.

II.50 – “The flow of inhalation and exhalation is regulated by location, time, and number, and becomes prolonged and subtle.”

This doesn’t happen all at once. As Chip Hartranft writes, the breath isn’t forced into a pattern—it’s observed. And through steady observation, it begins to change. We may notice moments of stillness between breaths or feel the exhalation begin to lengthen naturally.

II.51 – “The fourth type of pranayama transcends the external and internal forms of breathing.”

Iyengar and Hartranft both describe this as a space that isn’t created by effort—it becomes noticeable when the breath is steady and the senses are no longer agitated. That space—sometimes just a pause—can become a reference point for attention.

This approach is slow and respectful. It doesn’t require us to do anything dramatic. It asks us to listen.

🧘‍♀️ A Grounded Practice for Breath Observation

This short sequence helps prepare the body and senses for observing the breath. There’s no goal here. Just notice.

  1. Savasana – 5–7 minutes
    Lie with support under the head, back, and knees. Let the breath move naturally.

  2. Supported Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – 3–5 minutes
    Notice where the breath moves—chest, ribs, back. Watch, don’t adjust.

  3. Return to Savasana – 5 minutes
    Now observe the exhalation. Is there more ease? Does anything shift without effort?

  4. Optional: Try a few cycles of Ujjayi I¹ or Viloma I²
    Stay relaxed. If you feel yourself working too hard, return to simple observation.

Pranayama begins with attention—not with control. The breath already knows what to do. We’re just learning how to notice it.

Footnotes:

¹ Ujjayi I – Reclined breath observation. Inhale and exhale through the nose with a quiet sound in the throat. No holding of the breath. Focus is on smooth, even rhythm.
² Viloma I – Interrupted inhalation. Breathe in partway, pause, then continue. Repeat until the lungs feel full, followed by a steady exhalation. Builds sensitivity to how the breath fills different parts of the chest.