There are times when yoga expands into daily life…at least for a while. Somehow along the yoga way I have been caught by my sweetheart standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth while I am holding my leg up with my other hand.  The yoga pose is Extended Hand-Toe Pose (Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana – don’t ask me to pronounce that.).  I found it interesting one morning that I was able to grab my toe and hold my leg up there parallel to the ground – and I happened to be brushing my teeth at the time.  I wasn’t really thinking about anything that morning and I just started positioning myself to hold my toe and stretch out my leg.  It worked!  So I tried the other leg, and lo, it worked too.  A couple mornings into this my sweetie walked around the corner and bam, I’m caught.   It is hard to brush my teeth with my leg up in the air while I am laughing and trying to explain myself with a mouth full of toothpaste.  Oh, the joys of yoga when you live with someone.

This whole thing started after I found myself in Ashtanga Yoga classes.  That Hand-Toe Pose that has invaded my morning, and then my evening, dental routine is basically standing on one leg while holding the other outstretched leg by the big toe.  (add photo here).  I can’t seem to achieve this pose during class.  Well, not for enough seconds to count.   But, somehow I am able to do this posture in the morning while I brush my teeth, and again at night.  While I am holding my big toe neither of my legs is particularly straight.  My back is rounded so that my fingers can just get out there far enough to grasp my toe.  Just so you know I will not be posting a photo of myself here to prove 1. that I can in fact do this pose, nor 2. how badly I do this pose.  And I certainly will not be showing off my toothbrush to you either.  The fact remains that while my battery operated tooth brush is working away at quadrant one and two I can hold one leg up.  And when my toothbrush is working on quadrants 3 and 4 I am able to hold up the other leg.  This comes to a full minute for each leg.  It’s a matter of pride.  And apparently this is a real hoot for my sweetie.

The Ashtanga Yoga Instructor has relocated and we no longer have an Ashtanga option at the studio I practice with.  The closest studio that does offer Ashtanga is now forty five minutes away by car.  I don’t know how long I can keep this dental routine going, and continue to breathe.