Yoga isn't the pretty shapes we make. It's so much more—spiritual, introspective, a pastime, an intellectual history etc. The masters, new and old, still quibble about its nature.
But yoga is also the pretty shapes we make.
They reflect, as I sometimes cheekily say, the pretty nature we adore and aspire to become.
Not to turn SN into IG/yogaporn and the Stackers into endless IG doomscrollers, the crow (Kakasana) and, in time, the crane (Bakasana)—which I roughly treat as synonymous—have been my eternal companions.
For years, I’ve done them practically everywhere.
Crows were among the first arm balances that consumed me, that had my ego pumping and my sense of awe channeled into a physical asana. They are me in some cosmic, overwhelming, inexplicable sense.
Certain asanas just speak to us in this unfakeable way. What appeals to me even now, so many years later, is the playful balance between safety and fear, the compressed midline—holding my full potential together in a strong, tightly held ball.
What I feel in my body is a sense of absolute bliss and stillness and determined focus.
The Yoga Journal writes that
"Bakasana teaches you to create connections between your arms and knees, abdominals and spine, mind and body.”
Hashtag why fucking not.
...and my most flashy of crows/cranes, having absolutely noooothing to do with the background (nono!):
the fullest versions I have pictures of:
Perhaps I should just stay humble and, um, eat crow. But here we are, loving the crow.
How to do the pose
Physical Benefits of Doing Bakasana