“Advanced” poses are often foundations expressed more deeply.
When we look at the full expression of a yoga pose, it can be easy to assume that what we are seeing is an advanced skill—something far removed from the foundational postures we practice every day.
Can we move into that full expression right out of the gate?
Probably not.
That is why it is called yoga practice—not yoga execute.
Lolasana may look advanced, but it is not built from an advanced trick. It grows from foundational relationships repeated until the body learns how to organize them together.
The lift begins before the body ever leaves the floor.
THE FOUNDATION BENEATH THE POSE
Before the feet lift, we begin to understand how different parts of the body communicate with one another:
- How alignment and engagement through the hands and feet connect the extremities to the abdominal chain.
- How intentional engagement of the feet and ankles strengthens the connection through the legs, hip flexors, and lower abdominals.
- How the hands, shoulder girdle, back body, abdominals, pelvis, and legs coordinate so the center can direct and support the extremities.
None of these relationships belongs exclusively to Lolasana.
They can begin in something as accessible as Virasana—a kneeling posture in which the body is fully supported by the floor.
Here, there is no need to lift anything.
We can begin by observing all the different pieces we need to bring into play in order to become light.
We learn to create the “back wall” of support through the shoulder girdle and back body. We draw the upper abdominals inward. We engage through the hips, legs, feet, and ankles.
We begin to feel how pressing down through the hands can awaken a response through the center.
The pose may appear simple from the outside, but the body is learning something important within it.
THEN WE REPEAT
We explore these same relationships in kneeling preparations.
We become more precise.
We develop strength, awareness, and control—not as separate achievements, but as parts of the same progressive practice.
With repetition, the body begins to recognize the pathway.
The hands press down.
The shoulder girdle and back body organize.
The abdominal chain gathers inward.
The pelvis becomes lighter.
Eventually, the feet may begin to lift.
Lolasana has not suddenly appeared.
The foundation has deepened.
WHAT REPETITION REVEALS
Repetition is not simply doing the same thing again and again.
Each return gives us another opportunity to listen.
We may notice where the connection is lost, where effort has become gripping, or where one part of the body is trying to do the work of the whole. We may begin to sense the difference between forcing the external shape of a pose and allowing the movement to arise from an integrated center.
This is where physical practice becomes a practice of awareness.
The body participates.
Awareness observes.
Through that relationship, something that once felt unreachable may gradually become more understandable—not because the pose has become easy, but because the body has been progressively prepared to meet it.
When foundational principles are introduced early and practiced consistently, what we call an “advanced” pose can become a natural progression.
Not a trick.
Not a performance.
Not something separate from the beginning.
FOUNDATIONAL OR ADVANCED?
The difference may not be as clear as it first appears.
The advanced expression contains the foundation.
The foundation already contains the possibility of the advanced expression.
What changes is our capacity to recognize, organize, and embody the relationships that have been present all along.
Advanced poses are not separate from the foundations.
They are the foundations, expressed more deeply.
With love,
Majeeda
Vortices
Where inner awareness becomes your greatest guide
See you next week!
