I got stuck in Garbha Pindasana today.

If you are not familiar with the old Garbster, it is when your legs are in lotus and you slide your hands through and then place your hands on your face. Still confused? Well, I do not blame you; it is a tricky little asana. Oh, and ‘slide your hands through’ I cavalierly say. Usually you are trying to rub your forearms on your sweaty forehead to try and help them squeeze through the microscopic gap, or giving yourself vicious Chinese burns on the inside of your thighs.

So, I am on my mat on the balcony, in the blistering midday sunshine and I reach for Garbha.

I have no water and it is so dry that my sweat is evaporating instantaneously. God damn it. I will just have to do it high and dry. I forcibly push my hands through getting to just below the elbow and, in doing so, give myself the aforementioned Chinese burns. Ouch!

I then wiggle my arms to try and get the elbows through—also very painful as my sharp little elbows jab into my foot bones. Eventually, the arms get through and I grab my face. I breathe for five breaths. Then I begin the rock ‘n’ roll circle. I roll on to my back, and my Jade travel mat is so thin that I hear each of my vertebrae crunching. “Holy crap!” I think, “that was really f*cking sore.” In my moment of distraction, I lose my momentum and roll on to my side.

My arms are completely jammed, and it is at this point when my bare thigh and shoulder touch my black mat, which is, of course, so hot that it feels as if I am lying on a stove top. I am trying to heave myself back on course, but simultaneously trying to avoid rolling on to my spine again.

This is also when I realize I am still clutching my beetroot face.

Obviously, I look super sexy right now.

As I wiggle to free myself, I cannot help but laugh. I look like an absolute gimp, my own mat is burning me and I am grunting like a stuck pig. This is why I love it, because no matter how many of those naughty little moments I encounter when I am thinking “God damn it! I nailed that pincha mayurasana”, there is always Garbha Pindasana to remind me how I am really just stretching and playing on my mat.

Morven Watt is an avid runner, mountain biker, skier, swimmer…basically anything sporting, so yoga was not something that she was initially drawn to. However, Ashtanga resonated with her, and since she started a little over a year ago, she has made it her mission to learn how to integrate yoga into all her other sporting endeavours. She is a 500 hour RYT and teaching is something that she is passionate about, hoping that her dynamic classes will resonate with athletes and help bring more of them into the world of yoga. Along with yoga and sports, travel, writing, cooking, reading and music are all things that she loves to do. Being 24, and having only discovered yoga about 18 months ago, she knows that she still has a lot to learn, but fortunately that just makes her happy!

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Prepared by Soumyajeet Chattaraj/Edited by Tanya L. Markul

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