Marty McFly may have gone Back to the Future a number of times, but in this pose you can actually face your back to the future.
That’s because in Downward Facing Dog you plant your hands in front of you and angle your back to the front, which is where you are going. As you do, your gaze looks behind you, where you might say you are considering your past.
Whatever you do in Downward Facing Dog, you’ll do a lot of it. It is one of the more common yoga poses you’ll find in class, good for stretching, resting, and transitioning from one pose to the next. I love to feel how my Downward Facing Dog evolves as the class progresses – one dog is never the same as the next.
It’s impossible not to change mental perspective, too, as you put your back in front and your face looks back. You are anchored to the ground in a way that is very unlike standing, sitting, or even lying down. The illusion of up and down goes away a bit, and you are aware that you and your fellow yogis truly are clinging with your hands and feet to the side of a spinning ball.
Looking back past your toes, you can almost see beyond the walls and trees as the horizon peels away. Our world looks pretty different when it’s part of the space/time continuum, as do we. You might as well be in a Delorean, staring at the controls, about to launch anywhere in time.
When Marty McFly travels through time, he gets some much needed change in perspective – in addition to the nifty pink hoverboard. By going to the past, he can appreciate where his parents came from and who they are. By going to the future, he sees how his one bad decision can spiral out into terrible consequences for everyone.
Every now and then, more often than not, we need to turn things a bit upside down and gain some perspective. Things are more clear when you have a new focus, even if it’s just that you are suddenly looking at your toes and you realize your pedicure’s half gone. Or maybe your Downward Facing Dog will show you, like Marty, that we all matter in ways that we can’t begin to understand.
And thankfully, when you are done, you can jolt your car with a lightening bolt and zoom back to the present – or, at least, get your yoga teacher to help get up.
Thoughts...?!