A common escape when using Dvi Pāda Pīṭham is the neck arching rather than lengthening, resulting in the lifting of the head as if to compensate for the increased sense of the neck compressing.
Hence a key Bhāvana here is the deepening of the Jālandhara Bandha whilst working with the potential dissipation that can arise through the simultaneous lifting of the arms.
This escape is something that is also further exaggerated when raising the arms at the same time as lifting the hips, due to the increasingly upward force from the hips pushing down onto the shoulders, also increasingly unstable due to the lifting of the arms.
We can explore this escape by holding a Bhāvana on the relationship between the Viśuddhi Sthāna and Jālandhara Bandha through choosing an alternative Vinyāsa Krama in Dvi Pāda Pīṭham. One suggestion here is to investigate the interaction between the arms and trunk via the breath as shown in the illustration above.
The intention here is to maintain a gradual lengthening in the neck whilst resisting the tendency for the shoulders to as if skateboard on the scapula and increase the distance between the head and the feet. Here also an active role for the arms and shoulders is suggested at all points especially when they are not being lifted.
Perhaps experiment with repeating this alternate suggestion for a Vinyāsa Krama in Dvi Pāda Pīṭham some 6 times whilst maintaining a breath pattern of around 4 breaths per minute. The entire sequence taking some six minutes to explore.
Link to Series: 108 Postural Practice Pointers
