It sounds like something that we might have done on our many travels, but these are my new favorite yoga moves and I thought I would share them with you. The pictures are both from a website of Kundalini Yoga Postures. Actually, just for the record, I have ridden a camel a couple of times and seen the sufis meditating.

Both of these postures are active and really good for getting out the kinks in your spine… like when you spend too much time at the computer. I wonder, are they called a posture if you are actively doing something?
In the camel ride (spinal flex), you sit “indian style” and grab your ankles, then rock back and forth, pushing the chest out and the shoulderblades together, then shoulders forward and spine thrust out (follow the more accurate directions on the Kundalini website). If you do it right, you will look like you are bouncing up and down as if riding a camel.

For the sufi grind you sit in the same “indian style” posture and then rotate your body in a circle. Do a minute of circles in one direction and then a minute of circles in the other direction. This one is great to do with your eyes closed. You can enter a “trance-like” state where you can’t even remember how long you’ve been at it.

Why do they call it the sufi grind? For a hint on this one, I thought I’d share a little video of the “authentic” sufis that we saw when we were in Turkey.

As a matter of fact, I just did both these postures while I waited for this video to upload (satellite upload is a bit slower than satellite download). My back always feels so much better after these postures. My yoga instructor said something about these postures massaging the spinal fluid in your spinal column – and you can really feel it happening.

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