Today's yogic tip

In the standing forward bend of the surya namaskar, especially when doing lots of rounds or doing fast, the big mistake most people commit and which most instructors never bother to correct (simply because it gets repeated often, and even advanced practitioners forget when their mind gets distracted in a fast/tough class) is when the head lifts up. In the padahastasana (also called uttanasana), u must always remember to drop the head down. This is important because the main impact of the pose -- reaching blood to the brain -- is lost. Plus, it just means that instead of focusing on that pose, u are focusing on moving into the next one (distraction of the mind under pressure:). Plus, the head lift compresses your neck so that instead of extending the neck, u have compressed it, which will waste the pose, plus create neck problems later on!