This is a pose that taught me a lot about the interconnected nature of the body. In the beginning it’s really easy to just twist in to it and see how far you can turn your shoulders.

But teachers kept telling me to ground with my feet more. "Stronger legs!" They’d say, or "Push the outer edge of the back foot in the floor."

Somehow, when I really focused on this I’d get a little bit of movement there, and the stretch would start to feel deeper somehow.
"Huh." I’d think to myself, "that’s cool." But then I’d notice something; even though the stretch felt much deeper, the pose much more secure, my shoulders weren’t twisted as far.

"Well, that’s weird. How can I be deeper if I’m not twisting as much?"

Eventually I realised what had happened – when I’d grounded my feet and engaged my legs, my hips had come much closer to square and level. This meant that the spine had to turn further in order to keep the shoulders in the same position. It’s actually really simple, and I felt sort of foolish for not realising it when I finally figured it out – turn your hips until they’re in line with your shoulders and there’s no longer any twist at all. The spinal twist comes from the difference between the alignment of the hips and the shoulders- from the fact that they are pointing in different directions. The greater the angle between them the more the twist.

Once I’d learned this lesson it was easy to see that it applies to every pose. If you want to stretch some part of your body you need to do more than take one part in one direction – another part has to stay where it is or move in the opposite direction. Try stretching a rubber band by only pulling on one end: nothing happens, the other end just follows along and there’s no stretch. Now anchor the other end, or pull on it as well, and suddenly the stretching begins. The same is true of the body.

Did that not help? Okay, how about this – ever see a dog chasing it’s tail? It’ll run and run around in a circle and never get any closer to it. Every once in a while you’ll see a smart dog stop, anchor it’s back feet, and turn until it can grab on to the end. As long as his back feet were following his front ones, he wasn’t going to get any closer to his tail.

I’ve actually seen the exact same thing in people. I remember my teacher in India helping people into Marichiasana D. He’d turn them so far that they’d have gone three hundred and sixty degrees before he was finished. Of course while their heads were turning, so were their hips, and coming out of the pose they’d notice they were facing in a completely different direction from when they’d started. If he had anchored them he could have taken them just as deep into the twist by turning them a quarter as much.

That anchoring can come from anywhere. Pushing the hips into place, grounding the feet, tilting the pelvis back in seated forward bends, whatever it is, if you’re aware of where it’s coming from you’re far less likely to keep turning and turning and never get anywhere.