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Up until today, I’ve been in the dark when it comes to the shoulder blade chakra. Oh, well. Surprise! I found this because I was trying to get a good image of the thoracic vertebrae from the back, with some kind of indication of where the shoulder blades would fall.

Why am I looking for such a thing, you ask? Well, I think I might have experienced some shoulder blade chakra this morning, and I’m curious to visualize it.

I first noticed it in salabhasana, then again in bhekasana. A sense that there was some space between two vertebrae aligned (I think) with the bottom edges of my shoulder blades. And weirdly, as I lay on my belly, I could extend into the space and turn my upper back up more.

This may be a duh! for any natural backbenders out there, but it was rather a revelation for me. I have been perplexed by the notion of bending the thoracic spine. I mean, look at it: it’s a cage, for goodness sake — designed for stability and immobility. How could it bend?

I guess the answer is, as Matthew Sweeney would say, spice! It’s the spice in the spine that makes for the bend.

I guess I’ve been struggling to access the spice. But you know, since I’ve been stretching my nervous system instead of conquering the poses, I’ve found that a lot of the sensation comes from different places than I’m accustomed to. And it moves around day to day. I need to practice this consciousness more in order to really be able to conceptualize it, but suffice it to say, when I am trying to backbend, it is very different from when I am stretching my spine.

And I’ll also note that after a day of dietary fat, practice felt quite nice. I didn’t make as many crackles and pops as I usually do.

All in all, the experiment goes along nicely.