I’m glad you’re enjoying the site. I definitely took the long road when it comes to Prasara. I have only received a little instruction (that helped greatly!), so I’ve mostly been self-taught. The best thing you could do is hire a teacher who will make the learning process much smoother. A prasara-certified coach will know perfect transitions for all the typical asana’s.

For me, prasara was the most difficult wing of CST to learn. It feels like my arch-nemesis sometimes because the joint mobility and clubbell training come more naturally to me (and I’ve been practicing them much longer than Prasara).

I usually invent transitional postures of my own to focus on the aspect of each pose that is difficult for me. If I’m having trouble with the structure of a posture, I’ll adjust it slightly to make it a little easier, but not so much that I don’t experience some discomfort. If I’m having trouble breathing, I’ll drop the skill level way down and work on controlling my breath.

Just take your time with each posture. Yoga is not about mastering postures so much as it is about mastering yourself. Just because someone else can do pigeon really deep doesn’t mean that expression of yoga is for you. You can still reap 100% of the benefits by just going far enough, and no further.

In time and with practice, you may be able to get a very deep pigeon pose. But if not, then that is simply not YOUR yoga.

I’m sure you can find some transitional postures for pigeon online, to make learning it a little easier.

Best,

John

It’s been really interesting watching your progression with CST materials. I’ve been really interested in Prasara, but have found learning some of the basic yoga positions rather difficult. I can do Ageless just fine, but then working on pigeon, or standing up with one leg crossed on my thigh, or several other positions, has proven very difficult. How did you work to learn these positions? Did you invent your own progressions? Get a teacher? Just take it one step at a time?

Thanks!