I sat for 20 minutes before work. Will sit again later to finish my 30 minutes, but I wanted to blog while it’s fresh.

Sat in sukhasana, left foot on top. It’s good practice to notice your habit (right foot on top) and reverse it sometimes.

Felt ease in my spine. Scanned body and brought attention back to my back.

My back is large among body parts, and it itself  has many parts. Spine with all the vertebrae and disks. Shoulder blades–my wings! Many, many muscles, from tiny between-vertebrae muscles to large flat sheets like the quadratus lumborum, the famous QL.  

The star of the back is the spinal cord–which is only a cord about halfway down the spine, and then it becomes a horse’s tail of nerves fanning out. Or so the anatomy pictures show and the Latin words say.

The back is a workhorse of the human body, yet it’s not something we see . It’s not a body part we attend to like we do our faces (or genitals). Until something goes wrong, that is. Then we feel it.

I notice backs. I can often spot yogis by their backs and have noticed the same back qualities in long-time meditators. Both have a strength and suppleness to their spines. There is presence in their backs. These disciplines complement each other so well.

Today I notice my back. Besides musing as I’ve just written, I let my attention rest on the width of my lower back, across L4 and L5 and the top part of my sacrum. I just listen.

It is silent, no grouchiness today. It appreciates this attention.