Crossing the Midline: The Experiment

My personal experiment consisted of exercises and explorations crossing the midline. There is a balancing pose in asana practice from the table position that extends the opposing arm and leg outward then draws the extended elbow and knee together under the chest. It sounds very simple at face value, but upon attempted practice I found it very difficult from a coordination standpoint. I was told years ago that it was because I was crossing the midline and engaging the non-dominant side of my body and brain that caused the difficulty. So the experiment was to do other actions with the non-dominant side (left hand) and see how that affected my practice, both in asana and in other experiences like, playing guitar where use of both hands are required and typing as well.

I began to do things in my daily routine left-handed. I reprogrammed my computer mouse to the left hand. I ate meals using the left hand. I washed and shaved using the left hand. And during asana practice where it called for interlacing the fingers or sitting cross-legged I did the action in the non-dominant orientation first.