The method

Alignment is a way of listening.

Alignment gives yoga a vocabulary precise enough to practice: a small set of poses, refined again and again by the placement of bones, the direction of breath, and the use of support when the body cannot yet hold the shape.

"The practice is not more.
The practice is closer."

Ground & Return

Six pillars

Sthira : Steadiness

A pose holds. The base settles. From steadiness, every other quality becomes possible.

Sukha : Ease

Steadiness without strain. The face soft, the breath unforced, the mind unrushed.

Samsthiti : Even standing

Both feet, both legs, both sides equal. Alignment begins as fairness.

Abhyasa : Repetition

Practice without looking for the new. Returning is the practice.

Vairagya : Non-attachment

The pose is what it is today. Not what it was, not what it should be.

Pratikriya : Counter-pose

Every shape is followed by its undoing. The sequence is a conversation, not a list.

Why an app

Downward-Facing Dog

Adho Mukha Śvānāsana

A book asks you to translate. An app can hold the order.

A book can teach the shapes. A syllabus can arrange them. Ground & Return holds that order on your phone, so that on day 31, you don't have to remember what comes next. You can simply practice.

The phone is not the practice. The mat is. The phone is the index card you used to keep on the floor.

Method notes

Every pose carries where to look, what to lengthen, what to soften.

Example

Utthita Trikoṇāsana

Triangle

Feet. Back foot grounds through its outer edge. Front heel aligns with the back arch.
Hips. Front thigh rotates outward. Top hip rolls open without collapsing the waist.
Spine. Lengthen from the hip crease through the crown before turning the chest open.
Arms. Stretch the arms in one shoulder-to-wrist line. Top arm reaches up, not back.
Gaze. Look toward the top thumb if the neck is easy; otherwise keep the gaze level.