What would animals make of us?

Have you been watching BBC's Planet Earth II - Not only does David tell a great story, it starts my mind wondering what it would be like if the animals were watching us humans. I imagine a scene where the animals are gathered, not at a watering hole, but around a widescreen TV looking on at the human world, more specifically watching a yoga asana class.

Humans in yoga class

A human being starts on all fours and makes her way up to standing - wow! Let's see that again in slow motion! The animals whoop and sound their amazement and call for an action replay of this unmistakably feat of human-ness. Look at that, they can balance perfectly on two feet and lift their head on top of their spine with their arms free to move in any direction. What a miracle of nature! They look a bit like us but they can do amazing things with their bodies and now they're even standing on one leg, staying like that for ages...looking like trees...hilarious - you get the picture!

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Try this practice now!

Stand on your yoga mat and become aware of your body and how it moves, and you're bored of feeling into the parts that don't work so well, or parts that are injured or painful and making you feel old or broken, come onto all fours, then into a forward bend (uttanasana) and move to standing (tadasana) any way you like. Do it again a different way and find as many ways as you'd like to try, any way that feels right. Play and be imaginative, make your mat your playground.

And when you've found one you particularly like, do an action replay and take some time to appreciate how amazing your body is and how evolution of millions of years has even made this possible. Imagine what the animals might say as they watch your grace and balance.

If you haven't been watching David Attenborough's Planet Earth II, catch up HERE and be amazed at the diversity of the natural world and how evolution...well evolves!

Thank you for reading. Thank you body! Thank you for being a human being!

Judy Hirsh Sampath is co-founder of Yoga United, owner of Yoga Headspace.