YOGA – Page 2 – Natalie Ullmann

February 12, 2024March 18, 2024

Jnanamaya Kosha: Understanding the Past and Future in the Ever Present Now

The Jnanamaya Kosha or Wisdom Body is the 4^th (sheath, dimension, body, or kosha) identified in the koshic anatomical maps of yoga. This kosha will reveal experience beyond time and duality, where our differences collapse and a single moment contains eternity.,

Wisdom is timeless and of the moment, and at a certain point absolute right and wrong dissolve into merely moments and choices. It arises from a perception that is not hampered by opinion. When we are living in wisdom we move in synchrony with the workings of the universe. This reflected in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra III:53

Through samyama on a particle of time and that which proceeds & succeeds it comes discrimination. –Translation by Swami Vivekananda.

A very simple way to consider this is a “flash” of inspiration. That unmistakable flood of everything all at once – like a holograph – you see the big picture and the details. That holographic non-linear experience is a hallmark of the Jnanamaya Kosha. Sometimes it’s so subtle that you don’t even know the wisdom is moving through you, you just find yourself turning left when you need to go left.

Time and sequence still exists in the JnanaMaya kosha – but linear cause and effect dissolve into a bigger picture. The Jnanamaya Kosha has a “zoom out” quality – the picture, the details and the context transform the sense of where you are in space and time.

My teacher used to say “You have to go way in to go way out”. The deeper you go into your subtle interior in your yoga practice, the more expansive and holistic your vision is. It is startling, surprising, and awesome. It’s likely to be totally ordinary at the same time.

Through the revelations contained in the Jnanamayakosha we may find the missing piece in the puzzle of our lives. It reveals a deep understanding of an individual’s path through life, in the context of a billion other lives. We may see the advantage of a shift in direction. We are invited into intention, discernment and awareness. The Jnanamaya Kosha is beyond time.

At the same time it reveals the macro operations of the universe.

In the Jnanamaya Kosha – the large and the small lose their meaning. A smile to a stranger on the street appears as significant as performing brain surgery – depending on the intent. We may feel a sense of power and magnitude – as if our destinies are vast and magnificent, but all that wisdom asks of us may be a moment of kindness. Because we see that an act of kindness, or honesty, no matter how small, is a magnificent act.

Here we meet our personal journeys to grow into deeply wise humans. It’s the intersection of the timeline of our lives with universal truth and how things work.

The greatest obstacles entering the Jnanamaya Kosha is the hesitance we have that a vast degree of change that may be asked of us as the result of encountering this level of truth. It may arise as skepticism, dismissal of the numinous, or commitment to conventional paradigms, our mental constructs, busyness, and ambition of all kinds. Some methods which open the portal to the Jnanamayakosha are:

Well-done Vinyasa ignites and reveals the Jnanamaya Kosha. Cultivate a pure and steady rhythm of breath. a healthy amount of detachment, and an ability to flow well and wisely through the sequence of postures. Surrender into synchronization with the rhythm of breath and establish the practice in an elevated intention.
Study how things work through the laws of karma. This breaks our conventional paradigms of why things happen and opens us up to new ways of understanding cause and effect. Hold these laws lightly for the best effect.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra provides many, many prescriptions for practice and the expected results. For example – the sutra above. Many of them are simpler to practice than this one.
Study of music
Study the yoga asana sequencing of the great masters.

For a few additional suggestions for playing in the Jnanamaya Kosha please see my Facebook page – NatalieteachesYoga for the most recent newsletter – or subscribe and it will be delivered to your inbox next month. No ads, I promise! Just substantive yoga content.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

January 23, 2024March 18, 2024

The Field of Mind & Yogic Anatomy: The Manomaya Kosha

“Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodha” Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.2 :

The state of yoga is achieved when we cease identifying with the fluctuations of the mind.

The mind as understood in the context of yoga anatomy is distinct from the brain. The brain doesn’t determine it’s function or condition. It is part of the subtle realms of consciousness which are distinct from the five senses. Some yogic scholars identify the mind as a sixth sense. The mind field, or what is called the Manomaya Kosha in the yogic anatomy maps of the five sheaths consists of conscious, unconscious, and super conscious thoughts, beliefs, concepts and ideas — imagination, fantasy, projection, delusion and intellect. In considering this sheath as a field we step into a realm of expansion revealed through the practices of yoga: asana, meditation, observation, study. Unlike the realms of prana, or wisdom or bliss the Manomaya Kosha sits in our awareness all the time. Some of it’s functions are more easily identified than others. It interprets and defines. It assigns meaning. It governs perception. The world culture is permeated with instruction manuals for its management. Just as we can become absorbed in the experience of the body to such an extent that everything else disappears (in sicknesses, deep pleasures or pain) we can become absorbed in the mind to such an extent that we lose sight of everything else (obsessive compulsive disorder, excessive worry, pessimism, delusion, illusion, fantasy).

Becoming aware of what happens in the ManomayaKosha, when we lose ourselves in it and what we can accomplish by managing it is a key development in our yoga practices. So essential is it in the practice of yoga – that the first line of Patanjali Yoga Sutra (which heads up this blog post) references it directly. Like the food body (Anamaya Kosha) and the pranic body (Pranamaya Kosha) can be clear and healthy and flexible and strong – so can the mind body (the Manomaya Kosha).

The Manomaya Kosha sits at the juncture between what is human nature and what is spiritual nature.

There are two primary tools for working with the Manomaya Kosha in our yoga practices. The first is observation and the second is the mastery of the “seat”.

In yoga, our observation training consists of concentration on the breath, observing thoughts as they arise, consciously training to calm those fluctuations as we practice, and disciplining the body through focusing the mind. There is association between the depths of postures and the depth of clarity in the Manomaya Kosha. A deep posture being one where we are fully present (not lost in fantasy or topor or competitiveness or worry) and working deeply (relative to one’s own capacities) the tissues of the Anamayakosha (the muscles, bones organs skin – all of it – being squeezed and stretched and pressed upon.

We might work the observation piece like this:

Decide to awaken to what is in your mind
Establish a state of stepping back internally and witnessing (this can be the tough part)
Observe it objectively – meaning without getting involved – just “watch”. You will observe the arising, existing and falling away of a thought.
Keeping attention partially in the breath can facilitate the state of witnessing

The seat or connection to the earth is a foundation through which we master the mind in our asana practice. It’s not unusual for awareness of our connection to the ground to be non-existent. In all asana, and especially the classical meditative seats, there is a relationship to being grounded and experiencing a lifted spine. This lifted spine is thought to work like an antenna for higher states of wisdom. If you are fortunate enough to see a buddha statue with a pointed hat…you are seeing his antenna!

The classical seats I’d like to illuminate today are Virasana = the hero and Padmasana the lotus. I encourage you to explore both of these with physical teachers (in person) and through your own research. These postures often become accessible only after considerable yoga practice.

Virasana the hero is taken with the knees together, sitting between the heels with the sitz bones grounded. The knees together – drawing inward – create a powerful gathering and focusing of energy which supports concentration and focus – practices required for managing the mind. The focused energy also creates a stability which lifts the spine.

Padmasana – the lotus – is unique in it’s combination of deep grounding and expansiveness. The sitz bones are rooted into the earth, the knees are out to the side and the shins cross so that the soles of the feet face the sky. When the shins cross a powerful acupressure point known as SP6 – the juncture of three major “yin” channels -Liver, Kidney and Spleen is toned. Yin draws the energy inward. As with Virasana this inward energy creates a stability that lifts the spine. Any posture with knees open to the sides will create openness and spaciousness. With Padmasana we master our capacity to remain focused and steady in more and more expansive states of consciousness. Padmasana allows us to sit with the experience of enlightenment.

Want a little more “woo” in your life? No? Me neither. But yoga philosophy approached with wisdom is grounding and empowering. The philosophical elements are explored in my newsletter. I promise…it’s not a marketing email although I do suggest readings and music. You can sign up here. They are also posted simultaneously on my facebook business page – NatalieteachesYoga. Thanks for reading!

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

January 10, 2024March 18, 2024

The Five Dimensions of You: The Yogic anatomy of the Koshas – The PranamayaKosha

The study of yoga and yogic anatomy is a slowly evolving process of ever deepening understanding. There is a difference between “knowing” yogic anatomy on a visceral level and memorizing the vocabulary. Why is this relevant? Self-Mastery. As we explore these different modes of viewing ourselves through yogic anatomy, we open ourselves to new depths of understanding physically, psychologically, and spiritually. We gain an illumined understanding of ourselves, our purposes and our pathway. We become wise enough to navigate subtler realms as mapped in the concept of the sheaths or koshas (Yogic Anatomy – The Five Koshas,). The sheaths or koshas are interwoven and not distinct, like oxygen and helium molecules in the air – or dimensions as mapped by mathematics and science. Experiencing them is like opening a portal to a universe similar to the one we live in “normally” but, it’s different. . One moment we feel dull and confused and then an inner portal opens and we experience elevation – organically. We access wisdom, knowledge or subtle sensations of the body – and understand our wholeness differently. Last post we explored the concept of the food body or Anamayakosha. Today I’d like to open the portal to the pranamayakosha – the pranic or breath body. It’s near and dear to all of us, and we experience it all the time. We might not be aware of it. Exploring the pranamayakosha we step into the subtle realms of yoga. It’s the first of the subtle koshas that many practitioners experience, which tells us that it’s connected the food body. It’s impact on our psychological well-being tells us that it’s connected to knowledge, wisdom and bliss as well. Just as becoming aware and awake to our physical body requires some understanding and attention, becoming aware and awake to our pranic body requires some understanding and attention too. This is why the pranamaya kosha is so important in our yoga practices – it’s where we start to explore a world beyond our usual perceptions. When the pranamaya kosha is clear – not muddied – it’s easier to experience the other bodies or sheaths with clarity.

It’s hypothesized that prana (subtle energy – like human electricity) flows through the fascia. We don’t know for sure. We can’t yet measure it; we can only observe its effects. This could change – science moves towards understanding yoga all the time.

Within the pranamayakosha, the ancient yogis discerned a vast network of tiny channels which they called the nadis There are hundreds of thousands of nadis. One portal which opens the yogi’s perceptions of the pranamayosha is the breath. Consider how breath is processed by the physical body: an invisible substance – air travels through a physical network of tiny tubes and sacs in the lungs through which the invisible substance of oxygen is absorbed and the invisible substance of carbon dioxide is released. Prana is like this – it’s absorbed from the universe around us and it permeates and moves through the physical form –nourishing and cleansing it. When the prana moves we are awakened, energized and healed.

Within the pranamayakosha are numerous structures formed by the intersection of the nadis. The chakras are vortexes located at key junctures of the nadis and the physical nervous system. There are three primary nadis which bracket the chakra system– the ida, pingala and sushumna. The prana moving through these three nadis governs the process of spiritual evolution. When it moves clear and unobstructed we plug into knowledge, wisdom and bliss.

A first pathway to working with the pranamaykosha is to unclog the nadis and get the prana moving. All asana will unclog the nadis. Vinyasa yoga will get the prana moving quickly. .

A second pathway to work with pranamayakosha is pranayama. Pranayama is is a practice of restraining the breath in order to unclog the nadis. This is most effective when asana has been practiced consistently for a long time. Asana clears superficial levels of congestion – so the work of pranayama – deep and powerful breathwork – is not obstructed by more superficial congestion. Pranayama is a transformative healing practice. It’s best to prepare for it.

A third pathway to working with the pranamayakosha is sound. The familiar sound and symbol of OM is called the “nadam”. The ancient rishi’s or wise ones observed that Om purifies the whole system, like an ultrasound which accesses deep internal caverns of the body below the surface. My experience with this is that working with classical Indian sound practices is the most effective means of actually clearing the nadis. Yogi’s chant the sound of OM, they meditate on the sound of Om, they listen to the sound of Om. This would also include listening to or studying and learning Indian classical music which is designed around an understanding of OM. A fine experiment would be to explore different kinds of music when you practice. At first what you are used to listening to may prove to be very energizing, but as you grow more adept at working with prana and sound, you may notice that Indian classical music is a distinctly powerful complement to your yoga practice.

A fourth pathway for working with the pranamayakosha is ”managing your energy” and in the yoga practices this is accomplished through attention. A starting practice is focusing the breath or the gaze in your asana practice, with an intention to understand what your attention does to your energy and your postures. Too weak of a process of reigning in attention leads the energy to scatter. Too powerful of a restraint will be too harsh for the tender pranic channels.

Four modes of creating a relationship with the pranic body:

Yoga Asana
Pranayama (advised for well experienced practioners)
Sound
Attention

A last note about the pranic body – The ancient yogic texts speak of the adamantine body formed by the hatha yoga practice. This is distinctly related to and an outcome of the management and toning of the pranic body. When the pranic body is well cared for – clear and moving and strong we become incredibly resilient. The texts say all dis-ease is eradicated. As contemporary yogis we can say that our immune system becomes incredibly potent in response to the health of the pranic body. This, as the article included here indicates, is a result of consistent, well-done practice.

To receive newsletters with a different perspective on the blogposts, please subscribe to my Mailchimp! I promise…no ads. Just more talk about yoga, maybe some reading and musical suggestions. All designed to supplement your yoga practice.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

December 28, 2023March 18, 2024

Digesting Trauma: The powerful medicine of Hatha Yoga

“PTSD is the inability to forget” Dr. Ellen Kirschman ¹

Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1.1

Yoga is the ability to digest and transform our thoughts, feelings, memories, experiences so that our clear and sacred selves will shine through.

Yoga is the experience of peace that emerges when our afflictions have been overcome.

Yoga is the freedom that arises when our past has been processed and we are fully present.

Some experiences are very difficult to forget. If, at the moment of trauma, we are unable to fully process and digest what is happening, that experience can be held in the physical body (also identified as the “Food Body” or Anamayakosha in the yogic anatomy map known as the koshas) Sometimes food and experiences are indigestible – uncomfortable, painful, difficult to absorb and process. The blockage caused by the undigested matter can obstruct our access to the other dimensions of our being – our knowledge, wisdom and joy. Through understanding this we can use our yoga practices to digest and heal traumatic memories stored in the physical body.

There is an inherent wisdom in the process of yoga practice. We can buzz along in our lives just fine, and then, one day the blockage becomes apparent and it’s time to heal it. We’re not defective if we have issues. It’s pretty normal to have a degree of trauma in the body. Yoga is a fairly sophisticated method of dealing with the residue of trauma due to this potential for digestion and transformation. We could just manage our symptoms. But we are invited – in the deeper levels of yogic experience – to transform what was not processed into insight and wisdom. It takes deep willingness, an open mind and considerable bravery. But the rewards are ample.

There are multiple approaches to processing trauma through our yoga practices. We may be experiencing the impacts of the trauma on the psychological level, and our yoga practice restores equilibrium. But going further - by breathing and feeling and observing arising memories on the mat – if we are spacious enough – the memories are released from the physical body and new understandings of experiences awaken. The experiences are digested. We can use those same techniques in the presence of physical symptoms which can range from tightness to chronic misalignment to pain or acute injury. Wise presence in yoga asanas can resolve physical trauma through wise practice. This can be approached well by experimenting gently with specific postures that intuitively, or as a result of research and study, we believe will be related to the anatomical structures involved.

As we use the tools of yoga to train ourselves to be calm, objective and present to reawakened memories of traumatic feelings and experiences, we mitigate the cycles of recurrence. We move from the experience of being bombarded by the repetitions of memory and subconscious patterning to creating new relationships with the stories we have lived. The charged quality of the memory becomes neutralized and laid to rest. We may never “forget it” – but we can transform it into a tool for awakening, empowerment, deepening and opening to ourselves.

Just as digested food nourishes the cellular structure of the body, digested experiences nourish the stability and robustness of our neural landscape. They transform the very mechanisms through which we understand the world. We become less fragmented, less dissociated and more integrated. We become whole. In this way well-practiced yoga can be a powerful tool in the management and healing of PTSD. Some tips for practice are:

Work with the quality of your breathing. Begin with gentle but focused breath and explore how the different qualities of breath impact the physical experience of a posture. Look for the quality of breath that is in effect when you feel a muscle release.
Work with the quality of your attention. Begin with gentle but focused presence. You can train specifically in this – take a posture and maintain your gentle receptive attention on the bones, the flesh, the skin. The moment when a memory arises and you stay present rather than becoming lost in it is a power point for healing.
As you train in this way, it’s important to notice your reactions to the awakening of trauma in the body. The most common reaction is to attempt to control it by pressing it down – psychologically, physically – a kind of powering through. This will interfere with the release of stress pattern in the body. Allowing is key to healing. Assuming you are practicing with moderate intensity – you can practice staying present to discomfort. Of course – don’t force.

.Through a carefully cultivated yoga practice we reintegrate the parts of ourselves that have been locked away through trauma. No longer fractured in this way, we become whole, and the experience of PTSD can be transformed into a process of healing. While the knowledge of the experience still remains, we are now no longer bound by it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT40YKvLBTg ↩︎

Each blog post is associated with a related newsletter with related commentary, suggested reading and maybe a song or two. You can find past newsletters (and the current one )on my Facebook page NatalieteachesYoga. Sign up below to receive newsletters in your inbox. No marketing, I promise! Just content that I hope will open your mind to deeper levels of yoga practice.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

November 4, 2023March 18, 2024

About the body: Yoga, Science, and the Earth (Lakshmi teaches yoga, again)

My cat, Lakshmi, has developed a strange behavior. She’s claimed a spot in front of the house, kind of in the sun. There’s mulch, but raw earth is touchable directly underneath it. She lays there and sleeps very deeply — very, very deeply. We can walk right up to her and she doesn’t wake up. I can scoop her up in my arms and she is so deeply in another state of consciousness that she doesn’t object.

It’s fall in Northern California and soon, if we are lucky, the rains will come – big buckets of rain, months of soggy ground. Today I head out to the beach intending to walk and then, as usual, found myself just laying on the earth for a long while, a long, long while, in a deep and dreamy altered state. When I woke and began walking, on this slightly chilly day when beach days are almost over, there were few people at the beach. Just a few, but many among them were just laying on the beach – like female elephant seals waiting to give birth. No books, no radio. Bodies drawing on the energy of the earth to tap into a mysterious and nourishing deep rest.

The value of the connection to the earth is reflected in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, a classic source text of yoga. Patanjali speaks to us about the nature of mind. He speaks to us about the breath. He speaks to us, briefly, about the yoga postures or asanas. The asanas, he states, should be stable and joyful. (shtira and suhka). Asana translates as seat, and we find in texts like the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (HYP), that the key asanas are seats. The postures are ways to sit on the earth. Connecting to the earth, resonating with the earth is key to a good yoga posture. That connection is the foundation on which every posture is built. In the understanding of contemporary environmental scientists – planet earth has an abundance of electrons and direct connection to the earth and this well of electrons nourish and heals us. In our lives, disconnected from the natural world, we are frequently depleted.[i] (The article is here – Earthing.) The HYP offers that this resonance is key to the healing of the disease in the body with yoga. The ancient yogis who developed this practice were clearly on a path of great discovery and understanding, just as we are. We don’t have to take anyone’s word for this. Yoga is our personal experiment and we can access the same experiences they had when we follow the maps they left behind.

When planning our practice, this idea can be useful. Of course we practice wherever we can, but practicing on natural surfaces (like wood or sand or earth) taps into the flow of these electrons. This in turn supports the flow of energy in our own bodies . Clear flowing prana changes the resonance of the body. Similarly, wearing and practicing with other natural materials will also facilitate this energetic flow. These are simple things to experiment with in our practices and the potential gain is significant.

[i] Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth’s surface electrons. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:291541. doi: 10.1155/2012/291541. Epub 2012 Jan 12. PMID: 22291721; PMCID: PMC3265077.

April 4, 2023January 24, 2025

Repetition and Understanding Asana

There are a few ways that repetition is useful in a yoga practice. First, it wears a groove and opens us to experiences of greater depth. Constant change in our yoga practices is amazing- it builds resilience and the ability to adapt. But this experience of yoga – to become yoked to our deeper wisdom self – requires that we dig down deep enough to hit a level of awakening beyond our normal waking state. One benefit of getting in a groove, if we do it consciously, is that when our practice gets disrupted it’s easier to shift back into the positive mental and physical states we are cultivating. Perpetual change can break apart obstructions which obscure those deeper levels of ourselves, but once again, repetition is a key component to really getting deep in there. Like digging a hole, if we just take out a scoop here and there as we wish…our well will never be dug deep enough to access the clear pure water. Yoga works the same way.

Repetition is also a great tool for assessing our bodies from day to day. To get an accurate assessment, we need to do the same posture as we did the day before. Yesterday, my Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half seated spinal twist) was at a level I’d never experienced in 30 years of practice. Today, it wasn’t even at my average. This is interesting. It’s information about my body, my habits and my stress responses to the world around me. Repetition can lead to realization and understanding.

The other thing to consider though, is that repetition invites unconsciousness if it’s not the right time and place to do it. I remember when I started practicing I frequented the local Bikram studio. I thrived in the heat and the repetition. Then one day my knees started to hurt. I took a break from the practice and focused on Vinyasa for a while. As I embraced returning to vinyasa, I realized that in Bikram class I was going to sleep. Instead of using repetition to fine tune my execution of the postures – I practiced by rote, but was thinking about cupcakes. At first I thought the form of yoga I was doing was the problem. I realized as I practiced more and became more knowledgeable that, no, I had just gotten bored and stopped paying attention to the details. As a teacher I saw many students who gave up a posture or a style of yoga because they felt it wasn’t good for them. My experience is that when we experience a painful result it’s a call to greater attention to our moments on the mat, and to develop greater self awareness of the body in whatever way we can. Sometimes a change in practice wakes us up. Sometimes we just need to tune in deeply to what we are doing.

So how to practice with repetition in a way that is wise? You can place the posture repeatedly at certain junctures in the sequence you are practicing. Say Arhdhamatsyendrasana…at the beginning before sun salutes, after standing, between back bends and forward bends, between each back bend. Working this way requires that you begin with a very gentle execution of the posture and go progressively deeper.

Another approach is to design a short sequence to prepare for the posture you are working on and then repeat that entire short sequence at key junctures in your daily practice. This creates depth, and you can tweak the sequence to explore the impact of various lead ins to the posture you are exploring.

The last approach I’ll mention today is that you can just repeat a single posture several times a day, every day for a certain amount of time – a week, a month, a year. This will help you truly own the posture in a healthy way – it creates an intimacy with it that can change your whole understanding of yoga. Practicing repetition in asana practice is a profound way to deepen your practice and to experientially deepen your understanding of particular postures, how they work, the dynamics created by placing them in certain points of sequence. It’s a great way to transition your practice and teaching from a place where you are practicing and teaching what you have been told by others into a place where you are practicing and teaching from your own inner knowing.

January 8, 2023January 24, 2025

About the body: Empowerment and Ease

About the body: Yoga and the Parasympathetic nervous system

When we breathe calmly, peacefully, rhythmically through the nostrils, we ignite our parasympathetic nervous system – the relaxation response. In that mode – many things happen. Rigid long held stress patterns in the body dissolve, the immune system is nourished and deep healing occurs. It is also easier to access deeper levels of inner states of consciousness – which allow for different perceptions of the world – for transformation on the level of mind.

As we take a posture we want to ignite this kind of easeful experience while remaining awake, alert and active. The more challenging a posture is for us – the more powerful it will be to nurture this kind of breathing. This is pivotal in transforming our life experience from being a person with a body that is always controlling us – to being a person who has some degree of mastery over the physical and energetic bodies. It’s important.

Interested in a little philosophy with your postures? Please join my newsletter community. No ads, just ideas. Once a week.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

November 13, 2022January 24, 2025

About the Body: A Balanced Connection to the Earth

At its simplest…any asana is wholesomely built on a balanced connection to the earth. Whatever parts of the body are connected with the earth…evenly distribute the weight throughout that footprint and then reach up and out. This is an accessible basis of alignment rooted in physical and spiritual realities. It also does something interesting…done with ease and spacious focused breathing it will re-balance the structure of the body by strengthening that which needs strength and softening imbalanced patterns of tension. The weight distribution across the seat of the posture (the part of the body which connects to the earth) becomes the limiting factor in how far you take the posture on a given day. In standing postures the energetic work comes with mastery of the foot structure – what lifts up (the arches) and what roots downs (outer edges and heels) and balancing that dynamic.

One posture which demonstrates this in an interesting way is Virabadrasana 1 or Warrior 1. Classically, the back foot is at a 45 degree angle to the front foot. Reaching into the heel and stretching the front knee forward – we then gently adjust the hips to move the left hip forward. Sometime this taught instead with the back heel lifted so the hips can be square like a lunge. The classical version – with the dynamic of rooting through the feet, allows for grounding and upliftment, stability and joy. By lifting the back heel into a lunge like position…the position of the hips squared forward becomes primary, and the connection to the earth secondary. Of course I am clearly biased! An artful student could apply these ideas in a lunge – like Virabhadrasa 1. I do believe that a body is similar to any other physical structure. You wouldn’t build the third floor of a building before you’d built the foundation. But the point is to investigate how you are anchoring your posture – and if that creates equanimity, balance, joy. The word asana refers to a seat or one’s situation in relation to the earth. In this sense these energetics are also connected to the idea of giving and receiving – taking in and releasing – which is reflected in the breath and in our capacity to be spacious and stable as we move through our lives.

It’s worth the experiment to explore Virabhadrasana 1 to learn what stability means to you in a kinesthetic sense. Which approach leads you to feel stable and why? And which version allows you to reach out and expand in a multitude of directions. It’s always good to practice an experiment like this consistently over a chosen period of time. The body will be different every day and life experiences will have an impact on the felt experiences and the actual musculoskeletal alignment on any given day. Big changes in a life can bring deep changes in the body – by investigating with some consistency in practice as we move through life we can develop insight, clarity and understanding.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

October 2, 2022November 13, 2022

About the Body: A Unique Constellation of Tension and Ease

Each of our bodies is a unique constellation of tension and ease born of the musculoskeletal landscape we were born with, the impact of habits of movement, the impact of emotional, psychological and physical trauma, and bodily awareness, In Hatha Yoga, we are invited to iron out these differences – bringing the ecosystem of our individuality into a harmony embodied in the sound vibration of Om.

The seasons are turning cooler, our attentions turn inward yet again, and we are invited to shift gears in our yoga practices. This subtle adjusting of focus and style to harmonize with the seasons is a classical organic element of yoga practice which invites us to consider balance in our lives, our practices and our creative work. In yoga the balance emerges as the fine tuning of our awareness and integration in the pairs of opposites – activation and ease. The foundation for this teaching is found in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

The postures develop our capacity to discern. We can consider the following in crafting our personal practices – the perfect posture is born of cultivating a personal understanding of places in the body you need to activate, and the places in the body that you to would benefit from bringing ease to. For this – we can work with large areas of the body (the back of the legs) or more specific areas of the body(the juncture of my sacrum and vertebrae L1) depending on the degree of awareness we have of the nature of the sensation.

A tool I use to discern tension and holding versus slack and unconsciousness (or lack of any feeling of awareness at all)l is to work with repetitions.

Choose a basic posture, one that is reflective of some physical discomfort you have in life.
Practice this base posture – breathing and scanning the body nonjudgmentally for various sensations.
Practice some postures you believe might be helpful – scanning the body and breathing throughout.
Repeat the base posture – scanning the body again. What feels different?
Repeat the repetition.

I’ll sometimes go through a repetition sequence several times with several small sequences within a day of practice if I have time. Sometimes I just run through it once.

Note that many discomforts in the spine are born of tension in the neck and hips, so you may want to include postures that dress the neck and hips in repetition sequences.

Did you like the post? In my newsletter I dig a little deeper into the philosophical aspects of working with the postures. You will never get more than newsletter a week, and the newsletter is meant for edification and entertainment – not sales.

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

September 16, 2022October 2, 2022

About the Body: Breathing into Expansion in Yoga

It’s very popular these days to skip over the restraint practices in yoga (ethical vows, structured asana practice, breathing and concentration practices, lifestyle observations). Mastering them is the key to transforming yourself and your life through the practices of yoga and is an important facet of practice. Liberation as intended in classical yoga is a very specific experience. It’s not about crashing through to a new shape with the body even if it hurts. It’s not about “doing our own thing” without structure or discipline. It’s about being awakened into the experience of our spiritual wholeness. The restraint practices should not, and do not have to be dramatic or drastic. It might mean staying in a particular posture even if you are a little uncomfortable – maybe sometimes when you are a lot uncomfortable – in order to move beyond your sense of limitation. To practice yoga in this way does require a high degree of discernment – of learning to feel and experience the body and develop skillful means of working with our sensations. To some extent no teacher can really tell us that.

We used to work with the guideline that if the sensation is sharp you need to back off and approach the posture in a different way. For a dull softer discomfort we would generally stay in the posture and breathe ease into the form. The sensations we have are never black and white, so a guideline like this can’t be followed blindly.

We could consider this…if we bump into a tugging resisting sensation, then we are trying to expand in a place where there is currently contraction, and our work then is to find a way to allow the expansion. Breath is a good starting place, but it requires some attention to how one is breathing. How well you are able to receive an inhale? What conditions support that? Can you allow the lungs to expand? That quality of expansion will travel throughout the body as we allow it, and will gently open our places of deep holding and restrictions. To push against or fight against it will yield a different result. If we soften the mind and the heart and work with wisdom the experience of restraint transforms into its opposite – the experience of liberation. Tension melts and we are no longer restricted by tightness. This transformation of opposites into a unified experience is yoga – to yoke together.

The restraints imposed by the global experience of pandemic have resulted in massive shifts in the way we live and work and love. Training ourselves to be spacious and allowing in of those changes fosters our capacity for resilience and blossoming.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: