Inside Yoga 194 (20/2/2017)

In yoga we are often asked to look within. We understand that looking within is part of the practice, that by looking inside we understand our soul, our spirit, or our mind, but what is not always appreciated is why such a focus on the body at the same time as the mind?

The answer is straightforward: we inhabit our body, and as such it is like a house. If the house is a bad state of disrepair, making it inaccessible, we will not be able to enter, or it might be stressed ready to collapse making it unsafe to enter. Either way if we want to live in our house we need to look after it, maintain it and to a reasonable degree of understanding know how it works, eg, how to fix a water leak.

If we wish to have a better life, a clearer understanding of who we are, how we live, and so forth, our mind needs to be in a calm and clear place. This is not possible if our body – our house – is in a bad way or feels like an alien object to us.

So we place emphasis on being aware and observant of our body when practising yoga asanas (postures), pranayamas (breathing exercises) and meditating.

At the beginning it is a case of becoming familiar with what our body can do in terms of asanas, and learning the positions. We need to maintain a focus on the body to ensure we can do the exercise well enough and safely. As we progress with yoga practice we begin to notice more and more about our body and how it responds to practice, and thankfully many notice positive signs of improvement whether this be improved mobility and energy or improved awareness of our body and our self.

As a teacher I am less concerned how flexible the person is but how their understanding of the posture and alignment has improved, for example, how they are now able to enter and hold a posture with better understanding of what the posture’s alignments consist of. In other words, they have established a better connection between with their body than when they first started, by improving their ability to pay attention to their own body.

This is why the message is so often repeated: pay attention to your body – notice what it is doing right now. I often see people pushing the body or holding the body in the wrong position because it looks like they know where they would like to be in terms of the posture, but either cannot get there or do not know how to get there. In this case, their mistake is not looking carefully at what they are actually doing, they should be establishing a sense of steadiness and ease with the position first but instead have let their thoughts of what they want – a future image of what they would like to be able to do, or in a group situation trying to copy their neighbour’s alignment – take over.

Additionally, another example of wrong approach is going into the posture and although physically there the person is away with their thoughts, not paying attention in any way to what they are doing with their body. This is more common in those who find the physical postures accessible and easy due to being fit and flexible however these people need to be careful not to be complacent… and away with the fairies.

Having determination is all very well, but yoga is not about “push harder, go higher” as some regimes might tell us, this is about the being in connection with our body and mind. The practice is designed to merge the two often separate entities of body and mind, so that we feel whole again.

And to do this, we stick to simple methodology of body awareness, but as we all know this can be difficult, so this is why for example, when practising yoga asanas, we can sharpen our focus by picturing our body within, such as the skeleton. As if we have x-ray vision we can visualise our skeleton and this way connect with our body, and at the same time improve our understanding of the postures, because at the heart of every posture will be a skeleton.

For example, picture yourself in seated forward bend. The most common mistake is sitting on a pelvis which is tipping backwards towards the tailbone, and that has the knock-on effect of making the spine tip backwards before it the has to bend sharply forward to achieve the forward bend shape, this then produces the very rounded back and possible back pain in the lower back due to this unsteady alignment.

To correct this, picture the pelvis again, lifting it up and tipping the tailbone up we then sit down on the sit bones of the pelvis, so that the pelvis is as horizontal as possible (and if this is too difficult to achieve this is why sitting on a yoga block or cushion can help tip the pelvis towards the front). With a level pelvis the spine has more chance of rising up vertically. We sit upright, stretching the spine at the same time, and then start to bend forward from the pelvis (hips) keeping the back straight as possible – not rigidly straight but ensuring we move from the pelvis (hips).

Picture your legs as a wall in a house and your back as the door, making the pelvis (hips) the hinges of the door. When closing the door the hinges need to move to allow the door to close, if the door will not shut due to stiff hinges we do not then push the door so hard that we buckle and bend the door itself. Instead we leave the door ajar until we can loosen up the hinges. Yet when trying a forward bend with tight hips so many people force their backs to bend too much like the door being buckled.

If we use our attention to our body and sharpen our focus on its internal workings we not only improve our ability to meditate and focus but we also improve our understanding of our body and ability in postures.

Back to the house analogy, we all know what it is like when our house is a tip? We find ourselves declaring in despair that the house is a tip and “I don’t know where anything is” and “I cannot live like this”. In this same way, we approach our body and breathing as if it is a house that needs tidying and reorganising, first buy having a good look inside and seeing what is going on; then improving the alignment and approach to the posture and this includes doing our best to stop our chattering mind distracting us, so that the body becomes steady and at ease, then we have a clearer idea of what can be done to improve the posture.

This is never a passive practice, because we observe and identify and then take action, to improve our body, breath and with it, our mind.

And we can add to our x-ray vision our awareness of muscles and what they are doing when practising. This further adds to the ability to practice.

At the start I said the principle is simple but it’s the practice which can be harder. Yet with perseverance we will improve the connection with our selves, with our body and mind. Our default setting needs to be body and breathing … whatever the distraction or the thought, catch ourselves in the act and return to awareness of the body and breathing. And if it helps to really focus, use x-ray vision to see your body. But do start with the body because we live in it whether we like it or not.

Feel free to share this blog with others, and any thoughts, questions or comments contact me via the blog reply panel below or email me gary@yogabristol.co.uk