We have no doubt all experienced occasions during our yoga practice where we are completely pulled out into whatever thought or sensation seems to be consuming us the most that day....maybe its an email we forgot to send, a shopping list item to remember or we are lingering over something someone said or did. From a yoga asana point of view, we may simply be caught up in the aesthetics of a pose, ignoring any protests and feedback our bodies are trying to tell us. It can leave the practice feeling very mechanical, a sense that we are just going through the motions, another thing to do on our "to do list", not really serving us at all.
This is where shifting our intention and awareness inwards to embodying our movement can really help transform and deepen our practice. After all, whatever narrative we are carrying when we come to the mat will show up in the body. If we can approach our movement through this inner connection and guidance then the practice can provide a lovely space to shift and release any tension, tightness, blocked and imbalanced energy we may be holding. In turn this can provide the opportunity for our bodies to move into a state of vitality, harmony and ease.
So how do we feel embodied in our movement?
As we all these things, it is beautifully simple, we just need to listen to the wonderful intelligence and wisdom of our bodies.
When we have carved out valuable time in the day to practice the kindest thing we can gift ourselves is to simply be present to it. That intention sits gracefully with a sense of compassion for how we land each time along with letting go of any expectation of how we think things should unfold. Perhaps today will be the day we finally take flight in an arm balance we have been working on because all the foundations have been laid, but if we're weary and stressed on that day then maybe it can just wait for another time... and thats ok, it will be there when the body is ready. We can draw on the lovely guidance of ahimsa from the yoga sutras which translates as non violence and compassion. In relation to our asana practice, its means connecting and listening to our bodies, working with them rather than against them, in turn enabling the practice to be sustainable, fluid and to develop over time.
This awareness and connection to our body can help us feel beyond the clear physical sensations of a pose eg my hamstrings feel tight when I forward fold, into how the subtler layers of the energetic body respond and feel too. For example, in our forward fold, we can anchor to the earth through our feet (pada banda) to provide the energy and activity that draws up through the body to offer the support for the back line to release. We may then notice more than just our hamstrings releasing across the connective fascial web of this superficial back line, there is communicative feedback and energy shifting and releasing too. Our bodies are energy and when we move our bodies we are moving energy, in yoga philosophy its referred to as prana.
Prana is the vital energy that moves around and within us, our life force. It ebbs and flows through the entire body through energy channels that yoga philosophy calls the nadis, we can sense it as our intelligent map. Through intention, awareness and breath, we have the opportunity to enhance, direct and feel this energy flow through our physical and subtler layers as we move. When we are able to listen, feel and understand how our bodies are responding, we can adapt and evolve each movement so it can serve us best each time, allowing us to move to our own inner rhythm. It is this amazing connection to the somatic wisdom of the body that allows our practice to feel embodied, present and to flow.
"Wherever we place our conscious attention, the body responds. If our minds and emotions are in equanimity and fully present to the moment, the body's autonomic activity naturally moves toward equillibrium and ease" - Peter Sterios
תגובות