A Body of Truth
Yoga practice is filled with dualities, with polar limits. We start as beginners and advance towards mastery. Some of us have pelvises that are habitually held in a backward tilt, some of us in a forward tilt. Some of us are tightly-ligamented, some of us are loosely held in our joints. Some of us are really good at back bends, some of us at forward bends. For centuries, the practice of yoga was imparted one on one, teacher to student, so that the vast possibilities of the teachings could be tailored to the specific individual. What is true for one individual might not be for another. In this time of group classes and rock-star teachers, how can we, as individuals, find our way through the practice?
Satya (truthfulness) is a subject I think about a lot as I prepare my classes. It is one of the five yamas (observances), the essential moral underpinnings, of Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra. It comes up in the context of the instructions I am going to teach. How can I teach a pose in such a way that the teaching is correct, truthful, for everyone in classroom, and will remain truthful as the student’s body becomes stronger, more open and their practice develops? How can I teach in such a way that can correct the imbalances and misalignments that come up in the bodies of my students, but that doesn’t reduce them to everything that they are doing wrong? And on the other side of the duality, how can I impart the joy of possibility, of investigation and discovery that can come in a yoga practice while still providing a grounding in the realities of mechanics, sequencing and structure?
Is it possible to come up with a series of absolutes that apply regardless of the person or the pose? Are there a set of values we can set for the body that can be applicable in every situation, or at least in most? I believe there are. I present them here for you in no particular order of importance:
- An integrated spine with soft tissue and organ support that allows for cohesion and flexibility.
- A long spine with balanced curves, so that even in flexion, extension or twisting, there is as much space around its entire length as possible, given its shape, to allow for freedom around the nerves and blood vessels and for space around the organs.
- Freedom around the joints to allow for healthy contact between the the connecting bones so that the joint can remain mobile and protected.
- Easeful dynamic opposition through the entire system, allowing for both elasticity and stability in all the joints of the body, including those of the spine.
- Liveliness of thought and intention so that the mind can support and organize the body, bringing the two into an organic whole.
- Freedom in the breathing mechanism so that all the many movements that accompany the breath can happen without effort.
- A connection to the ground and a relationship to gravity that allows the body to be soft and passive where needed, but also active and dynamic where necessary.
- An openness of attitude of the mind toward the body that allows for fresh experience in the moment and not action based on an accumulation of past experience.
I’m sure this list could be amended and added to, but I think I can safely say that each of these principles can apply to every situation in which the body might find itself during the day, not just in a yoga practice. With these in mind, any action a person might take, any instruction a teacher might give could be though to be aligned with fundamental truth and might not then have to be qualified or countermanded at a later date.
Taken in the context of vinyasa and vishamanyasa, the subject of my last two posts, these underlying principles can support and guide the body through myriad complicated transitions.
This post was originally published at yogaunion.com.
B. K. S. Iyengar and Vinyasa Yoga
One thing yogis with some experience of different styles can say for certain is that Iyengar Yoga is most definitely not vinyasa. These days, the two styles almost exist as two opposite poles of the yoga spectrum. In an Iyengar class, poses are held for more than a few breaths, sometimes minutes at a time, and each pose is practiced discretely, with no linking other than perhaps coming back to a central pose such as Tadasana (Mountain Pose) or Dandasana (Staff Pose). In a Vinyasa class, one pose feeds directly into another, breath after breath, in an extended sequence that may take some time to loop back around to do the other side of the pose. Studios and communities that resonate with one kind of yoga rarely resonate and feature the other. This is what makes Yoga Union such a rare and special place. Alison’s vision of a yoga studio where the slow, meticulous attention to detail of structural classes can exist side-by-side with the creative exploration and expression of flow classes is unusual in the yoga community of New York today.
It might surprise you to know, however, that living yoga master B. K. S. Iyengar used to teach vinyasa yoga until even as recently as the 1980s. It wasn’t until he noticed that his students began to age into their late thirties and early forties that they began to get exhausted by the flowing style and stopped coming to class. It was then that he realized he would need to change his style of teaching to suit his students and he began to develop what Iyengar Yoga has become today.
In Ashtadala Yogamala, the eight-volume collection of his miscellaneous writings, Iyengar writes about his experience and understanding of vinyasa yoga. The full expression, vinyasa krama, means separating and placing things in a sequential order, one thing after another. It denotes a logical and integrated progression. This type of organization can apply just as well to linked, flowing progressions as it can to more contained, static progressions. In his article “Vinyasa Yoga” in volume 2 of Ashtadala Yogamala, Iyengar goes on to break down vinyasa krama further into several interesting sub-categories.
Samputana Kriya, the action of encasement: This is when a peak pose is placed within a sequence, or “encased” in such a way that the poses leading up to it prepare the body and mind and the poses that follow help to rebalance and integrate. This might involve a sequence with a series of stretches and openers that prepare the body on a muscular level, or it can be a sequence that operates on a deeper, energetic level. The example he offers of this is perhaps one of my favorite semi-restorative sequences of all time leading into and away from Salamba Shirshasana 1 (Head Stand):
Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose)
Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose)
Prasarita Padottanasana 1 (Wide Spread Feet Pose 1)
Janu Shirshasana (Head of the Knee Pose)
Pashchimottanasana (Intense West Stretch Pose)
Adho Mukha Virasana (Downward Facing Hero Pose)
Salamba Shirshasana 1 (Head Stand 1)
Adho Mukha Virasana (Downward Facing Hero Pose)
Pashchimottanasana (Intense West Stretch Pose)
Janu Shirshasana (Head of the Knee Pose)
Prasarita Padottanasana 1 (Wide Spread Feet Pose 1)
Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose)
Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose)
This sequence is also an excellent example of two further classifications of vinyasa: pratiloma and anuloma. Pratiloma (going against the current) vinyasa is when the poses progress in an ascending order, from simpler to more challenging or, in the case of the above sequence, from less to more introspective. Anuloma (going with the current) vinyasa is the opposite, going from more challenging to less challenging, more introspective to less so.
The final classification of vinyasa that he gives is viloma vinyasa. Viloma means sequencing poses together returning regularly to a single pose. The example he gives is of a series of forward bends with Pashchimottanasana (Intense West Stretch Pose) in between each.
In this article, he also elucidates on the opposite of vinyasa—vishamanyasa, the subject of my next post.
This post was originally published on yogaunion.com
Principles of Flow: Find and Move from Your Core
Think of the word “core” not in its sense of abs and lower back, but in its sense of a deep axis of the body, like an apple core. That axis will follow the line of your primary hip flexor muscle, the psoas, extending in both directions towards your feet and your head. You can trace the line of your core channel from your inner heels, through your inner thighs and your hip creases, coming together behind your navel and lengthening along the front of your spine towards your head. You can even include the line of your inner arms, from your inner armpits, through your biceps to your index fingers and thumbs. Initiate all your movements from the center of that core channel, specifically from a place somewhere between your navel and your spine.
As you organize your poses, think of two interlocking V-shapes to help you integrate your limbs into your core channel. Reach your tail and arms away from each other as one oppositional pairing, and your head and legs away from each other as the second. In some poses or transitions, one paring might make more immediate sense than the other. If you find this to be the case, perhaps repeat the pose or transition focusing on the less apparent pair in an attempt to integrate it into your movement or organizational patterning. Working in this way can help develop ease and efficiency as you clarify the pathways from your extremities–fingers/hands, feet/toes, tail and head–to your core channel and the front of your spine.
This post was originally published at yogaunion.com.
Principles of Flow: Build Your Relationship to the Floor
More than just something to push off from or to travel across, or something to collapse into at the end of class in Shavasana (Corpse Pose), the floor is an integral partner in any physical practice, just as gravity is an essential organizing principle.
So often we move with much more energy than we really need. As we develop and grow, somewhere in our essential Self we develop misguided notions of effort and power and the way we need to hold ourselves as we move through the world. At deep levels we feel we need to “do” in order to be effective, to be valid, to be seen. These belief systems develop into patterns of holding within our bodies as our nervous systems instill tensions in our soft tissues that actually limit our ease and freedom rather than contribute to it. It’s as if we forget that we have strong bones and stable earth underneath us to support us.
Allowing yourself to enter into relationship with the floor and to truly release into its support can help guide your practice, and your everyday movements, into a freer and more integrated expression. Release, in this context, is an interesting word. It doesn’t mean let go completely and be floppy and un-energized. Tension has developed into a very bad word in our culture, but the truth is that a body that is alive is a body that has tension. Some tension is necessary for movement, but also for supported, open stillness. When I say release, I mean not collapse and floppiness, but release into the support of your bones and the floor.
A good way to develop and refine your relationship to the floor is in Shavasana (Corpse Pose) or other supported restorative poses, but even something uncomplicated like Virasana (Hero Pose) or Tadasana (Mountain Pose) can be a great place to start. Wherever and whenever you choose, allow yourself to feel a sense of surrender to the effects of gravity. See if any part of you is pushing down towards or into the floor, or trying to hold itself up away from it. Can you allow that to release into the support of your bones and the floor? From this surrender, allow the floor to rise up and support you, so that for every ounce of downward release your body gives, there is an equivalent rebound up through the earth up and out into you.
Even as you flow through your classes, take the occasional moment to be aware of the union of gravity flowing through you and your bones into the floor and the support of the floor rising up through your bones to support you. Experiment with the way you perceive this and observe its effects on the quality of your bearing and your movements.
This post was originally published at yogaunion.com.
Principles of Flow: Move with Awareness
One of the most amazing things about the human mind-body is the way it is able to negotiate so much of our daily lives for us without us having to be conscious of every minute detail. Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up every morning and to have to figure out how to get out of bed as if you have never moved before? What would it be like to have to rediscover every day how to lift your arms, how to turn over in your bed, how to support your weight and balance on your legs? Can you imagine what it would be like to have no language tools and to figure out how to communicate to your loved ones even the simplest of concepts?
Luckily, from the moment we are born, we accumulate experiences that become encoded in our muscles, our brain, our nervous system so that we can forget about much of the hows and whys of the mundane tasks and interactions that make up our days. However, we can often rely on this habitual action too much, to the point where we no longer are aware of how we might be overworking, or using using ourselves in ways that may once have been a legitimate strategy to solve a problem, but have over time become detrimental to our well-being. This applies not only to our physical bodies, but also to our mental and emotional selves as well. Habitual responses to stressful situations can bleed over into everything we do, coloring our relationships in ways that we have not intended.
The practice of yoga gives us a perfect space in which to slow the process of action and reaction down to the point where we can be aware of our habitual responses and make different choices, ones that may be more efficient, less harmful and more compassionate towards ourselves and others.
As you flow on your mat, be it at home, on your own or in a group class, try this three-part practice:
- Pause. Let there be a moment of reflection between impulse and action. Even if you’re in a flow class, let there be at least a momentary awareness of the progression from the teacher calling out a transition to your first reaction, to the way you interpret the intention through movement.
- Let go of what it unnecessary. As you prepare to move, observe within yourself the way in which you engage your muscles, use your breath, or even modulate your emotional response. Ask yourself if you really need everything that you have galvanized into this moment of reaction. If you find there are things you do not need, let them go. Let that energy be free to be utilized in other ways or not at all.
- Make a fresh choice. As you move, do so with an intention to maintain the freedom of not falling back into habit, not engaging muscle, emotion or mind in such a way that works against you.
You may find that, even with the best of intentions, you only remember to go through this process once or twice during a class. Even so, every time you remember, you are loosening the bonds of habit, of samskara, and contributing to your own ease and freedom.
This post was originally published at yogaunion.com.
Intermediate Practice: Widening Across the Three Bands of the Back
This practice includes a lot of rope work, so it might not be accessible to everyone.
Back Actions:
- Widen evenly across three bands of the back: the pelvic fan muscles and the two bands that include the superior posterior serratus and the inferior posterior serratus. The pelvic fans we explored here and the posterior serratus we explored here.
Core Actions:
Support the widening of the back actions with these front body actions:
- Turn the xiphoid process towards the navel.
- Draw from the sitting bones to the pubic bone to to the navel.
- In general, find a connection inwards, from the extremities to the core, in order to find the strength and coordination to expand back out into the limbs.
Wrist Actions in Ropes:
- Widen across the heel of the hand and thumb mound.
- Lengthen from the forearm to the fingertips across back of the wrists.
- Draw from the heel of the hand to the forearm to strengthen the hand and wrists. (more…)
Intermediate Practice: Moving with a Long Spine and a Wide Torso
Often when we move there are all sorts of narrowings and pulls that we perform without even realizing it that serve to compress our spines and torso. This all has the effect of interfering with our most efficient, inherent movement patterning. I this practice we will work with a series of directions to allow the spine to elongate to its fullest length in a balance and supported way. Throughout the practice, we will pay attention to the manner of movement as we attempt to undo our interfering habits and allow the underlying support of our musculo-skeletal structure to resolve itself.
As you go through your poses, consider the following points:
- Connect the Pubic Bone and Xiphoid Process to the navel.
- Allow the head to release away from the tail. Don’t “do” this in any muscular way. Allow it to be an organizing thought.
- Lengthen the sitting bones away from the head without tilting or tucking the pelvis.
- Lengthen the thoracic spine and the sternum evenly towards the head.
From the Archives: The Art of Movement (Intermediate)
At the beginning of the year, we worked through a series of practices based around movement ideas developed by Irmgard Bartenieff relating to the way we connect to the core/mid-line of the body. In these practices we explored ways in which to move into and out of poses as a way of organizing the body in preparation for the poses themselves. As the series developed, we began to incorporate ideas developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in her Body/Mind Centering system that were about organizing movement around the organs. Here’s a breakdown with links to the practices for you to explore:
- Moving from the Core: In this practice we begin to explore the relationship of the body to gravity and to the support of the floor. In addition, we begin to link the arms and legs into the core channel in a practice that includes floor work, inversions and a vinyasa that focus on standing poses.
- Moving from the Core 2: Here we begin to explore the core channel of the body in a little more depth, connecting the arms and legs into it, while exploring the space behind the heart and navel. This practice combines restorative and rope work with vinyasa, reclined poses and inversions.
- Moving from the Core 3: In this practice we start to incorporate twisting movements, sequencing around the the core channel and using the arms and legs to create balance, stability and support. The practice includes vinyasa, arm balances, reclined and core poses as well as standing poses and inversions.
- Twisting from the Core: Here we explore twist further in a practice that includes vinyasa, arm balances, inversions, standing poses seated twists and forward bends.
- Folding Forward from the Core: This exploration of moving into and out of forward bends includes, vinyasa, arm balances, inversions and variations as well as seated forward bends.
- Widening the Deep Surface of the Front Body: In this practice we take the time to become aware of the inner space of the body through which the core channel flows. It includes inversions, arm balances, core poses and back bends.
- Moving from the Organ Pillars: Here we take the idea of the core channel further and add to it the idea of taking support and initiating movement from the organs. The practice includes core poses, arm balances, inversions and a standing pose vinyasa.
- Moving from the Organ Pillars 2: Here we use the organ pillars as a support for twists in standing poses and inversions.
- Twisting from the Organ Pillars: Here we take the twists deeper, starting with standing poses and inversions, progressing through Mayurasana (Peacock Pose) to seated twists.
- Reaching the Legs out of the Large Intestine: I is practice we take the lower body connection into the core into back bends.
- Initiating from the Trochanters: In this practice we will be thinking of contralateral action, where the opposite arm and leg are moving away from each other. It includes inversions, standing and seated twists as well as Padmasana (Lotus Pose) variations.
- Balancing the Trochanters in Contralateral Movement: In this final practice of the series, we take our investigation of contralateral movement further into Marichyasana variations and revolved forward bends.
Intermediate Practice: Balancing the Trochanters in Contralateral Movement
Continuing on from our previous intermediate practice, where we initiated movement from the trochanters, in the following series of twists and forward bends, we will observe how the shape of the poses shifts the weight. Different tendencies and imbalances will have different effects. As a universal principle, widen the hip crease either in or out to balance the weight.Even in poses where the shape is essentially symmetrical, left to right, focus on reaching evenly through the opposite arm and leg, or trochanters and shoulder. (more…)
Intermediate Practice: Initiating from the Trochanters
As we continue our exploration of movement from the core, in this practice we will be thinking of contralateral action, where the opposite arm and leg are moving away from each other. These poses all involve flexion of the hip joint and deepening of the hip crease. If, however, we initiate from the hip crease itself, we run the risk of over-working and compressing the joint, potentially jamming the sacrum and lower back forward. Instead, we will think about initiating from the trochanters (see figure) instead.
Working with the trochanters gives us the added benefit of being able to work with the legs and hip joints to provide optimal support for the torso. We can also begin to work with our own tendencies and imbalances in an effective way. To this end, consider the following points:
For argument’s sake, let us consider the greater trochanter to be the outermost corner of the crescent-shaped hip crease, or groin, and the lesser trochanter to be the innermost. Anatomically speaking this isn’t quite the case, but this idea allows us to link the hips, thighs, pelvis and abdomen in a simple and useful way.
Our primary goal will to be balancing the weight and support in each of the four trochanters. In some poses, such as Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose), the hip creases tend to flow inwards, the weight falling on the lesser trochanters, and in some poses, such as Setu Bandha (Bridge Pose), the hip creases flow outwards, the weight tending to fall towards the greater trochanter. Widen the hip creases in the opposite direction from the tendency in order to balance out the trochanters.
© 2010 Witold Fitz-Simon.
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