Yoga Postures and The Mind
Take a moment and smile. Not a smile because someone asked you to, but think about something that makes you really happy- like this kid:
Now, when I laugh, my face does a funny thing:
My eyes appear to almost close, and my whole face changes, as does my attitude internally. Try to feel bad while smiling- it's nearly impossible!
This is an example of how yoga works. I would like to recommend a smile pill to be taken every day as often as possible! Smile during your yoga postures also! Be aware of the changes in your mind as a reminder why you are doing yoga to begin with. For our children, this recommendation is very appropriate as well.
By placing yourself in yoga poses, you change the way you feel at a deep level.
Repeated and consistent practice of this can change your entire life. Yet, just as one can have discriminating tastes as to what goes into one's mouth, one must discriminate about what enters the mind. In a later post, I will talk about the effects of food on the mind, and for now I will focus on the poses' effects.
Yoga works with the body to control the mind. Yoga postures are only the beginning of yoga practice. Since the mind is not considered to be you, but rather your lens of viewing the world, then one can see how important this link is. Indeed, it's tempting in our modern "Cartesian" way to separate the 'brain' from the rest of the nervous system or even if you add the spinal cord to include the central nervous system, it isn't enough.
Consider that the brain and the body aren't really different things. How one's left arm feels has an effect on your outlook on life. Still, we can have a problem for a long time in one area and adapt our nervous system to deal with it. In doing so, patterns of awareness get set up that can be difficult to address after a long time, because the awareness that was formerly present is not longer.
Add this to the multi-various hormonal and chemical systems in place which rely on blood flow and so on and it's easy to see how complex and comprehensive this kind of system is. And because it's a system, then one aspect affects many others in a chain reaction, often causing long-term effects that linger long after the initial symptoms have disappeared. It is well-known the effects of chemicals on the body, given our pill-oriented culture. So, by dispensing with the complexities of all this, we come back once again to yoga and the postures.
Yoga's slow movements and focus on the breath enable one's awareness to become more subtle with practice. This awareness feeds one's ability to control the breath without 'hitching' or hesitations, and so the chest cavity is moved more smoothly throughout the day, not just during class.
In later posts, I will go through the basic 12 postures in the Sivananda sequence, one by one, and discuss the effects of the poses and points of focus for the mind during them.
In general, one must grasp the substantial difference between the basic Sivananda sequence created by Swami Vishnu-devananda and taught in all the Sivananda Teacher Training Courses worldwide and other so-called "styles" of yoga. The Sivananda sequence works with the energy centers, pose by pose, starting from the top (with the headstand), and moving down through them.
This is why variations on the basic sequence are used instead of very different poses thrown around without considering these. These energy centers are called chakras, and much is said about them in many esoteric disciplines, so I will not go into them deeply here.
This structure itself means that the yoga practice is a part in a larger context of general spiritual practice. It is this reason why one might meet with some consternation if you ask a trained Sivananda teacher what "style" they are teaching. Even if one is not doing consistent "spiritual practice" one can take a Sivananda-style class and still get the effects. This is all very confusing for the so-called "consumer" of Yoga in the world today.
While most "styles" of yoga focus on the slower movements and connection with the breath- another key aspect of Sivananda-style asanas practice is the focus on balanced movements. By balanced, what is meant is two-fold:
1) a forward bend is balanced with a backward bend, and right twist balanced with a left; and
2) appropriate rest is had to recover the muscles from the oxygen debt.
Both of these, done with proper awareness, lead one to a greater grasp of the balance between the sympathetic (The GO! part of the nervous system) and parasympathetic nervous system (the rest/digest part of the nervous system). My forthcoming book on this subject will deal with this in some detail. To summarize, efforts and relaxations are supported by the breath. Only with this balance and awareness can one really say one is doing yoga properly.
I welcome your questions and comments.
Thanks,
Regis Chapman (DurgaDas)
Silent Motion Yoga
Now, when I laugh, my face does a funny thing:
My eyes appear to almost close, and my whole face changes, as does my attitude internally. Try to feel bad while smiling- it's nearly impossible!
This is an example of how yoga works. I would like to recommend a smile pill to be taken every day as often as possible! Smile during your yoga postures also! Be aware of the changes in your mind as a reminder why you are doing yoga to begin with. For our children, this recommendation is very appropriate as well.
By placing yourself in yoga poses, you change the way you feel at a deep level.
Repeated and consistent practice of this can change your entire life. Yet, just as one can have discriminating tastes as to what goes into one's mouth, one must discriminate about what enters the mind. In a later post, I will talk about the effects of food on the mind, and for now I will focus on the poses' effects.
Yoga works with the body to control the mind. Yoga postures are only the beginning of yoga practice. Since the mind is not considered to be you, but rather your lens of viewing the world, then one can see how important this link is. Indeed, it's tempting in our modern "Cartesian" way to separate the 'brain' from the rest of the nervous system or even if you add the spinal cord to include the central nervous system, it isn't enough.
Consider that the brain and the body aren't really different things. How one's left arm feels has an effect on your outlook on life. Still, we can have a problem for a long time in one area and adapt our nervous system to deal with it. In doing so, patterns of awareness get set up that can be difficult to address after a long time, because the awareness that was formerly present is not longer.
Add this to the multi-various hormonal and chemical systems in place which rely on blood flow and so on and it's easy to see how complex and comprehensive this kind of system is. And because it's a system, then one aspect affects many others in a chain reaction, often causing long-term effects that linger long after the initial symptoms have disappeared. It is well-known the effects of chemicals on the body, given our pill-oriented culture. So, by dispensing with the complexities of all this, we come back once again to yoga and the postures.
Yoga's slow movements and focus on the breath enable one's awareness to become more subtle with practice. This awareness feeds one's ability to control the breath without 'hitching' or hesitations, and so the chest cavity is moved more smoothly throughout the day, not just during class.
In later posts, I will go through the basic 12 postures in the Sivananda sequence, one by one, and discuss the effects of the poses and points of focus for the mind during them.
In general, one must grasp the substantial difference between the basic Sivananda sequence created by Swami Vishnu-devananda and taught in all the Sivananda Teacher Training Courses worldwide and other so-called "styles" of yoga. The Sivananda sequence works with the energy centers, pose by pose, starting from the top (with the headstand), and moving down through them.
This is why variations on the basic sequence are used instead of very different poses thrown around without considering these. These energy centers are called chakras, and much is said about them in many esoteric disciplines, so I will not go into them deeply here.
This structure itself means that the yoga practice is a part in a larger context of general spiritual practice. It is this reason why one might meet with some consternation if you ask a trained Sivananda teacher what "style" they are teaching. Even if one is not doing consistent "spiritual practice" one can take a Sivananda-style class and still get the effects. This is all very confusing for the so-called "consumer" of Yoga in the world today.
While most "styles" of yoga focus on the slower movements and connection with the breath- another key aspect of Sivananda-style asanas practice is the focus on balanced movements. By balanced, what is meant is two-fold:
1) a forward bend is balanced with a backward bend, and right twist balanced with a left; and
2) appropriate rest is had to recover the muscles from the oxygen debt.
Both of these, done with proper awareness, lead one to a greater grasp of the balance between the sympathetic (The GO! part of the nervous system) and parasympathetic nervous system (the rest/digest part of the nervous system). My forthcoming book on this subject will deal with this in some detail. To summarize, efforts and relaxations are supported by the breath. Only with this balance and awareness can one really say one is doing yoga properly.
I welcome your questions and comments.
Thanks,
Regis Chapman (DurgaDas)
Silent Motion Yoga