Last week, I described a practice of imagination in asana practice that facilitates later action in asana. Since then, there have been two stories on the discussion board about how a particular type of visualization  - simply keeping an image of a pose nearby - made a seemingly impossible pose possible over time, without any aggressive attempts to force the pose or even improve the pose. (See thread http://openmindbody.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=107 and use login: yoga, password: connect.)

I wanted to share a little more this week about why the process of imagination is so useful in asana and life. 

Research shows that when we imagine performing a movement, the same areas of our brain responsible for planning and executing movement (the pre-motor, primary motor, and supplementary cortices of the brain) become activated. In particular, activation of the supplementary cortex is said to create a desire to move - perhaps you've felt this in your own body, as a sudden desire to practice yoga, stretch, dance, or run. Activating these areas of the brain facilitate later action - so when we do actually move, the brain and body has been prepared. The movement feels less effortful. Hopefully, you experienced this in the vinyasa practice last week, if you tried it. Imagining a movement also facilitates neuromuscular connections - it becomes easier and more efficient for the brain to send messages to the muscles responsible for movement. You experience this neuromuscular facilitation as greater balance, grace, and strength. If you imagine a stretch, you can facilitate muscular relaxation; if you imagine a challenging pose, you can facilitate strength. I want to encourage you to work with this practice again this week - or try it for this first time. Consider imagining a tight muscle relaxing before you enter a pose - perhaps imagining the hamstrings relaxing before a forward bend. Imagine practice a balancing pose before you try it.  If you experience something interesting, teach this in your classes. 

This is what research shows about a very specific use of imagination to facilitate connections and communication within the system of the human body. My belief, and experience, is that when we imagine some action or intention larger than our individual internal experience of the body - for example, imagining a life transition or taking a difficult action - we facilitate connections and communication at the level of a much bigger system. I don't pretend to understand how it works, only that my experience confirms it. Things that are normally a struggle somehow are easier - and the universe presents information, opportunities, and relationships that support the action. 

Perhaps what is happening is still at the level of our individual brains - maybe imagination facilitates activation of areas of the brain that make connections between events and recognize opportunities. Perhaps imagination facilitates our own skillful action in the world. Or maybe our imagination is part of a bigger system, and something is activated within this complex, interdependent world, that facilitates our experience. I don't know, and I'm not sure research will tell us. But I encourage you to try this, too, with the expectation that you are facilitating the connection between your intention and your experience.

Take care,

Kelly

http://openmindbody.com/discuss/

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