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OPEN MIND OPEN BODY Ideas for Your Yoga Practice |
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Receive the Pose This spring, I attended a conference taught by T.K.V. Desikachar and his family. The conference emphasized the foundational practices of mudra, mantra, and meditation, and carefully selected asanas and vinyasas. These physical and mental practices were connected to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and the highest aims of yoga practice. I took few notes at the conference, preferring to absorb the teachings and the practices. However, I wrote down one sentence spoken by Desikachar's son, Kausthub, in response to a question about different styles of Hatha yoga: "What is important is not how you do the pose, but what the pose is doing to you." Immediately, this idea clicked for me. It is one of the reasons I love a personal home yoga practice (in addition to group classes). Personal, self-guided practice leaves room for observation and experimentation. In many classes, the focus on form obscures the internal experience of the pose. When the attention is constantly directed on the "doing" in a pose, there is little room to notice the energetic effects of the pose. If we are told how to do the pose, and told that there is only one right way to do the pose, we miss the connections between what we do and what we experience. Many of the yoga teachers who now emphasize alignment and form discovered the principles of alignment through observing their own practice. Awareness came from within - from observing how the pose affected the mentally, physically, and energetically - and how subtle shifts in action in a pose could transform their experience. I encourage you to take Kausthub's words to heart. Don't worry so much about whether you are doing your yoga poses "right", or whether one style of yoga is more enlightened than another. Don't try so hard. Pay attention to the effects of the poses, and the the effects of your practice on your life. Absorb the benefits of your practice. You can receive your practice as much as you "do" it. Return to Ideas for Your Yoga Practice
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