The yoga pose has several parts to it, although we typically just focus on being in the pose. But, in fact, there are stages, and if attention and devotion is paid equally to each stage, everything seems to improve exponentially. Obvious benefits of this are that the body becomes stronger and the posture deeper, but the real benefit is in the powers of concentration and mindfulness, which can enrich the posture, and allows each asana to become a gateway to awareness and transformation.
The stages are:
· Before the Pose
· Mental Experience, (the mental image or recognition of the pose)
· Entering the Pose
· Being in the Pose, (and breathing)
· Exiting the pose
· After the Pose
Each yoga posture cultivates a distinct and unique set of vibrations in the body, by moving some areas towards pressure, and some towards relaxation, channels of energy are able to move throughout the body in different patterns. You will feel differently before and after a yoga pose, but to truly understand what is happening, you have to develop the mindfulness and body awareness to note the differences. As you continue to practice regularly, your catalog of information swells enormously, and you can note increasingly finer details, and experience diversity of sensations with each re-visitation of the posture. You can never do a pose too many times; it is the challenge (and joy!!!) of the experienced yogi to discover more depth and awareness in even the most basic of postures. This being said, it is also not necessary to fully master, or to even be in the deepest variation possible of a posture to get the full energetic, vibratory benefits of the posture. I often find that I get the most out of a posture by taking it to my fullest muscular expression, and then relaxing into a bit and softening into it. Also, the real juice of some postures comes after they are completed: try noticing this especially after tight, constrictive postures like Garudasana (Eagle) or after any and all twists and backbends, when energy rushes and races through the body after the posture is released. Give yourself the gift of a moment of awareness of the sensations in the body to fully experience this phenomenon.
To fully understand the transformational powers of the asana, you must establish a baseline of where you are before the posture; meaning how is the breath being manipulated, how does the body feel (both gross and subtle), and what is your mental/emotional state. Careful examination, even in the space of a conscious breath, is all that is required to make an assessment. Clearly, the more time spent on this the better. In a perfect world, where you had all the time you could ever need for your yoga practice, you could start each session with a meditation, and scan your body and mind, checking in and making considerate notes of This is one of the benefits of having a home practice, to prioritize this time. You can also make an effort to get to class early enough to quietly settle in and tune in. Throughout the practice, you can continue to update this evaluation, and recognize the changes as you move through your practice.
If you are in a class, and an asana is mentioned as your next destination, the posture will be experienced first in the mind, where there will be a recognition of the posture (or learning of a new one) often coupled by either a mental image you already have or a teacher’s demonstration of the pose. This is the important point when you must become the master of your mind, or you may immediately experience any number of emotional responses to the knowledge of what you are about to do. You may feel joy if it’s a pose you love (be careful that the pleasure is not just fodder for the ego!), dread or fear about the pose, and often a judgment or comparative analysis: “is my pose as good as Iyengar’s/my teachers’/the tiny ballerina on the mat next to me?” Sometimes, the immediate mental reaction will be a judgment of yourself, and a comparison with how you did the asana the last time, or two years ago, or ten. This is dangerous territory: while awareness of these poster-image ideals and your personal history are both inspiring teachers, you can easily get caught up in the mental rollercoaster they send you on, and then the experience is not of the posture itself, but your mental entanglement with it. It is best, I think, to be aware of the workings of the mind at this point, and to become witness to the mental process. Rather than allow one form of judgment lead to another, simply recognize the patterns and workings of the mind, and then turn your attention back to how you are going to enter the posture and the breath.
Slowing things down as you both enter and exit a posture is critical, and hugely overlooked. It is often a very complex task of organization to get everything where it needs to be. Refuse to rush into a posture, and instead practice both smarter and safer yoga, easing yourself into the posture and enjoying the whole experience. I am finding increasingly more and more that I can really challenge myself to be present and aware of each body part that I am getting much stronger and calmer in my practice as a result. When I move into a standing balance, Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon) for example, I focus intently on the moment my foot lifts the floor, not the foot itself, but the internal core muscles and breath and chakra support that engage to lift the whole leg, while I focus on the opposing muscles that are lowering the upper body and finally extending the arms. I focus on the origin of the posture from the spine and the midline of the body, and move as slowly and smoothly into the posture.
Being in the pose gets the most attention, and therefore I am only going to lightly touch on this, only to say that this is time to get the most insight into how the energy channels are being manipulated through vibration, pressure and release in the posture. It takes immense focus and mindfulness to scan the body and become increasingly more aware of what the pose is actually supposed to do. This is easiest to observe in the gross body, and requires greater and greater focus to observe the subtle body, but with experience and intention, this can become second nature. I focus on where the energy epicenter is, and how the energy moves around, where it eddies and flows, and try to play around with my alignment, moving in and around the energy flow to experience where it feels the best.
When I exit the posture, I try to not rush or flop out of it. Instead I try to use muscular resistance to “fall slowly.” I don’t think that the posture is complete until I am back in Samasthiti, (or whatever is next.) This is building immense strength, as it is the muscles that hold you in the posture are being worked hard to build the resistance to fall slowly. Once again, I focus on the muscle groups, and the chakras that support the pose; I focus on where the movement originates, rather than the feet or hands, or head, extremities which are often only the outermost and superficial expression of the posture. Moving slowly and with control, you can use this time to start to take note of how energy is moving differently throughout the body as you release yourself from the posture. It helps to have dedicated your practice to something higher than yourself, as you can often allow the aspect of prayer or devotion make every movement a special and sacred offering.
After the posture is the time that is most often skipped over or rushed at best, and this is the time when your body and mind are giving you the most feedback. Often in a class, especially a flow class, we are already transitioning into the next posture, and there is no time for assessment. I am not a huge fan of lying in Shivasana between postures, as is done in some traditions, because I get too cold, and then am too stiff for the next posture, but taking a slow, conscious breath or two is enough. Be comforted by the fact that you don’t have to scan every single body part, you will do this posture again soon enough, and with experience you can direct your attention to key areas. Also, your ability to be open and receptive to perceptions of the transformational aspects of the posture will increase with practice.
Breaking the yoga pose up into these six distinct categories has brought so much peace to my practice. It takes me on a more direct path towards a meditative state, and keeps helping me to sharpen my focus and develop awareness. Honestly, it allows yoga to become a revelatory and transformational experience. Recognizing each stage, and involving the mind in such a way to where it is used as an instrument, a barometer of your present state, rather than a source of judgment or struggle is the goal. Not every pose is going to make you feel great; some bring up memories, emotions, even anger or fear. The challenge is to become aware of your reactions, in order to be able to untangle the knots and get to the root causes of what is really going on, and discover what the body is storing from your personal history. The body is a physical record of every experience and every thought that you have ever had. It is important to be honest with how you respond to these adversities or triumphs presented by the yoga posture, and to react with perfect equanimity as much as possible.