How important is your breath?
We cannot see our breath, and yet it gives us life. We can’t see our internal organs, but they determine our health. We can’t see love, but it can be our greatest inspiration and can help us survive the most difficult situations.
“The real yoga is what we cannot see,” says David Swenson a respected Ashtanga yoga teacher. The breath, the bandhas and awareness of our deeper selves go far beyond the asanas or poses that we can see. The bandhas are internal body “locks”. They direct and contain energy.
Our most powerful muscles are the deep core lines of the body. When we direct our movement from the deep core lines we have more power, more freedom and more protection from injury.
Most people think the six pack ab is a sign of a strong core. The rectus abdominis, home of the six pack ab, is our outermost abdominal muscle. It helps with breathing, child labor and drawing the pelvis towards the ribs, but the deeper core muslces, the obliques and the transverse abdominis, support the integrity of our spine and our overall posture. If our rectus abdominals are too strong in relation to our deeper core muscles, it actually rounds our back too much causing back pain.
One of the deepest muscles of our body, the psoas, is the only muscle that connects our spine to our legs. It allows us to walk. It is sometimes called the “muscle of the soul” and is an organ of perception. Stress and too much sitting can tighten the psoas causing back pain and lack of structural stability and mobility. A relaxed psoas brings a feeling of being profoundly connected to the earth and supports our creative energy. Navasana (boat pose) is a great psoas strengthener and Setu Bandhasana (bridge pose) is a good for releasing and relaxing the psoas.
When you practice yoga, pay attention to your breath, to your intention, to your focus and concentration. Focusing inward will fuel the external expression of your pose. Wisdom lies inside of us. Our intuition is a powerful guide.
God or spirit can be felt but not seen. Meditation, chanting and prayer open the pathway to feeling the energy of a higher power. When we take time to observe the world around us, to look up into the endless night sky, to realize that the tiniest stars we see are light years away from us, to ponder the depths of the ocean, or the infinite diversity of cells at work in our body, is to experience a deeper mystery than can ever been seen or fully understood.
Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
~Einstein
Use your yoga practice to attune to your intuition, to self-observation, to the feelings that ignite your poses, and to the prana that flows within you and around you,. Seek to find balance and to cultivate inner peace. Deepening your yoga practice is not necessarily about becoming stronger and more flexible in your physical body, but rather becoming stronger and more flexible in your inner domain. How do you treat others? How do you view yourself and your purpose in this world? How can you be of service? How can you be more grateful? How can you cultivate a deeper connection to God or Spirit?
Trust what you can’t see.
