How does YOGA work?
October 13, 2012
When we practice postures, we are practicing HATHA YOGA. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, "Ha" means sun and "Tha" means moon. HATHA YOGA is literally the balancing of the sun and moon energy in our bodies. It is the balancing of our dual nature, the right and left, the masculine and the feminine, the assertive and the receptive aspects of our being, of our personalities. It is when these dual aspects of ourselves are balanced that a central consciousness is realized. Once realized, we can then operate from a higher level physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually...
We feel the duality within our physical body. As we practice asanas/postures, we become aware of where we are tight, strong, open, weak, aligned or out of balance and it is usually, at first, different on one side of our body than the other. We might favor our right side more or our muscles might compensate for an injury on the left by making the right side work more. In our mental and emotional body we might feel we are more extroverted and social (masculine/sun energy) then others or at certain times of the day or especially season, we may feel more introverted and solitary (feminine/moon energy). Each of us have both energies running through us and health, healing, fitness, as well as conscious development are positively improved by the balancing of these two main energies or sides of ourselves. How you might ask? The first way is in how we synchronize movement with breath! As we inhale we receive and as we exhale we give out to the world or release, as we contract we hold and as we expand we release, as we move and hold on one side we do to the other... In HATHA YOGA, especially because we move with breath, we bring our dual nature into a state of wholeness. It is in relaxed states of wholeness that the body and mind heal and attain higher states of health and well-being!
This is the most essential understanding for each of us to become more and more aware of through our asana practice. Allow it to empower your own self-learning & self-knowing!
If you think of a well-rounded practice, we have poses that bend us forward, backward, that stretch our sides, twist and invert us. All one really needs to do is visualize all the bones, joints, muscles, organs, tissues, body systems etc. to begin to understand the profound health benefits that accompany the practice. When we move intelligently into a proper stretch, when we move the way the body was made to move and we hold a pose really using the breath to restore and relax into the pose, many changes occur. Muscles remember how to relax, postural patterns of the body cease their hold or soften out of rigidity, bones align and are kept in place by proper strength in the joints, injured areas get the presence, oxygen, and proper movement for healing to take place, circulation and awareness flow to those parts of the body that were asleep or dulled. The beautiful thing is, the longer we hold, the more quality breaths we can practice taking, allowing the mind/body complex to really integrate and re-pattern. We are virtually remaking ourselves from the inside out and this above anything, marks progress... HOW WE FEEL FROM WITHIN OUR BODIES AND MINDS! Keep in mind therefore that the more quality breaths we can take, means we are becoming more and more comfortable, more and more balanced in our energy as we hold a pose. That is why when we see someone in a beautifully held pose, we are reminded of the grace and harmony which come from a regular, routine practice of asanas, of energy balancing! We are witnessing in them, the right amount of strength, flexibility, and alignment in the body to achieve that level of grace and harmony in that pose.
Hatha Yoga has an even more profound affect on the body systems of the body and for sake of proper length of the newsletter, I will say a few things on the internal organs. As we do each pose, think of what is happening to the heart, liver, stomach, digestive tract, hormonal glands (ovaries, testes, adrenals, thymus, thyroid, pineal & pituitary...). We are literally squeezing and twisting them and then opening and expanding them. We are creating a pumping action that in their contraction squeezes toxins out and in their expansion pumps fresh, nutrient rich blood back through them. When we are upside down we allow circulation of blood and lymph to reverse and then when we come right side up fresher blood and lymph travel through. We are not only purifying body systems, but reinvigorating organs to function better!
There is so much happening beneath the eye of HATHA YOGA. For those of you who would like to understand this precise SCIENCE BEHIND YOGA ASANAS, I invite you to attend a workshop where we are afforded time and individual attention to delve into detail on how the asanas heal and maintain health for each body system: (the circulatory, nervous, reproductive, lymphatic, endocrine etc...) What are the implications behind releasing toxins out of organs, behind more nutrient rich blood flowing through the organs? How does that improve ones health exactly? Let's discuss this further by engaging in conversation here on this blog and/or by registering for the workshop below...
Namaste,
Prema Devii
"Trish"
Namaste,
Prema Devii
"Trish"
WORKSHOP: The Science Behind Yoga Asanas #1
-lecture, notes, and group discussion
-learn how to develop your own practice
to address personal issues, injuries, or conditions
-asana practice
-deepening relaxation techniques
-stilling the mind & cultivating inner peace
-sangha/community building
-vegan, gluten free snack/drink
-reflections
* Workshop is 3hrs long
* $50
* Call or E-mail to register:
Prema Devii
808-269-2638
premayoga7@gmail.com
* Workshop is 3hrs long
* $50
* Call or E-mail to register:
Prema Devii
808-269-2638
premayoga7@gmail.com
