It’s been a few years since I have written anything. A lot has changed in those few years (which I will write about in a future post). But I found this unpublished draft on practice which I thought would be a nice way to get back into writing about the sadhana. I hope you find some nuggets of knowledge in these posts.
++++++++++++++++
The simplest techniques often pack the most benefit, and they are often overlooked or neglected the longer we practice. This is nowhere more readily visible than in our yoga practices when it comes to how we practice.
The more typical question to hear from someone is, “What style of yoga do you practice?” Or “Who is your teacher?” Or even, “Which studio is your home?”
But ask someone, “How do you practice yoga?” and you may be met with surprise or confusion. We focus not so much on how we practice, but on what we practice or with whom we practice. Yoga teachers take pride in their teaching lineage or style, while students are often brand ambassadors for their favorite studios. Nothing wrong with this: in fact, I have often encouraged students to be discerning in selecting their style and studio and teacher, and then to really commit to the practice for a while before considering any sort of change. Time and repetition are tremendously valuable in generating results and making progress, in any field or endeavour.
But by focusing almost exclusively on what or with whom we practice, we lose touch with how we practice, and we risk practicing mechanically.
That’s why it’s important to pay exquisitely close attention to our breathing when we practice. It can guide us to find new information in old postures. It can illuminate areas we prefer to keep in the dark.
The breathing we do in postures is simple yet difficult to master, patterned yet infinitely changing with circumstances
Restrict the breath and it can bite back.
Neglect the breath and your practice will be superficial, and may even reinforce patterns of tension, stress and anxiety which you are trying to loosen through your yoga practice.
So what to do? How do we tap into the power of breathing? Here are four simple guidelines:
- Direct your attention to the sensation of your breathing. It sounds simple but we live in such a distracting environment nowadays. Your mind will wander. You will start thinking about something other than your breathing. Breathing can seem boring or monotonous compared to balancing in handstand or flowing through a sun salutation. But the physical postures are really just containers for more mindful breathing. Steer your mind back to the breathing. This is part of the practice, the steering of the mind.
- Next, observe how you inhale, how you exhale. Pay close attention to the sensations, the feelings you have as you breathe. Can you become increasingly aware of the distinct qualities of each phase of the breath? (This is much more accessible in a seated yoga practice compared to an athletically challenging vinyasa sequence).
- Then, look for how you transition from one phase of the breath to the next. What are those transitional phases like? Do you rush through the inhalation to get to the exhalation? Do you let the breath out casually, while you try to power up the inhalation? Do you hold your breath? When? Try to stretch your awareness of your breathing to include not only the dynamic stages of breathing, but also the joints of the breath.
- Finally, observe how your mind wanders from the breath during certain postures, or during certain sequences (or even entire practices). When your mind wanders during a tough posture or a difficult sequence, it can shed light on some internal restriction – physical, mental or emotional – to which you may need to devote attention. How do you respond to that restriction? Do you push through it (sometimes necessary when you are feeling unmotivated or unfocused)? Do you listen to it and adjust accordingly (sometimes necessary when you are simply going through the motions)?
In the end, we can search for new methods or cues to inspire us when we practice our Sadhana. However, often the key to enlivening our practice is right under our nose – in the breathing. Don’t let your Sadhana become one more item on the checklist of things to do – slow down, focus your mind, breathe, and move.
