Yoga For Everyone

A Yoga Primer

Table of Contents

1. Yoga For Everyone
2. Use Your Breath
3. It's Not Just The Poses
4. Bring Yoga Into Your Life
5. Every Day Is Different
6. Your Energetic Body
7. Going to Your Edge

1. Yoga For Everyone

If you are new to yoga here’s a little advice that should get things ‘moving’ in the right direction. As you probably have already discovered, yoga is about moving your body. It is not uncommon to get up the next day from your first yoga class just a little sore.
That’s because yoga is a fantastic way to work your full body. Those muscles in your neck, your abdomen, even your little toe muscles. Muscles that we don’t commonly use. Did you know, for example, that the 650-odd muscles in your body make up almost half your total body weight! Wow. The biggest muscle? Sorry to break the news, it’s your gluteus maximus more frequently called “our butt”. The smallest? The stapedius, located in your middle ear – it’s only one-fifth of an inch long.

So, we move and stretch all these muscles, and our bones. Indeed, the common “conception” of a yogi or yoginni (female yogi) is a person who is really flexible. You know, the pretzel people. What is the benefit to all this? Obviously we are going to get more physically fit. What is interesting is that as you start to flex different muscles your entire body starts to come alive. You think about how flexible children are. Well, yes they are young; but they also spend a lot of time moving around. This keeps them flexible.

So, physical fitness. Flexibility. Energy. For most people these are good enough reasons to start a yoga program. This physical flexibility has great application in the modern world. For example, have you ever been driving your car and you couldn’t see your blind spot in the mirror. You try to turn your head around, but you neck is stiff. Yoga can help. Or, you work in an office at a computer all day. Can you say “carpal tunnel syndrome”? Yoga can help.

Let’s go just a little further with this. The cool thing about yoga is that there is always “a little further.” Really. It is a gigantic onion that you start to peel. You don’t even realize how many layers there are when you start. The good news is that you don’t really need to know how many layers there are. There is no rush. You start wherever you are and that’s just perfect. Indeed, what some people, especially athletes, find unusual is the fact that yoga really eliminates the concept of competition… both between yourself and others and between yourself and yourself. The goal? Be in your body (do you have a choice?)… be aware of your body… and do what you can do at any point in time.

One thing that everyone who has ever done yoga discovers is that over the course of time your physical body begins to do new things. Suddenly you realize that the pose you thought was impossible on your first class is now both easy and enjoyable. It happens.

2. Use Your Breath

We breath. Indeed, using your breath is key to an effective yoga program. It’s a rare yoga class where you don’t hear an instructor say, “breath” or “keep breathing.” They may even show you how to do different types of breathing such as how to use the Ujjaya breath, where you breath deep through your nose as you partially close your upper windpipe. Breathing is not only a powerful force in our lives (try living without it), but it helps you immensely as you do yoga.

Did you know that your breath is one of the few aspects of your body that is both part of the involuntary or autonomous system and also under your direct control. In other words it operates both on an unconscious and consciously level. For example, when you go to sleep you don’t have to worry about breathing. It just happens. Or, when you get excited, nervous or frightened you may notice that your breath starts to go faster. Yet, at the same time you can control your breath. You can consciously breath faster, slower, deeper. You can even stop breathing for a time, holding your breath in or out. It is rare that you find a person who can stop their heart and then get it going again.

This is all to say that breath is an important aspect of our life that also plays a big role in doing yoga. Let us briefly examine a few aspects of breath for your yoga practice. For one thing you use your inhalation and your exhalation to do different things. Let’s look at one common pose, Pascimottanasana or sitting forward bend. On an inhalation you stretch your upper body up. So inhalations are good for extensions. Then, as you move forward into the bend you exhale. Exhalation is good way to move deeper into a pose, soften your muscles, release tension.

At first you might need to listen to a teacher tell you when to inhale and exhale to “get it right.” But, after a little while you will start to naturally know when to inhale and exhale. What you are doing is taking a conscious effort to learn a new way to use your breath. Then, as you become comfortable with it, the process becomes again unconscious.

Breath has a couple of other useful aspects. When you breath through your nose you warm both the air and your body. So, when you start practice, especially in the morning, use nostril breathing as much as you can. Likewise, if you are getting too hot during practice move to breathing through your mouth. This can cool the body. Sound good? Well, you can even go one step further. If you ever find yourself in an environment that is really, really hot, say the desert, try this. Take out a straw (should you have recently gone to a fast food restaurant and kept a straw) and put it in your mouth (not your nose) and breath through it. The extra air-cooling time will actually cool down your body as well.

We’re not quite done with breathing. Actually, if you really want to get into it please check out the section on pranayama, which is ALL ABOUT breathing. Many times you will hear a yoga teacher say, “if you have a tight place place, bring your breath there.” What does that mean?

Say you have a little tightness, even soreness in your neck. How do you bring your breath THERE? It’s like nowhere near your lungs, right? True. But there are a couple of things that happen when you put your mind on the place that is tight. One is that the mind will allow the muscles to relax. Second, if you recall, your blood actually carries a fair amount of oxygen throughout your body. So, when you put your mind on a place where your body needs help you will be surprised that the body will subconsciously start to work on the place that you’ve put your mind. There is an appropriate saying in the Chinese art of Qi Gong. The saying is this: your chi flows where your mind goes…. And chi is energy

3. It's Not Just The Poses

Often beginning, intermediate and even advanced practitioners focus their attention on either getting the poses, the asanas, “right”, or moving further into the pose. Now, there is nothing wrong with either of these goals. That’s one reason we go to class, or to workshops… to take our practice further.

That said, let us recognize a few other aspects of yoga practice that can enrich our experience. First, every day that you come to class, or come to your mat, you bring a new body. Your body can be more flexible than it was last time. Or, perhaps it is sore from exercise or tired from an illness. It doesn’t matter. The best yoga practice comes when you acknowledge and appreciate your body in it’s current state. Don’t push yourself past where your body wants to go. You’ll know.

Second, the process of moving between asanas is JUST as important, if not more important, than is getting into “the posture“. It shouldn’t be pose – switch – pose – switch – pose. When you think about it, during a class or session you probably spend as much time in the process of flowing between poses as you actually do in the poses. The movement between asanas is also yoga. You use this time to breath and allow your breath to carry you from one place to another. You flow or float during your transitions.

The poses become a continuation of this flow where you are constantly in transition. You’ll start to notice that when you are in a pose that this moment is not a static event. Your breathing takes your further into each pose. The result? Your entire yoga session is one long dance form. It’s not salsa or square dancing, but you are moving, breathing – and having fun.

Third, you know that great feeling you get when you finish yoga and you are moving into savasana? Your body and mind are both awake and relaxed. You are in the moment. Everything is great. This feeling, sensation, awareness happens for everyone that does yoga. That’s why we come back to it. There is one mistake that you can make. That’s hoping, planning, wanting, expecting that your next yoga class will deliver exactly the same experience. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

Often yoga students try to recreate this sensation, or find a new one, by trying hard to learn as many poses as they can. Again, nothing wrong here. It’s just that with the right mind set, you can find infinite possibilities, awareness and growth with just a few poses – even one. It has been said that if you ever truly master Tadasana, Mountain Pose, you never need any other asana; and that Savasana, Corpse Pose, is the most difficult pose there is.

Just as our body is new every time we do yoga, so is our mental and spiritual state. If you try to re-create something two things happen. First, you definitely can’t do it. Second, your effort is itself a distraction to the current experience. Sooooooo, you will enjoy and stay with yoga a lot longer if you recognize that each time you do yoga creates the opportunity to have a unique experience.

If you can, try to bring a fresh mind to your practice and the asanas. When you do a common asana like Uttanasana, Standing Forward Bend; see if you can’t imagine this is your first time. How does it feel? Where are you tight? Can your breath change the pose today? Keep your mind aware of the very subtle aspects of your body, mind and spirit and each class, each asana will bring fresh discoveries.

4. Bring Yoga Into Your Life

This is where Yoga starts to get really exciting! Consider other forms of physical activity. Skiing. Bowling. Running. Swimming. Fishing. These are all great sports. But when we are engaged in them we are either in a specific location, like a ski slope or outside, or we are performing an activity that is difficult to practice when we disengage from the sport. Just on a physical level Yoga gives us flexibility and health benefits that carry forward into every moment of every day.

Of course it goes a little deeper. Yoga allows us to experience clarity and calmness. The flexibility that you create in your body begins to move into your mind and provides an opportunity to have flexible thinking.

The concept of “be present” relates as much to your yoga class as it does to everything else that happens outside of class. Consider this. If you are at work and you take the concept of “be present” with you, it is possible to have better meetings, better interactions with customers and colleagues, even better ideas. Let every moment both on and off the mat come alive with the flexibility, clarity and calmness that you create on the mat. Rarely do you hear someone say, “bring your swimming mind, your bowling mind into this conversation.” But your yoga mind, well this flexible mind can really shine.

5. Every Day Is Different

Let’s get one thing straight. It’s almost absurd to categorize your yoga practice as being at a level of beginner, intermediate or advanced. Who is to say what level you are at? And, as your body, mind and spirit open up and become more flexible, you find yourself moving your edge further on a continuum that has no real end.

It’s similar to the distinction between Western and Eastern philosophy which relates to all areas of life: sports, medicine, education, etc. In the West we like to image that we have problems with definitive solutions. We would be better on our sports team if we were only faster. This is the problem. So we work on being faster by strengthening our leg muscles. We have a headache and this is the problem. The solution is an aspirin.

Eastern thinking shows us that life is a bit more complex and that we are really at a certain condition at any point in time. So, being faster might encompass more than simply leg muscles. Perhaps it is the way we use oxygen. Or other aspects of our physical being that are all inter-related. Likewise, an aspirin may help the headache; but the root cause of the headache may be that we strain our neck muscles.

Yoga lets us look beyond the immediate “problem” and understand that our bodies, our entire lives, are in a state of constant transition. The body that you wake up with this morning is actually different than the body you have or will wake up with any other morning. And THIS is the body you want to acknowledge.

Likewise, the idea of “finishing” yoga; becoming the yoga heavyweight champion of the world is rather insane. You are always a beginner at some new aspect of your yogic practice. That is one aspect of yoga, which makes it such an exciting and worthwhile endeavor. It is personal; and each “level” of learning simply opens new doors. This could be very frustrating for anyone that wants to reach a goal, or complete a project. You are never done!

6. Your Energetic Body

Over time you will notice that a regular yoga practice provides you with more energy. Not only right after a practice, but throughout the day. This energy is a core aspect of what yoga can offer. Indeed, your practice can open up new perceptions about how your body, mind and spirit work, and are interconnected.
One of these perceptions relates to your energetic body. This esoteric sounding idea is quite simple really. In addition to moving blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout your system, your body moves energy (which is of course related to blood, oxygen and nutrients). In India the concept of energy, specifically as it relates to living organisms and the human body is known as prana. In china it is called “chi”. A detailed explanation of how this energy travels through your body; and how you can control it through use of your breath, is found in the sections on Chakras and Pranayama.

For now, it is sufficient to acknowledge that your body contains energy; and that you can open the flow of this energy, and increase your awareness and use of the energy that your body naturally provides. The clear advantage to natural energy is that it doesn’t have any of the nasty side effects of artificially created energy such as caffeine. Indeed, one reason to increase your flexibility through the practice of yoga is that flexibility and openness in your muscles can increase your awareness of your energetic body.

7. Going To Your Edge

After you’ve heard your yoga teachers say an unlimited number of times, “listen to your body” you start to realize that this is good advice. Our ego has a tendency to want to avoid this simple advice. Rather, the ego would like us to see how good we are. How do we compare to the other students in our class? Can we finally do full bridge? Or have our hands in reverse namaste during Parsva Uttanasana?

Every time you practice you will find that you have a different “edge” for different poses. An edge is that place just beyond where you naturally flow into a pose with proper alignment and you see where your body has taken you. You move into your natural comfort zone in a posture and then creep just a little beyond that point to let your body understand that there is a new place of comfort. Here, the ego can be a useful tool when you use it consciously. When you practice any yoga asana, and you go to your edge, ask yourself this question:

Are you using effort and willpower to push yourself, OR are you willing to soften yourself, relax and then move again to the edge?

Both techniques can move you further, but the second is significantly easier. Your edge should never involve any physical pain. If it does, back off because you may be hurting yourself!