Our Chakra energy continues to rise with our sixth centre, Ajna- to perceive, to command. Element light, we seek illumination as opposed to illusion. We express our right to clarity: to see clearly, with truth. Located at our eyebrow centre, this space is often referred to in yoga as the Third Eye. It is one of our gaze points, or drishti. As we soften our gaze or close our eyes, our third eye can become clearer: we can better connect to our in-sight when there is less distraction.
Balanced energy at the sixth chakra brings characteristics of perception, trust in our own intuition, ability to think symbolically and recognise patterns, and to visualise. These attributes assist enormously in distinguishing illusion from reality, and along with other chakra energies, give us the courage and strength to see what is, as opposed to what we wish or want. We all carry with us patterns of behaviour both mental and physical that are shaped by our upbringing, friends, occupations, environment, health, etc. We carry with us our self image, which is multi-faceted; spouse, parent, child, friend, skilled professional, etc. The behaviours we adopt for these roles can become habit. Without insight, we enter the illusion that these roles are who we are. We’ve grasped onto the illusion, invested in it and have become bound up by it. Our yoga helps us to see these patterns. With awareness, comes choice. In our practices this week, we use Nadi Shodhana to help balance prana energy. We focus on the pattern within simple vinyasa sequences, perhaps experience some apprehension as external prompting fades away and we become our own guide. We make decisions for ourselves: choice of asana, how to work within poses, when to rest, where to take it. We learn to listen to our inner voice, trust in our own wisdom, challenge patterns in our practice. So empower yourself to make positive changes, to loosen binds, and to experience a sense of freedom. Create space and light for your true self to shine through. Our last week of full classes before the holidays is perfect timing to bring awareness to our hearts, the location for our fourth chakra, Anahata (unstruck chord). Element air and vayu prana draws energy into us as we express our right to love and be loved. When lost or denied, we experience grief.
Our balanced heart chakra gives us compassion and empathy, providing love to others as well as ourselves. In caring for ourselves, we support a good immune system, feel peaceful and balanced, able reach out to others. We connect to rising chakra energies with flowing vinyasas to bring focus to our heart. With stability, fluidity and power, we dispense with the need to shield and protect ourselves, ready to open our hearts, to be uplifted. We finish our practice with a chocolate (or raisin) meditation, engaging all our senses to fully appreciate it, without haste. A timely reminder as we head into our festivities to slow down, savour each moment, let it linger. Give yourself the gift of now this holiday season. Namaste. Our energy focus moves higher this week with the third chakra, Manipura, city of jewels. Located at our solar plexus region, we connect to the element fire and samana vayu to bring transformation: the nourishment we draw into us needs the power of conversion to fulfil its purpose- digestion and assimilation, will power and confidence.
This chakra represents our right to act as an individual and be our unique selves: to shine like a polished gem. To suppress or reject this is to experience a sense of shame with our self. Balanced energy here shows a person with self esteem who is in touch with their sense of personal power to meet life’s challenges. Combining warmth with confidence, they possess self discipline to realise their purpose, yet retain a sense of spontaneity and humour. Our chakras energies build upon each other and are interwoven. The stability and movement we explored in the lower two chakras shine more brightly when we harness the power of our third chakra energy. In our practice, we work to activate this power centre, alternately relaxing then engaging to stoke the fire within, like a bellows fanning the flames. When the fire burns brightly, feel its impact in each asana to better support stability and movement and feed the body with energy as you support full breath. Also notice the change in energy as we move into more restorative poses. With calm vitality, shine bright! Svadhisthana (sweetness) brings movement and flow, the element water. Located at the sacrum, which connects spine to pelvis, this energy forms connections, linking stability with sensate exploration of the world- through touch, emotion, locomotion. It signifies our right to feel and to have pleasure in our lives. When this is denied, we experience guilt. Balanced energy here reveals a person with healthy boundaries who embraces life’s pleasures yet shows agility in adapting to change. They possess the grace of emotional intelligence to nurture themselves and others.
Flow and connection brings the vital air of vyana vayu, sending energy from our core out to the periphery with stability and fluidity. Through our yoga, we can notice anywhere that feels blocked or stuck- in body, breath, or mind. As you extend your breath, let everything slow down: take time to find the stable ground you need to be able to embrace fluid movement. Bring awareness without judgement: sense expansion and openness and feel the energy flow within. Muladhara Chakra, is our root support, located at the base of the spine. Grounding energy, its element is earth. The vayu associated with it is apana, our downward, expelling energy. This first Chakra signifies our right to exist and have our basic needs met. Where this support is missing, we experience fear. If we consider the attributes of a well grounded person, we see someone comfortable in their own skin, with a sense of vitality and contentment with their life choices.
When building any stable structure, we need to start from the ground up. Foundations are dug deep into the earth: we may not see them, but their integrity and strength are fundamental to realising the full potential of what rises up from it. Soil conditions vary, impacting the choice of materials and their ability to load bear. Creative solutions may need to be found to stay true to the vision of the edifice, or compromises may need to be made. What was the ground like when you dug your own foundations? What circumstances and environments promote your sense of security, safety, being nourished and loved? What throws you off balance- physically, mentally, and emotionally? What protection or defences do you deploy to regain or maintain your ground? What consequences do they have? Through yoga, we can bring awareness to our own grounding tendencies and their implications. Do we keep digging in, reluctant to expand upward? Or do we neglect stability as our attention is drawn to creating? In our asana work, we play with our grounding- first shallow foundations, then deeper. Learn to notice the difference, and the impact it has. How light or heavy does it feel, how stable? As we strengthen our roots, feel a lightness come into the pose higher up. The downward energy feeds into upward flow. Keep your ground, as you reach for the sky. Balance, harmony, unity. We move on to another energetic model used in yoga philosophy, the Chakras. I have heard and read many descriptions of the chakras, from cryptic to crudely simplistic. Some provide vivid imagery rooted in Indian traditions and symbols used to illuminate key aspects of the chakras. I have been drawn to a more psychodynamic approach as in Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith (be warned- it is quite intense!). This may not resonate with you. If you are interested in learning more, there are countless resources out there and online to delve into. Learning a little bit more about the Chakra model in the coming weeks, you have the opportunity to discover if it may be a help to you. It may or may not, and either is fine- just keep an open mind.
Chakra, or wheel, describes movement of energy. Energy flows along a central column, up and down with key energy points along it. We use these points to observe energy flows into, out of, and within the body. This helps us identify where better balance and harmony can be found, so it gives us some guidance on where to focus our attention. Having worked with the vayus in prior weeks, we are familiar with this idea of energy moving in many directions. The strength and direction of these flows are constantly shifting, both influencing and influenced by internal and external factors. We are tapping into subtle energies, but they manifest themselves in ways that we can observe, learn from, and work with- if we take the time to notice. They cover the physical, mental / emotional, as well as spiritual aspects of our lives: it is a holistic approach. Over the coming weeks, we will work with the seven chakra model. This week, we begin to familiarise ourselves with the locations of each chakra, notice how certain asanas emphasis one or two chakra whilst others integrate them more fully. We become aware of different sensations along this energy path for us, starting to notice aspects of our own energy functioning in these locations. In the weeks that follow, we delve more deeply into each of them. We physically explore them through our asana practice but this impacts our mental and emotional state too. Using the ability to be our own witness, we may begin to notice the relative attributes of our own energy centres and find ways to move ourselves to better balance. That is the theory. You choose whether to put it into practice. Did I mention there were five vayu energy flows? Well, here comes number four, Udana vayu. Rising above the prana heart centre into the neck and head, this energy circulates through this area, nourishing the brain and higher consciousness. The focal area is at the throat, where we seek to be understood through communication, aided by our senses.
Udana vayu is key in our growth and vitality- physically with healthy functioning of the thyroid and parathyroid glands, but also emotionally and spiritually through healthy self expression. Imbalances may appear as excessive or inappropriate speech, or tight lipped and inexpressive. Ujjayi “victorious” breath through our practice aids focus and control of air by the sound at the throat. We move awareness to the throat in cat pose then move it to samana vayu in the belly for cow, as energy flows along the spine, up and down with prana and apana energy. Heart opening poses move energy into neck and throat with camels and bows. Inversions bring awareness to the need to find space at the throat but also the back of the neck. Off the mat, use your udana energy to lift from your heart upward to the head, whether seated or standing. Like a turtle emerging from a shell, engage with your surroundings and connect to the energy all around you. Be uplifted! It’s up, down, all around. But we have the ability to track onto an energy flow and move more energy in our chosen direction. You set the intention and follow it. In classes this week we follow convergent flows deep into us to experience samana vayu, located at our navel centre. Samana vayu’s energy is used to process and distil the nourishment we draw into ourselves- food, air, information, experiences. It is a concentrating force.
So how do we access it? We can redirect our apana energy in the pelvis upwards into our navel centre with the help of our Uddiyana Bandha- our “flying upwards” lock. This draws our abdominal organs inward and lifts them, locking and concentrating the energy. We can send some of our prana energy in our heart centre downward with the help of the exhale. Like building pressure in a container, the energy gathered in the navel centre creates heat and power that we can explore in our yoga asanas. Twists are a great way to draw our awareness to and activate this energy, as are forward folds. Our counterposes teach us to notice the energy dissipation here and help us restore balance. Use your practice time to explore focused effort, but also its release, the ability to let it go when it is not needed. Carry this skill with you off the mat: give each activity your full attention and devotion. But know when it is finished, and take a few mindful breaths as you let it go- from your body, mind, and emotions. Cleanse yourself of it, ready to apply fresh focus to whatever comes next. We interact with the energy around us whether we are aware or not. So let’s focus on that life energy we draw into ourselves that nourishes us- with air, food, ideas, love.
This week we consider the vital air of prana vayu. Prana with a BIG P is the energy that animates all beings. Yoga philosophy breaks these down into 5 flows which helps bring our awareness to different aspects of this energy within us. We touched upon apana vayu last week. This week, we focus on prana vayu, the flow that draws this Prana energy into the body. Our heart and lungs become the focal area for prana, feeding our cardio respiratory system, our life blood. Pranayama practices help us to alter this energy interaction, and we learn to modify and control it according to our needs. This week our asana practice focuses on channelling our breath to open our heart centre. Maintaining a firm foundation with apana’s downward energy, we can harness the prana flow to bring lift and lightness, vitality and flow. I was watching Leslie’s Kaminoff’s video clip on building your asana from the ground up http://yogaanatomy.net/bos/.
He reminds us (with some humour thrown in) of the grounding energy of gravity, and the need to have stable foundations to build up from, or gravity will pull them back down. (Think leaning tower of Pisa). Our bodies are a microcosm of these same forces, and the vayus, vital airs or energies within us and around us, also have a role to play in keeping us grounded- physically but also mentally and emotionally. We can harness Apana vayu’s downward energy to stay grounded, especially when there are active rising energies trying to uproot us. Autumn winds can leave us feeling scattered and unsettled, so digging our roots deeper can help pull us back to our centre. But each of us will find our equilibrium in a different place so it makes sense our foundations of support will also be different. Whilst we can approach the stance of an asana similarly, you then need to find your own ground, play with what feels most stable and not get distracted by what is happening higher up in the asana- that can come later, be patient! So have a clear vision of the edifice you are creating with your asana to determine the foundation you will need to support it and then start building from the ground up. As your asana rises up, renew the strength in your ground. Keep these forces in balance and you may be amazed by how far you can go. |
AuthorRuth is a yoga therapist and yoga teacher based in Cheltenham, UK. She emphasises yoga as a tool for well-being, for individuals and in her classes, in person or via zoom. Archives
October 2023
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