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. Imagine yourself awaiting sunrise at dawn. As the sun rises, you feel its warmth. You open your arms, inviting its warmth into you with literally open arms. In yoga sun greetings, we replicate this action as we open our arms and open our heart centre.
But this can be a vulnerable position in terms of defending ourselves- physically, mentally, and emotionally. It takes strength, awareness, but also courage to sustain such an open posture. For many of us, it is not a familiar way to hold our bodies, so it can help to consider how to assist ourselves. As always, the breath is with us to help open us up. We can deploy Uddiyana Bandha, drawing belly muscles inward and upward, to contain the breath higher up in the chest cavity. We can contract the back muscles, rolling shoulders back and drawing shoulder blades toward each other, to direct air to the front side of the body. Like squeezing an end of a balloon, we increase the pressure in the remaining area, the front chest. Then as we fill the lungs, the expansion opens our heart centre further. As we work to open our hearts in classes this week, our asanas gradually become more demanding. So the challenge becomes to keep that open heart when things get difficult- a metaphor for life perhaps! Outside the yoga class, you would look a bit odd doing all of this, and I would not encourage you to habitually hold in your belly! But you can develop the habit of rolling your shoulders back and down, and lifting your gaze, perhaps whenever you are walking. This open hearted posture will resonate in the energy you project to those who cross your path, especially if you throw in a smile! In Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates speaks of the breath as a bridge between body and spirit. He reminds us of our capacity to use it to still the restlessness in our body, our mind, or both.
Full attention to the breath and the pauses between the breath draw us into now, the present moment. We are released from the burdens of the past and worries for the future. This also applies in our asana work. There is no end game, no final pose we strive to achieve and no sense of failure in past attempts. Instead, each and every breath and pause becomes a thread that weaves a wiser, more thoughtful practice. During our asana practice, neural connections are being created, our body and mind are learning how to work together harmoniously instead of fighting against each other. The breath is the bridge, the mediator. So stay attentive to the work being done in each moment as you breathe in and breathe out. Keep a lightness of spirit. The natural by-product becomes a practice which is truly a moving meditation. In our asana practice, often our attention is consumed with a myriad of alignment and grounding details. But as we get to know the poses, it creates more mind space to take our awareness to new places. We explored this last week, noticing where we can take the breath to in different asanas. We will continue this in classes this week.
Our asana practice has the potential to improve our respiratory function, but we need a level of awareness of our baseline, and the ability to feel how the breath and body respond when we consciously alter how we breathe during our asana practice. So take time in your practice to feel the breath, and to notice what small changes you can make to develop its capacity. Inspired by my Dorset yoga workshop with Joey Miles last week, I wanted to bring into classes this week a refocus on the breath. How do we know if we have opened ourselves up fully to receive the breath? As we sit or lay at the start our practice, hands lightly placed at the belly can assist. Ensure clothing is not restricting this area. First feel and notice any muscle contractions, any gripping in this area- exaggerate it so you begin to learn where you natural hold on. Then cultivate softness at the belly as you relax the muscles on the inhale, to create space for the breath to move into.
If you think you have relaxed the area fully, challenge this assumption. On the next exhale, gently contract the area and then as the inhale begins, try to relax the area even more. Stay with the breath as you feel into softness with the inhale. Then move awareness to the sides, is there softness here too? Stay attentive as you explore how to let go to find space. Then let awareness glide around to the side body, the back, higher up into the abdomen and then up into the chest. Keep scanning your awareness to find additional space for the breath to open into. As we work with the breath in our asana practice, we have competing demands on our attention. So find time to draw awareness back to the breath. Whatever pose you find yourself in, feel where there is space to take the breath. In twists, one lung will feel more constricted, so move the breath more into the other side and take it higher up into the chest. Be aware of how you can play with the breath: explore where you can take it and be curious. Take your breath to new spaces and feel how it changes your practice. Now we’ve dug into our ground, let’s explore re-establishing our base when we uproot ourselves. In our practice, we learn to fluidly re-establish new roots as we move from one asana to the next; to not let it throw us off balance and disturb our sense of stability and harmony. As you move and re-ground, assess whether you are planting yourself optimally, or whether you can make small changes to get better purchase. Sense and feel into it, adjust as needed. And from strong roots, trust in your ability to extend away from your firm base, with a calm vitality, enjoying where it takes you.
How do we know if we are well grounded? What does it provide us with? Consider how we may feel when we lose our ground, when we feel uprooted: insecure, a need to be on our guard, wary and defensive, vulnerable. We may find ourselves being overly critical of ourselves and perhaps others. Or we may latch onto a mooring to make us feel more stable. This could be friends, familiar routines, even food that soothes us.
What do we associate with a sense of being well grounded? A sense of vitality yet with inner calm, comfortable in our own skin, a sense of openness and trusting, ability to stand on our own two feet. So in your asana practice, be well grounded, notice if you start to lose your ground and stand firm again. Explore ways to maximise this sense of grounding, embody it. Breathe... feel your connection to the earth and rely on it, use it, play with it, learn how to maximise it within each asana. Create firm roots for long shoots. |
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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