Back to Breath/ Back to Body

...you have a mind and a body that are currently inhaling and exhaling in a gravitational field. Therefore, you can benefit immensely from a process that enables you to think more clearly, breathe more effortlessly, and move more efficiently.  This is in fact our starting point and our definition of yoga practice: the integration of mind, breath and body.
Leslie Kaminoff

Are You in your body?

Are you aware at this very moment, what your body is doing, feeling, sensing? Of course, when I ask that question, you are likely to stop and start searching the body to see how it feels, right?  But prior to that question...you might have forgotten the body you are in.  Heck, you might have forgotten you had a body at all.

We often get so lost in our busy minds and our  constant doing that we lose touch with our bodies. We become like those heads in bell jars viewed in some old horror movies. We are all mind.

When we are not in our bodies we are not in the present moments of our lives...heck we are not truly living.  Your body is what gives you what we call human life.  Without breath,  heartbeat, neuronal firing, activation of the trillions of cells in it, and the circulation of all its components... where would you be?   I believe your consciousness would be( Yep!  I am one of those.) but you would not be a human being without the human component of you.

The body is what allows us to experience this world.  It definitely doesn't define us but it is an important tool in our being human. When we disconnect from it and live in our heads, we are not experiencing life in this moment.

We need to get back to breath and then back to body. 

Yoga: A Way to Get Us Back To What is Important

I practice and teach yoga and mind-body integration is what hatha yoga is all about

I begin each yoga practice ( after a quick warm up...don't stretch cold muscles !!! lol) with pada bandha...a grounding technique.  I make the students aware of the triangle created by three points on the bottom of their feet ( Leslie Kamonoff) and to visualize that they are being rooted into the earth with those points.  I also get them to imagine a long sturdy chord on the top of their head that pulls them up toward the sky.  From this position they are encouraged to breathe.  As they breathe  I want them to be mindful of the belly expanding on each in - breath, a quick pause, and then the belly contracting on each out - breath.

We then do a quick body scan from the souls of their feet all the way up to the top of the head so they can feel and become aware of each muscle they will be stretching in the upcoming asanas. I need them to remain in their bodies while we  are moving so no injury occurs and so they get all  the relaxing, calming and centering  effects of yoga. I will not begin a practice without doing this.

At any time

I would encourage people to begin a yoga practice during tis time of isolation.  There are so many great teachers on line.

Even if you don't want to do yoga full out, we can all do this little grounding exercise throughout our day just so that we have moments of body-mind integration at least. 

We are going to slip away

We are bound to forget and slip out of our bodies and into our minds throughout the day.  But if we can keep bringing ourselves back we will be  partaking in a very noble and healing practice of mindfulness and awareness. 

Keep coming Back

Just keep coming back...to breath.  When you feel stressed or super busy take a moment and breathe...feel that breath going in and out.

When you are sitting for hours at the  computer make it a point to stop every now and again, schedule intervals if you have to...to breathe, ground with your feet, stretch up tall with the crown of your head and just quickly go through your body to see how it feels.  Just notice any tension, numbness, tingling, pain...don't worry about naming it or judging it or coming up with a story about why you feel what you feel...just notice it.

Keep coming back.

So you are going to slip away from body and breath awareness...that is a given.  But the moment you realize you slipped away...you are already back. 

So breathe and scan...and breathe and scan again and again throughout the day.  I guess there is even an app for that? But you don't need an app or a meditation bell going off every fifteen minutes as it does in monasteries to remind the  monks and nuns to become mindful ...just do your best to keep bringing yourself back...again and again and again.

Keep coming back to breath and body and you will be doing a great thing for you and the entire world!

All is well

Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews (2012)  Yoga Anatomy Second Edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics.