What's important, is not what you are doing, but whether you can give total, undivided attention. By giving total attention to what you are doing, transforms your experience. That's the point!!

What was once intended to be a steady, comfortable and responsive position, has become a performance of shape making, lacking intelligence, openness and fluidity, leading to an ossification of posture. 

Vanda Scaravelli would always encourage students `not to impose on the body, but to follow it'. We should be patient, and move with its innate intelligence, this way, creating virtually no resistance.  

With awareness and patience, we gradually let go of what may be imposing upon these movements, dislodging our physical, emotional and psychological obstructions.

The most direct and transformative work we can do, is that which plays out in embodied awareness. This is where mind and body yield themselves up to an all inclusive, unifying awareness.

Embodied Awareness is drawing on the fact that our sense of self, is in the vital connection with our body. The physical practice increases our awareness, and not the sensation!

How we move, effects the way we feel, and how we feel, effects the way we move. There is an abundance of medical based evidence, confirming that how we move the body, can greatly effect the way we feel.

......doesn't mean you should.

Just because you can force the body in to shapes, doesn't mean it is going to help develop comfortable and steady movements, whilst quietening the mind.

We can often feel the disconnect between mind and body. This is in constant flux, and is deeply influenced by our current life circumstances. Perhaps a useful enquiry is, how we use the practice, to narrow the gap.

.........is engaged

The release of the body is not something the practitioner does. It is something that is given, when it coalesces in to a harmony and wholeness of movement. 

...not mechanistic. When we are distracted by mechanical alignment, we unnecessarily increase physical tension. When our interest is holistic alignment, we reduce physical tension.

Our ability to listen to the body is the primary objective. Other than the basic's are we able to understand the needs of the body. Contrary to popular belief, the body doesn't need to be continually stretched, but to be listened to!

We can often become distracted by where we want to be, rather than paying attention to where we are. Letting go of ambition, allows us to experience the deep joy of a personal yoga practice!

If balance and movement are to be functional, we must explore grounding, losing tension and paying attention, to promote mobility through stability.

We can assist the body in this undoing-ness, but ultimately, it has to come from the intelligence of the organism, and not from unnecessary effort. The body has to learn to undo and let go.

The word resolution comes from the latin root, solvere, meaning to loosen, melt or release.Yoga is something within us, that can't be sought externally. Therefore, if we resolve what is getting in our way, we reveal yoga.

Deep Yoga refers to our ability to let go, and drop in to the feeling of oneself, rather than our ability to push in to positions. This is a private, interconnected space, that is personal and immovable.  

How we meet the earth, informs the whole organism, allowing us to move with the slightest of effort. The parts of the body that are in contact with the ground are alive, and lightness comes from that contact.

By prioritising the breath, we are led from the physical practice, to a spiritual experience.

Being is the predominant experience.
As the movements are a local experience within the broader field of being, can we become comfortable and quiet enough to reveal this fact through our sensations.

The body uses its own language, and it is constantly talking to us. When the body communicates, it's always in the present moment. Many people are unable or unwilling to listen in their first language.........body.

Our ability to lose habitual tension in the body is an important part of the physical practice. Are we able to skilfully organise the bones, so our muscles have less work to do.

Yoga is defined by meditation, and meditation can only arise from a place of being. Therefore, we are learning to be.

When we get caught up in the pace of life, poses are rushed through, and as a result, there is little time to arrive, root down and be still. To cultivate a medative awareness, requires a slowly down, waiting and watching. 

Our bodies have evolved for ground based sitting. However, due to modern day living, the ball and socket joint of the hips, is being reduced to a hinge joint. Potentially, this can lead to poor health, and reduced mobility.

The word health or healing derive from the old English word, whole. Yoga is about complete wellbeing, or a reconnection to wholeness, and a retuning to health.

Yoga is experienced within space, when the noise and distractions subside. When this is realised, we can begin to slip in to a sense of space wherever we are. Our actions can either reveal is conceal our natural spaces.

The opportunity to bring mind to body, body to floor, and floor to breath in a meaningful way, is through sensitivity, and any form of bracing, prevents us from feeling the pathways within the body. 

Just listen to the body, let the breath touch the spine, and then move. You follow, you don't impose, you follow. (Sandra Sabatini)

Is there a way of dropping deeply towards the breath, and be moved by it.

Can we move towards postures, without relying on what we have done before, and see them through a beginners mind. If we can approach them in this way, we respond to what is happening in the present.

...........in other words, losing tension. When we lose tension, and are able to acknowledge free breathing, our voluntary movements make way for our involuntary movements. This is the beginning of a yoga practice.

When we are able to drop in to a quiet sense of self, we can just be a witness, without trying to change or pursue anything. Our practice provides a portal to enter this space.

Mechanical space provides the potential for freedom. The body moves in relationship to itself and our environment, communicating and organising itself within space. Can we support this potential? 

If we regularly explore our repertoire of movement, we are less likely to become fixed or limited to what we can do. Our Yoga mat provides the perfect space to make this enquiry.

If our intention is to reduce unnecessary muscular activity, and notice accumulated tension, then measured effort is vital.

When we give mind to body, there is no room for thought to form. The sensations within the body however, can draw us in and quieten the mind, or can potentially disturb and stimulate the mind. You choose!

When we find a place of maximum release, balance is a consequence. Equally, if we are unstable, tension and stiffness is a consequence. Here, we use this as our enquiry to deeper exploration.

A regular (daily!!) yoga practice is an essential way to check in on ourselves.We have been conditioned to clean our teeth twice daily, but there has been little encouragement to regularly reflect upon how we are doing.

Just to experience such sustained elemental stillness outwardly and the interior silence that can accompany it is ample reason for arranging ones life to cultivate and breathe this possibility. (JBZ)

We are becoming more reliant on outsourcing our senses, which in turn diminishes our ability to self regulate. Self regulation is essential for our health, and dropping in to our senses is maybe just what we need. 

It's in the releasing of muscles, which permits freedom of movement. The ability to find skeletal support through our points of contact, is a vital one, to unhindered movement.

With the understanding that our body is our unconscious mind, we should therefore enter the tissues with care, patience and self compassion. 

The asana (postures) are a container for an experience, and not a way of blindly repeating movements. if we are interested in yoga, we have to be interested in how we can refine our approach.

We will be richly rewarded by cultivating a regular practice throughout our lives. This is a proactive approach, rather than a reactive one!  

We are the postures, and therefore, the postures are moving, breathing and attending. They are not something we get in to and hold until we are told to come out.

Within every practice, I encourage students to respond to how they feel. This is the role of our nervous system, to inform us, and to keep us safe. This is often over looked as yoga students.

Can we meet the moment to moment breath and movement, by simply experiencing it in its fulness, rather than trying to add something extra.

When we are fully attentive, our minds don't accumulate, but simply observe what is. We are therefore not thinking, but experiencing.

In this practice, we explore how our feet provide the structural support for the whole body.

To establish smoother, more effortless balance, we must first find a strong and stable support. Only then, can we learn to fly.

​

 'Our seat/posture, must be steady and comfortable. The way to become steady and comfortable, is to relax unnecessary effort, move slowly, and be absorbed within our experience. Brute force is explicitly ruled out'.

If we resist change, it can make us mean and unwilling to adapt to what is. Eddie Stern, predominant yoga teacher, found this out to his own detriment of the unwillingness to let go of his Ashtanga practice. 

When we aim for a transformation that is too radical and threatening, or we seek to implement drastic habit changes too suddenly, our fight or flight response may kick in. Transformation is a long game.

The question needs changing to, 'how can I be'?, rather than, 'what can I do'? If our practice is approached with this attitude, it becomes simpler, more comfortable and a transformative experience. 

In and down takes us towards a felt sense of being under "our skin", beneath the descriptions, interpretations and reactions that usually clutter the mind. However, this is all dependent on how we approach the body!

As we age, we are less inclined to explore our full repotire of movement. Our practice should have a playful attitude, exploring all natural human movement, otherwise, this diminishes, and life can become more restricted.

......where you are.

If the goal of yoga is transformation, and not performance, perfection or repetition, then we must always begin, by meeting ourselves, where we are!

It is not uncommon to drag life's dramas on to our mat. When we simplify our approach, we are able to stop, before the drama starts.

It is common in modern postural yoga, that the shape has become the primary objective, and how we feel as we encounter the shape, as secondary.

Meditation is a way of being, not a technique. We don't learn to meditate, but we learn to listen, feel and move in a way that reveals a sensitive and intelligent way of being.

We reveal the key to our own rhythm, which is ancient and primal. It is there, but has been suffocated by so much doing and knowing. We gradually remove the layers, to find this primitive rhythm resurfacing once more.

We are not trying to get better at doing postures, but using the postures to feel-better!! Both through noticing how skilfully we can sense ourselves, and how that promotes feeling well.

When we are able to find our bones, muscles are able to relax and become responsive again. This allows us to find balance, and movement becomes smoother and effortless. We can refer back to our frame continually

In practice, we can witness the intuitive muscular or connective tissue response, when we surrender all ordinary effort.This provides a sustainable method for maintaining optimal function and movement. (Peter Sterios)

What once brought us to a yoga practice, may well have changed. It certainly has for me! Therefore, it's important to reflect on one's intentions from time to time, and to be clear on our how our practice is serving us.

The modern postural practice has often encouraged students in to the 'unbridled pursuit of unlimited flexibility'. Yoga is about how we relate to our body, not what we do with it. Let's befriend our limitations.

...........coalesces with a state of beingness

The postural practice invites us to find a place of being, and is not separate from this inner quality. Asana, Pranayama and mediation are seamless.

Logical progression is the acknowledgement, that many of the helpful earlier yoga applications and attitudes are no longer serving me or my students, and that we don't resist the ability to change and evolve.

Society defines us by what we acheive, not how we can be. My priority as a teacher and student is to find a way of being, within the scope of doing, as this is where the yoga is revealed.

....................and from sensitivity comes intelligence. This is revealed through being in the body, fully awake. Modern yoga encourages us to stretch and force the body, which dulls it, rather than awakens it. 

When exploring an unfolding from the ground, we can lighten ourselves, by giving depth and connection through our points of contact with the earth. This allows for a sense of stability, and a potential for movement. 

.....for the spiritual. In other words, the body work reveals that which is none physical.The breath (spiritus) has both physical and none physical qualities, voluntary and involuntary.

As we continue from last week, with the understanding that yoga is defined by meditation, balance can help us explore relaxed effort and allowing things to happen, as we finally get out of our own way. 

Yoga is about coming to our senses. So, as we move towards a sense of self, a gentle approach is necessary, otherwise, we just repeat old unhelpful patterns, which block potential for sensitivity

Does our physical practice, draw us inwards towards a sense of being, or are we distracted by the physical doing. The work is developing a quiet mind, rather than perfecting postures, and as a result, a potential for stillness.

Range of movement should come by itself, and not as a priority. Our ROM is inevitable, our quality of experience is not. The potential for a quality of experience is only through our ability to remain attentive to our actions.

We start from experience, and not ideas. This is where we meet ourselves, from the reality of where we are. When we give time for this enquiry, our practice becomes kind, and uncomplicated.

When we try to align ourselves with some external criteria, we bring about tension and conflict, but when we find support and lose tension, we have the potential to reveal our personal alignment.

.................support our involuntary movements.

Our actions can invariably stifle the breath and body. This happens when we lose attention and our practice becomes mechanical. It also occurs from the need to keep doing. 

It begins with a willingness to listen. Take the same attitude of kindness, as you would to a friend in need. Listen, with patience and compassion, and the body will respond in an incredible way.

The word yoga derives from the Sanskrit word, meaning union. This may appear to be something we have to find outside of ourselves. This couldn't be further from the truth. It's a revealing rather than an obtaining.

We are a response to our environment, and we live in a culture of speed. Therefore, it's no surprise we can feel overwhelmed and disorientated in life, due to this fact. We have to rebalance our lives!

The Asana (postures) are there to support our practice. No matter what the Asana, if these disturb, they are exercises, and not part of a Yoga practice. Are you able to take the quietness with with?

Authenticity is the degree to which our actions are consistent with our experience. This, is a personal practice, to which we are able to respond to how we feel, and lose the idea of making shapes, based on another's authority.

Breathing is autonomic, not cognitive. We can access a quieter  and more comfortable breath process by losing tension, and reducing what interferes with it, rather than trying to learn new patterns of breathing.

This is a personal favourite! How much force/effort is required within the postural practice. When we really understand yoga is yoga, and not exercise, we begin to realise excessive force is dangerous and unnecessary 

Mr Duffy lived a short distance from his body. (James Joyce, Dubliners). Does this sound familiar? Life fragments us, and our practice can draw us back to a steady and unified sense of being.

The metaphorical layers (Koshas), are gradually revealed through a kind, compassionate, and sustained approach. Most of yoga philosophy is through experience as a consequence of our approach.

If being active is one of the strongest correlation's to a healthy life, then I would argue Yoga is well placed to explore not just movement, but the ability to increase our movement repertoire. 

We are so caught up in accomplishing and achieving, that the opportunity to find time to settle, is an important part of my approach. 

This is a continuation of the previous weeks class, involving a kinder and more skilful approach to the shoulders.

Our main source of dissipating tension is through a steady and comfortable support. Support underpins our movement, including the breath. In this class, we explore this understanding.

Attention is where we begin our journey. Without our primary tool of attention, we are in danger of mechanically going through the motions. With the practice, we cultivate this vital quality of attention.

During this practice, I encourage you to use sensations to guide you, rather than trying to prefect positions. This has been a long time distraction of many students, and only acts as an obstacle.

We often get in our own way, when it comes to movement. How much of what we bring to our movement, is habit and tension, rather than just the right amount of effort. We explore this during the class.

A beautiful quote of Martha Graham's, All that is important is this one moment. Make the moment vital and worth living. Don't let it slip away unnoticed or unused. 

We often perceive more accurately when we close the eyes, and wake up to what is present within us.

This is what makes our practice relevant to how it helps us lead a fuller life. Being comfortable around functional movement is key to this approach.

.........can be easily confused.

Stiffness is usually associated with over doing, and stifles the body, whereas stillness, is revealed by letting go in to the body's innate intelligence, enlivening our senses.

wheel, just changing how we approach it!
By surrendering the weight of the body to the ground, the most complicated of movements, can be received with ease.

If this is our intention, it changes from, going through the motions, to a moving meditation, which is the same thing as moving, only you know that you are moving!

Natural movement is aligned with the innate intelligence of the body.
Rather than being forced, it is received, not based upon a set of ideas or principles, but by using bottom up processing.

...................than our doing

When we stop doing, we inevitably come in to a state of being!

Movement will be accepted by the body, when it is done without any resistance.

Meditation is often described as listening with ones mind. However we must listen with not only the mind, but the whole being. Relaxing in to bodily experience, and being attentive to what arises, is our most natural state.

"Either the goal of yoga is to be free, or the goal of yoga is to get it right. You can't have it both ways. Because if you choose freedom, you have to divest yourself of that crazy idea that you have to get it right" (Leslie Kaminoff)

The yoga is not something we obtain externally, we reveal it internally, through gentleness. This isn't dependant on achieving postures and repeating old habits, but really paying attention to how we get there.

...it's performative. When we develop a personal practice, we move in accordance to how we feel. We it's performative, we move in accordance to how we think.

 .......boredom. How we feel as we encounter movement can sustain our curiosity. Experiencing is movement, and through acknowledging the subtle involuntary movements, the mind can become settled.

The ever increasing pace of life, can feel over whelming and inescapable. However, if we can come back to our primal qualities, of breath, ground, sensation and awareness, we can begin to effectively self regulate, once more!

As we meet the floor with commitment, the body lets go of its holding patterns, leading us to effortless movement, and a stilling of mind and body. 

........not postures. 

A practice begins with presence. A quality of presence is available to us wherever we are, and is not exclusive to a yoga mat. However, this can be a useful place to start.

The source of alignment is born out of our ability to be quiet, and sensitive enough to move with what is presented, rather than imposing an idea upon ourselves. Unnecessary effort will only ever obstruct that source.

Both grounding and gravity are consistently available to us all. We can begin to deepen and simplify our practice when we use what nature is already providing.

When we do, the outer tissues are more involved. When things happen involuntary, the deeper tissues are involved, allowing the outer tissues to become quieter. This draws us in, towards the subtle body.  

Life can often feel threatening and overwhelming, causing our body to stiffen, closing down our inner spaces.Our practice should honour this, and move in to our inner spaces with lightness and respect.

In our culture of mind-body bifurcation, many of us have been accustomed to ignoring the body's messages. A regular inner, compassionate listening of ones body, can begin the much needed process of healing.

The mind cries out, explains, demonstrates, protests; but inside me, a voice rises and shouts at it, "be quiet, mind, let us hear the heart!"
Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco 

Can we drop in to our felt sense, and function from the space surrounding the breath and heart. We mustn't be reckless when exploring this space, but tread carefully through it. 

.......unless experienced
Yoga was happening way before any texts were written upon the subject, so the philosophies can only confirm what we experience through practice.

We should never underestimate the importance of functioning from a place of authenticity. When we function from this place, our actions are consistent with our experience and understanding. 

The practice of yoga is defined by meditation. Physical postures can cut through the clutter that clogs up the mind, but the most powerful methods lead us to one simple position.

It can be easy to disturb ourselves during a practice, if our perception becomes clouded. What ever choices we make, can ultimately take us away or towards suffering, as all sensation lead to one experience. 

Wellbeing is defined as, 'the state of being comfortable and healthy'. We are a culture of doing, rather than being. Yoga is the changing of our inner state, and self regulation. 

We balance voluntary organisation, to reveal involuntary responses. (John Stirk) We then begin to learn from the resistance of the superficial tissues, to reveal the inner intelligence. 

As we explore a deepening sensitivity, we feel more through being totally attentive to what we feel.  The skill is to allow the sensations in, with as little mental interference as possible. Otherwise our good intentions are misplaced.

In the words of Ray Bradbury, American Sci-Fi author, "Learning to let go, should be learned before learning to get". This is a powerful message for life, and also how we approach a physical yoga practice. 

............and the body cannot be forced! When we try to force a subtle outcome, we simply obstruct that potential. The voluntary movements, make way for the involuntary movements.

 As Ram Das quoted, "The greatest thing you can do for another human being, is to get your own house in order, and find your true spiritual heart". Yoga is a gift!!.

Nothing exists in isolation. However, so often modern yoga takes on this approach to parts of the organism, rather than the whole. Can we integrate movement throughout, rather than just pushing, pulling and forcing.

Tissues, articulations and sensations are all a leap off point for a potential yoga experience. If we continually push against the body, we simply can't move beyond it. Cultivating patience, evokes an invitational quality.

When we become so distracted in trying to get somewhere, we actually forget the importance of slowing down and paying attention to how we feel. This is an important life lesson.

Can we discriminate between support, effort and tension? It's not about what muscles we need to engage, but how well we meet support, and loose habitual tension through that enquiry. 

Yoga has the potential to restore our wellbeing, range of movement, health and energy. If that potential isn't being met, it isn't yoga.

A physical asana practice is helpful in allowing us to sense what is going on, how we feel and how we respond to those sensations. Ultimately, these skills are transferable to how we our lives.

The skill of our practice is about noticing and tending to anything that disturbs our ability to remain introceptively quiet.

What we experience is not through knowledge, but through our ability to sense ourselves continually, from a quiet and kind attentiveness.

Yoga is primarily a way out of suffering. Therefore, we should not be reckless with our body, in order to perform postures. Pain is a very clear sign that something needs to change.

Our nervous system has evolved to keep us informed and safe within the world. Through our nervous system, we sense ourselves as a starting point to any yoga practice. This is explored throughout the class.

Due to emotional reflexes within the body being continually triggered by life's events, it's no wonder that the shoulders need a little more attention. Here is an opportunity to be more attentive to their needs.

Do we have a practice which cultivates a sense of space within ourselves, rather than trying to fill these voids. We take the opportunity to reflect on this important approach, and acknowledge ourselves with space. 

Life seems to be getting faster, and we can often feel if we don't keep up, we may loose our way. If we really want to learn and understand these habits, we have to slow down and drop in this alternative backdrop.

I feel uncomfortable around the word meditation, as it been taught as something we do. On the contrary, it's a by product of paying attention to our actions.

Not through aggressive backends, but by becoming quiet and sensitive enough, to what we may be resisting. This is a natural response to stress and disorientation. We explore a comfortable and kind approach.

We often get frustrated by expecting to feel a certain way. Yoga is a helpful way to observe how we really are, rather than expecting to be something we are not.

How refreshing to let go of the distractions of our responsibilities for 75 minutes, and reorientate ourselves towards something consistent, and effortless.

This 15 minute self reflective practice is seated, and allows us to drop in to where we are without any expectations.