Returning To Self Through The Third Limb Of Yoga - Asana's (Postures)

This week on our journey through the 8 limbs of yoga, we are delving into asana’s or postures.

The sanskrit word Asana means to sit quietly and inhabit to “sit in a particular position”

Asana’s is likely the part of yoga that you are most familiar.

Patanjali encourages us to carry out our postures with steadiness, stability, firmness.

In a world full of busy ness and movement of both body and mind, the drive to succeed, consumerism and more it is so nourishing, uplifting and vital for your mental, physical and spiritual health to take at least a few moments in your day to still your body and mind. Asanas really give you that time to come home to yourself, to reconnect consciously to the divine within, through movement.

In the 2004 Wellbeing book Yoga Balance Strength Harmony it reads “ Through the practice of asanas one naturally comes to experience and be in harmony with infinity. The more effortlessly asanas are practised the more easily this harmony can be experienced. Asanas when practised with full awareness, purify the body and mind and leave you with a feeling of expansion and lightness Each asana works to open channels of energy in the body, and in doing so releases blockages and tension held in the physical, mental and emotional realms”

“There are two types of asanas: static and dynamic. Static asanas are held for a period of time with no movement: the body remains as still as possible. These asanas have a powerful effect on the life force (prana) and mental state, gently massaging the internal organs, glands and muscles and relaxing the nerves to bring tranquility to the mind. Dynamic asanas, which are more energetic, speed up circulation and loosen the muscles and joints, releasing energy blocks and removing stagnant blood from different parts of the body. They tone the skin and muscles, strengthen the lungs and encourage movement in the digestive system” wellbeing.com.au

We spend a lot of time denying our emotions, avoiding our feelings. There are many ways this may manifest in our lives such as mindlessly scrolling through social media, over consuming material items (emotional buying) over consumption of alcohol or food (emotional eating) and more.

A regular asana practice can help you to close out the external world, tune in to your body, mind and emotions and gives you the space to sit with yourself, slow down and reflect on areas of discomfort, acknowledge your emotions, giving you space to feel and release them.

Emotions have the capacity to block our energy field and meridians in our body and can over time cause disease or discomfort.

As an article at www.time.com titled

Ignoring your emotions is bad for your health and What to do about it, here’s the link:

https://time.com/5163576/ignoring-your-emotions-bad-for-your-health/ it says:

Emotional stress, like that from blocked emotions, has not only been linked to mental ills, but also to physical problems like heart disease, intestinal problems, headaches, insomnia and autoimmune disorders.

Many of us have rarely if ever taken the time to sit with ourselves and breathe, tune in and take moments of silence and reflection and it is a wonderful and powerful way to release these blockages. Our breath moves us and our bodies, when we are in times of stress or overwhelm we tend to hold or restrict our breathing, the way we breathe can be truely healing and a very powerful way to release tension stress and emotions in our bodies. Simply becoming conscious of your breath, “how am I breathing now, is it flowing with ease on the inhale and exhale” The breath or prana is our very life force, it also brings life to our asanas.

Our breath also brings life to our postures and we will cover more on breath awareness next week in our 4th limb pranayama.

The main postures used in yoga are:

Sitting

Meditation/relaxation

Standing

Balancing

Back bending

Forward folding

Hip openers

Inversions

Core strengtheners

Twisting

We have mentioned the benefits of sitting postures (lotus, hero, bound angle, staff poses) and being mediative and relaxed in the pose, tuning into the breath and taking time to release pent up, stagnant emotions, lets look at:

Standing Poses

With all our asanas we are encouraged to find stillness and balance.Standing poses are wonderful for improving your core stability, balance and flexibility plus stretching and lengthening important large muscle groups such as your quadriceps and calf muscles. Standing poses help you feel grounded and connected to the earth and gain a greater sense of steadiness.

Balancing Poses (mountain, chair, tree)

Some of the benefits of balancing poses are they strengthen your muscles

increases bone density, improves posture, increases mindfulness, mental focus and body awareness plus holding them builds confidence and determination

Back Bends (bridge, camel, cow, phinx)

Back bends are invigorating and strengthening, helping to open the heart centre releasing grief anger her hatred and tension both physical and mental. Back bends help in decreasing stress and anxiety and increases spine flexibility, stretches abdominal muscles and helps to strengthen your back.

Forward Folding (Standing forward fold, downward facing dog, childs pose)

Forward folds aid in stimulating your kidneys and liver while enhancing digestion. Forward folds bring calmness to the mind, reducing stress and tension. They lengthens the spinal column, stretch the back of your legs and back muscles, massages digestive organs, increase circulation to your spleen pancreas liver intestines and kidneys.

Hip Openers (low lunge, happy baby, camel, frog)

We use our hips for so many of our daily movements from sitting to picking something up off the floor. Hips are also where emotions can be stored they are the storage area for negative feelings and pent up emotions especially in relation to control in our lives. Working on the deep tissue and myofascia in this area can release both physical and emotional stress in the body plus improve your posture and reduce stress.

The muscle the psoas attaches to the lumbar spine and the femur bone and is triggered when we feel stress, and this muscle can be affected and put our hips out of alignment. By regularly gently, lovingly releasing emotions and easing muscle tension in the hips we can help support our lower back and bring our whole body into alignment.

Our hip area is also energetically associated with our sacral chakra, our beautiful creative centre that houses our reproductive organs, so when we move into hip strengthening and opening asanas we are also working with this deeply powerful energy.

Inversions

Inversions are where our head is below our hear, these include postures like

Downward dog, standing forward fold, legs up the wall and even happy baby. Inversions are not recommended for certain conditions (so check with your yoga instructor and/or your health care practitioner before practicing inversions) including when you are on your moon cycle.

Inversions are believed to release tension, increase circulation and energy levels plus strengthen muscles, calm the mind and guide energy towards the heart. Turning ourselves upside down, goes against our normal way of being, yet the benefits are many and varied. Inversions are wonderful in helping you feel more connected to the earth, increase immunity by aiding the lymph to move toxins through your body and providing the brain with more oxygen. They help activate the parasympathetic nervous system and bring a sense of calm. When practicing inversions we are learning to move away from habitual patterns and habits and engage a different part of our mind. Mastering a challenge builds persistence, patience and consistency, all wonderful virtues to aid us in many areas of life, learning we are on a journey, that it is not all about the destination.

Core Strengthening

Core strengthening poses include boat pose, side plank, plank, downward dog, chair, warrior 3 dolphin , high lunge cat cow, camel, spinal twist, tree. These nourishing poses help improve balance and stability and aid in maintaining all other asanas. Core strengthening asanas are especially beneficial in us having better posture, improved breathing, balance, and improved digestion

Twisting Poses

From seated spinal twist to revolved triangle twisting poses strengthen and lengthen muscles that protect your spine, improve postural alignment, calm your nervous system, increase circulation, releases tension, open up the lungs, maintains the length and resilience of the soft tissue myofascia and connective tissue around the spine, keeping joints and discs of the spine mobile plus Increases blood flow which in turn increases circulation and detoxification and helps build core muscle strength and tone your tummy.

A beautifully balanced yoga practice will likely include many of the above asanas have forward bends that are followed by back bends, that the postures are held on both sides, nourishing and balancing the body and in turn nourishing and balancing your mind.