” After a while when the last three vertebrae closest to the ground start to receive life, if we are attentive , we will discover that the energy running along the back of the spine (from its base to the top of the head) increases in power, making the spine alive and strong.”
Vanda Scaravelli – from her book – Awakening the Spine
Letting go of the mechanics of posture and breath allows body, allows a deeper intelligence at the core of our being to move us and breath us, as if from somewhere deep and wide beyond body. In this surrender there is a shift into a wider awareness and presence. We don’t think awareness into being , we don’t do a posture into its own miraculous moment of unravelling. We are breathed, the body being breathed , whole body breathing, something else might happen and we might call it beauty , we might call it that magical calling that brings us back again and again to yoga practice.
How about we think about gravity? Starting with gravity , the acceptance of gravity , we don’t become dull or a lifeless puddle on the ground , through the body ground contact a natural aliveness reveals itself , where from giving to the ground there is an upward movement of the spine. Essentially an approach where we listen and stop pulling and pushing our body into a posture and so going against the inherent inner rhythms that honour the inherent integrity of strength , freedom and health of body Intelligence.
Our body is fluid and whole , not mechanical separate parts. Dropping into the fluid and spacious aliveness , allows the body to show its dance or song that is our nature. Posture becomes a relationship to ourselves of wide, sensitive listening and cultivation of an alive and vital body and its organising centre, the spine, as we unfold from our relationship with the ground the lightness and freedom that moves us emerges from a deep inner strength of a free and awakened spine, this has its own pulse, own movement that moves from deep in a organic movement of articulations, joints, tissues and organs, the spine unravelling in an upward motion (what Vanda refers to perhaps as power and that we can also sense as wave like motion ).
And without forcing or straining against our body or mind , against ourselves , our mind is clear, we might feel lighter , fresher , renewed.
In my dedication to a yoga practice that truly honours body wisdom and freedom.
My next 6 week course Whole Body Breathing begins Wednesday 3rd March 2021 , join the growing community of the group that is continuing to explore and enquire together .
Some previous experience of yoga or body work is recommended.
Yoga 