Health & well-being

3) A dedicated practice of yoga asanas (postures) grants us a body that is buoyant, supple and strong.  More important than just good health, this allows the practitioner to feel light and unaware of bodily distractions that might otherwise interfere with the internal practices of contemplation and meditation.  Sensibly executed, raw-foodism also gives us the gift of vibrant health and a certain lightness. This frees us from being limited by our own body, allowing us the energy and focus for creative and spiritual pursuits.

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Yoga Asana

"When we do yoga for ourselves it is good for us, when we do yoga for God it is good for everyone"

While the practice of asanas, or postures, is just one small part of a yogi's life, it remains the branch that most Westerners identify with as yoga and have been consistently drawn to. It is also the part of your practice, if done correctly, that will likely give the most immediate observable health benefits to your body. For this reason it deserves some special attention within these pages.

There are various schools of yoga, each teaching the same asanas at a different pace and sometimes even as a different form. I've seen the fundamental asana known as Trikonasana (Triangle), for example, taught in at least six different ways, all arguably the proper method for greatest benefit. I will not be making a case for any single method, or claiming that any one asana is more therapeutic than another, but there are some basic guidelines that I feel are important to follow if you enjoy a steady asana practice and would like to progress without injury.

Always monitor your breathing. If you find yourself short of breath or holding your breath while moving into an asana then you should back off and consider what it was that changed from the previous moment when your breath was at ease. Your breathing may have become erratic for any number of reasons including: fear, pain, stiffness, lack of strength, or an unresolved issue that was bothering you before you began. It is very important to pause at these moments and identify the reason for your anxiety. If it is just basic stiffness then move into the asana again, slower this time, going only to the point at which you feel your muscles being stretched. Once there you may either stay at that point or go a little deeper on every exhalation.

If you are not yet strong enough to complete an asana don't get frustrated or forget about it completely, there is always a way to gain further understanding by using a prop. For most strength oriented postures you can find a way to use a wall to take some of your weight, thereby putting less strain on your upper body. The same muscles that you need to complete the pose will still be active and forced to fire whether you use the wall or not, but with a prop you will gain more confidence in holding the posture without fear of falling or injuring yourself. Some asanas, such as arm balances however, will require a certain amount of upper body strength in order for you to get any understanding of the final form, whether you use a prop or not.

When we are honest enough with ourselves to admit that our anxiety is being caused by some issue outside of the yoga room then this can be a great lesson to learn from our practice. The issues that we hold onto while on the yoga mat are probably the same ones that need the most attention while off the mat. Allow yourself time to laugh and fall as much as you deem necessary until this hindrance finally loosens its grip and you can one again move into your asanas with slow, conscious breathing. Sometimes, however, life hands us such complex problems that no amount of asana practice is going to release us during that specific session. If you are feeling overwhelmed then use your time as an opportunity to sit quietly instead of moving so much. If you force your way into challenging asanas while an unrelenting thought tugs at your heels then you are asking for trouble. Within most asanas you are telling your muscles to stretch and relax, but stress tells muscles to tighten. The combination is a recipe for a pinched nerve, torn tendon, or a build up of acid in the muscle tissue.

Having gained a certain level of proficiency and understanding of the asanas it can be all too easy to forget why we began doing Hatha yoga in the first place. It's natural for each person to seek out new postures that will further challenge their practice, but when the postures are seen as shapes and these shapes are seen as a goal to be attained then we often miss out on the full therapeutic value of our practice. If we move into asanas slowly and consciously, working towards our unique edge and breathing there, then every asana is healing no matter if we ever mold ourselves into the full form our not.

Once in an asana envision your body as an expanding balloon. When filling a balloon with air it doesn't move from just one side or in any one direction; the borders all stretch, the tiny form continually takes on a new shape, and the unfolding energy that extends from the full circumference of the once dormant piece of plastic is almost palpable. Each asana can be enhanced in this same far reaching manner. Once in a seated forward bend, for example, you may feel the tug on your hamstrings or lower back and decide that you have reached your limit, but it is not just those two parts of your body that are being activated. The deepening breath will open the rib cage, lifting the energy upwards, while the slow exhales can be used to sink your body weight both forward, towards your straight legs, and backwards, as your sit-bones are lengthening in the opposite direction. In other words, every cell in your body can work towards being awake and open, trying to feel the circular motion of the otherwise straight forward seated position.

Ideally each Hatha yoga practice eventually becomes a microcosm of life itself - a journey from birth to death. As in life, we begin our practice with an inhale and end with an exhale. We come up against obstacles and then either figure out how to work around them or learn to accept them for the time being. We get frustrated, tired, and distracted but wind up finding our focus again until we can take each moment as it comes. The countless life lessons that we learn while on our yoga mats help to develop a sharp awareness not just of the body and breath but also of where we are in our personal evolution. When we approach our physical yoga practice with these intentions it then becomes possible to take what we have learned and apply it during the many hours we spend off the mat.

Yoga philosophy is grounded in the idea of each souls quest for liberation through many lifetimes of learning. Often we have to learn the same lesson over and over again, through many lifetimes, until we become unattached to a certain outcome or prized possession. We can see this happen from one asana practice to the next as we do the same postures repeatedly over the course of many years, finding ourselves reaching a plateau only to begin again with a new challenge. What may not be so obvious, however, is that we can see the same thing happening within each practice session. Most yoga classes are broken up into various stages, sequences, or points of focus. Once we move on from one part of the class to another we have a wonderful opportunity, the opportunity to begin all over again, as if there was nothing preceding what we are now about to experience. We have learned lessons from the prior asanas, we have built up more internal heat and flexibility, we are increasingly more focused, but at the same time we can forget the past and feel what is happening during each new asana. Reincarnation may work in the same manner. Unless you are an extraordinary individual you probably don't remember your past lifetimes but that doesn't mean that you have not learned from them. So the amazing thing about the experience of a single one or two hour yoga class is that it can lead us through the same evolutionary process that our soul is confronted with over the course of thousands of years.

One of the many differences between yoga and sports is that the movements in yoga are all done to benefit the body and mind. Even though most professional athletes are very fit they are required to repetitively work certain parts of their body much more than others, creating an imbalance over their many years of vigorous training. In sports the primary goal is to win and you can't win unless you have done certain physical actions thousands of times over until that muscle group can do it with little or no thought. But in yoga there is no winning or losing. Every movement is done for our own internal and external benefit but not at the expense of someone else. And while many styles of yoga do repeat certain movements throughout the class to create an awareness of an essential action, it should never be a movement that involves uncomfortable tugging on the muscles or pounding on the joints. Hatha yoga is the only form of movement that I've ever come across that strengthens, stretches, and balances us simultaneously from head to toe.

Every yoga asana touches upon at least two parts of the body that we can easily locate because they are being stretched in opposite directions. This idea of "opposing forces" is important to understand so that we don't get caught up focusing on just one motion or stretch during an asana. By deliberately moving the opposing forces away from each other we have to keep our awareness on both actions, this can keep up from doing things like hyperextending our legs or over twisting at the knee or shoulder joint. But even as the two opposite movements are working there are so many more subtle internal functions that are being activated than we will ever know. After practicing for many years you may start to feel the immediate effects on your nerves, digestion, or endocrine system, but even if you never notice these shifts while holding the postures you will probably feel the difference during your day or while doing other physical pursuits, especially if you take a part of your practice with you once it is over.

It's important to note that even a consistent Hatha yoga practice may not change your life if you continue with the bad habits and misalignment that you brought to it when you first began. Two hours of yoga in the morning will get you on the right track but if you are then hunched over in an office chair for the next eight hours, with no thought given to the natural curve that should be in your lower back, the restrictions placed on the all important hip-flexor muscles, or the lack of circulation in your knees, legs and neck, then you will once again find yourself feeling very stiff during your next session. I am not suggesting that you quit your job for yoga (though many have done just that), but rather try to take what you learn each day about your alignment, focus, and breath oriented movements, so you may reassess and relearn how to sit, walk, stand, eat, or even argue using the same principles of body awareness.

Internal purity

"Not everyone can stand on his or her head all day, meditate in silence for three years, or chant the name of God continuously, but everyone usually eats every day.  If you do nothing else, make eating your spiritual practice." -- Sharon Gannon and David Life - from Jivamukti Yoga

The second limb in the Yoga Sutras is Niyama (or self-disciplines), and the first Niyama is Shaucha, meaning cleanliness or purity. In Yogic traditions teachers often make the analogy between the human body, where the soul resides, and a temple of worship, where we go to pray and commune with God. From an early age it is obvious to us that we would not want to enter a temple wearing torn, soiled clothing, or smelling of a hard days work. God would doubtlessly accept us if our prayers are sincere, but there is an innate feeling within us all that we should be clean when going to a holy place. Similarly, when we practice yoga, thereby making our bodies into a temple that we carry around wherever we go, it becomes important for our one and only body to be clean, inside and out. One of the main duties at a yoga ashram is for the disciples to keep themselves and the environment as clean as possible. Not to say that we shouldn't do physical labor that may make us dirty for a time, hard work can be very humbling, educational, and of great service to others, but keeping the body, mind, and spirit clean helps us to stay alert and vigilant in our yoga practice.

I won't go into the word "clean" as it relates to hygienic practices (this is slightly off the subject even though food may easily be used to keep the skin and hair healthy) but rather what is important here is why raw foods are necessary for the internal purity that we all strive for. The much discussed and debated "Nadis" are the energy channels that run throughout the body, carrying our subtle life force from place to place. These Nadis are similar in theory to the meridians mapped out in Chinese acupuncture which teach us how one singular point on our foot or hand may affect many problems that are manifesting elsewhere, such as in our liver or kidneys. One important reason for practicing Hatha yoga is to keep the nadis cleansed and free of obstructions. It is said that when the energy channels are blocked then sickness and disease is able to take hold of an otherwise strong body.

To understand this in layman's terms we don't have to look any further than our small intestine and colon (large intestine). These long, coiled tubes are designed to work together with a very specific purpose in mind: to carry the remains of our digested foodstuff out of the body while allowing the essential nutrients and water to be taken through its walls into the blood. If we conceive of the intestinal tract as one long energy channel then we can understand how important it is for these channels to stay pure and free of obstructions. When food is eaten that lacks fiber, such as meat, or clogs the lining of our intestines, such as bread and dairy, then over the course of time blockages occur and the build up of these obstructions along the intestinal wall makes it both difficult for waste products to leave the body and for nutrients to get through the lining of the small intestine.

Most of us already know that a malfunctioning, or badly abused, colon may lead to colorectal cancer (colon cancer), which kills nearly 60,000 Americans each year, but most of us never think in terms of how the health of our colon relates to other symptoms throughout the body. Just as a single, well placed acupuncture needle can send healing energy to a different part of the body, just as a long forgotten scent may trigger a childhood memory and make you shiver, so to can a constipated colon cause severe problems for all of the other organs that come before it in the digestive process. It cannot be overstated that the organs, glands, muscles and nervous system are all linked and should never be seen as separate parts each with there own unique purpose. No well designed machine functions in this way so why should the human body. If you are a homeowner, responsible for the costly maintenance of the electric and plumbing in your home, you certainly wouldn't allow any electrical wires to be frayed or any drain lines to become clogged. If the wrong drain line were to become obstructed, preventing the free flow of water, it could easily affect several others and cost you a small fortune to repair. So it is with the human body. If we are neglectful of our final areas of elimination (the intestines) then over time everything before it becomes overworked, sluggish, and prone to disease.

It is no coincidence that raw fruits and vegetables are the most easily digestible foods that humans can eat. When you consume them you are eating the purest food on earth, indeed some may say the only real food on earth, in that they grow from a seed and have not been manipulated by technology, long shelf-life packaging, or extreme temperatures. They come with their own enzymes still fully intact to help us digest them and with a brief physical inspection you are able to tell when they are ready to eat or over ripe. They are the highest quality source of fiber, protein, water, and anti-oxidants that we can consume as the human body is never confused by their structure. And although I don't feel that lightly cooked vegetables are particularly harmful to the body, eating them is very much like having a conversation with someone through a translator. When you need a third party to interpret your conversation with someone from another culture then often the essence of your message is skewed. While this may be amusing for a few minutes it would be frustrating and artificial to use a translator for every conversation we have. At best it takes longer to get your point across and at worst you lose track of what you are trying to accomplish. So when the enzymes and acids in our mouths and stomach have to work harder to understand the foreign matter that we consume then the whole process becomes less than perfect.