Hello, I’m so happy you’re here reading this! I hope this means that you have found me on Facebook and Instagram and are curious about the Asana of the Week exploration. This idea has come about because of what the asana limb of yoga has offered my body/mind complex over the years. This is the most tangible of all the limbs of yoga because the body speaks the loudest! Sensations, imbalances, emotions, thoughts, resistance, freedom, the list could go on and on….
The physical body is a wonderful vehicle through which to explore ourselves through. The asanas themselves are medicine. In the way they move or gather energy in certain areas of the body as we move in and out of them and in the way they expose our imbalances and then have the ability to support us to experience balance. We are starting at the beginning. The beginning in this context, is the standing asanas. They have the power to connect us deeply to the earth, to stand tall and to feel grounded, clear, open and still, yet responsive to the environment around us. When we practice with awareness they plug us into our environment so we experience ourselves as a part of our surroundings. Nothing is separate, and this physical process gives us access to a felt sense of that.
Asanas also strengthen muscles, lubricate joints, welcome blood flow to the whole body. They have the ability to open channels, which may have been obstructed via holding patterns through the tissues of the body. This allows the flow of lymph and life force energy itself to circulate freely throughout the body. Asana have the ability to ignite our fire to support our digestion. Not just our digestion from the food we eat, but also everything we ingest via our senses ,including our thoughts and feelings about these things. We engage our breath during our practice of asana, which supports the thinking mind to soften and to turn within.
As you explore, the list of benefits will continue to grow. Repeating the same asanas over and over again, shows us the progression of the medicine they offer. This also shows us that things don’t need to get more complex to sense progression. Sometimes we underestimate simplicity because we are so programmed to overestimate complexity. We get lost in the hustle of life within our practice!
So… together… we will explore the shapes. We are stripping the physical practice of yoga right back to basics, one shape at a time. My intention is for you to visit and practice and breathe in the shape for three to five breaths every day, until the following Tuesday when the next shape is released. The information you will receive will be priceless. The whispers of your body are your road map to healing. This physical practice is so we can hear, feel and learn about all of the reasons why distraction is more appealing than stillness. This practice has a goal of relieving the body/mind from it’s attachment to doing and achieving, and to lead it to stillness, where we can then sit for longer and longer periods of time without disturbance from the body. This is where we meet ourselves in union, this is where we meet Yoga.
This is where I’m excited to meet you! In the spaces in between other things, exploring what this present moment has to offer us. And so the journey begins…
In love, for love, as love, Susie x
