Thursday, March 15, 2012

Into The Center

I spent a good portion of my life not even being willing to look at my stomach in a mirror. In fact, I think I spent a whole two years avoiding looking at my body naked from the face down. I'm not alone. I know many people, men and women alike who have body image issues that prevent them from being in their bodies with joy, acceptance, and loving kindness. Culturally there are so many messages that tell us our bodies have to look a certain way and exercise programs, including yoga, that reinforce the idea that our bellies need to be flat or "rock hard" to be "healthy" or "sexy". What this messaging did to me though was quite the opposite. Rather than inspire health it actually disconnected me from my center and led me down a path of making choices for my life and health based on fear, rather than on deep listening to what the needs of my body truly were.

I find it interesting that intuitively I've always been drawn to a physical practice that was geared towards core strength. As I get older, I find myself bringing more attention and depth to this work. For me "core" work is more than focusing on my abs. On a physical level it's bringing awareness to all the "cores" or centers of energy in the body and all the access points of centering depth and power. I find that the more I connect to these centering energies the more alive and present I am capable of being, as well as embodied. For me, being in my body and truly inhabiting my body is a sacred task and all the check points that I bring to my practice are tools for being here now with depth and awareness. Each action I take that guides me to my center is a promise, a commitment that I make to myself to keep showing up, to stay with this moment and to accept in love and courage whatever arises.

I am going to share the access points I am using in practice, which I believe will support any one in deepening their own journey inward to their center, I also want to share two important points about this journey. The first one is that of precision. Each of these steps, or check points are opportunities to show up with integrity in our practice. Engaging with awareness expresses our willingness to be transformed by the practice and it also allows us to open to the magic of practice. The second is that we also need gentleness. We have to assess moment by moment how much to bring into each of these access points. It's easy to over do any of them. It's also easy to get down on ourselves, causing even more disconnection, by thinking/feeling that we're terrible yogis because we can't do one, or even any of the check points.

So strike a balance between gentleness and precision. Show up fully, but also show up with kindness.

The following are the check points that I encourage to try to begin your journey to the center:

1. In standing poses, and even in poses like Down Dog, lift and spread your toes, and then keep them lifted. You won't be able to do it for long if you're just trying this for the first time. However, it's a foundational check point and it's one to begin with. If you do nothing else, this one will support you in all sorts of wonderful ways. First, it fires up your outer shin muscles, bringing more support into your legs, and those with knee issues, it will bring more support to keep your knees stable. Second, the stability this action brings in, supports the body with balance too as it activates the foot muscles. It also keep the toes nice and healthy for those that wear tight shoes during the day. Mostly it helps to bring awareness to the center of the foot grounding you more fully and attentively in your poses.

2. Building on the previous energy, bring a block between your thighs, close to your groins and hug the block between your thighs. Squeeze it enough to feel your inner thighs engage, but not so much that you burst your block open! Feel connected to the energy this action brings to your inner thighs--this is hugging your legs to the midline.

3. Root tailbone (can also be said as lengthen, or in some cases curl). Do this in your standing poses, but also most importantly in your backbends. You know you are doing this when you feel your belly rise up and in and also the kidney region of the back lifts up to support the low back. Make sure you press your thighs back first, before deeper curling of the tailbone.

4. Draw support from your Back body. In standing poses this is more easily available. In a pose like warrior one, once the foundation of your legs is stable, Bow into your heart, rounding the upper back and feel your kidney region of your back engage and slide up the back. From this place of depth, expand out. This will in turn support you in lengthening up and away from the waist, and expand the muscles of the rib cage.

5. Hands. In poses like Down Dog and also Chaturanga you want the hands to be like suction cups against the earth. To do this place weight into the fullness of your palms. Spread the fingers out so much that the webbing stretches out. Also curl fingers tips into the earth like a tiger getting ready to pounce. Keep that buoyancy alive as long as you can.

6. Hugs hands and arms to midline. Also from Down Dog and Plank, squeeze hands and inner arms to the midline of your body to awaken the core lines in the arms and to help keep index finger and thumb grounded. In down dog this helps to keep the shoulders buoyant. In Chaturanga it helps to keep your shoulders from dipping forward and also helps to keep your elbows hugged in.

There are other access points, but these should keep you busy for a while!

Enjoy your journey to your center and may you find it with gentleness and compassion and live courageously from it!