Safe yoga practice

We practice yoga as we are. During a collective practice, we each respond differently to a posture, to a sequence, to the contact with the group and the guidance of the instructor. Instructors teach what they have themselves understood, it can resonate in you or it can not be what you are looking for at that moment. Ultimately what matters is the quality of your breathing, your attention and the collective energy. For each one of us, yoga is a path toward our self. And the first step of this path for all practitioners is to restore and strengthen a true connection to oneself. Once this true connection is established, then a connection to the world can bloom. Being attentitve to connecting with oneslf is where the yoga practice begins.

BE HERE NOW - At the begining of a practice, take some time to connect to yourself. Consciously empty your mind of prior agitations and preoccupations. Focus on deeper breathing cycles. When your attention wants to wander again to its mundane pre-occupations, lead it back to the present sensations of your breathing. Scan your body for tensions, when you recognise one in a precise point, use your exhalation to relax it. Apply the same method to still your thoughts and quiet your mind, listen to the sound of your breathing inside. Toy with the possibility that your thoughts do not merely emanante from your mind but from all of your body and that movement is not just a function of your limbs but also a current inside of you. When a preoccupation or even just a thought that has nothing to do with the present moment forms, push it away, and simply let go of it. Like little cloud shaped thoughts that would fly away and vanish in a puff.

Bring your consciousness to your inhale and keep your focus on the sensation of the oxygen traveling from your nostrils, through your throat and down to your abdomen. Stay present on every physical sensation you encounter, your belly sticking in, your ribcage expanding, your chest moving up… On the exhale feel the texture and sensation of the oxygen diffusing throughout your body and your body surrendering to its relaxed state. Keep this level of attention as you settle into your practice, keep your body relaxed, do not try to accentuate the respiratory movement, keep them soft and relax if a little longer and deeper. This is the most concrete path to connecting with your inner atmosphere.

GIVE AN INTENTION TO YOUR PRACTICE - The state of mind you allow yourself to be in from the beginning of your practice determines what you receive during your practice. We do not always want to eat the same meal, and the same applies to a yoga practice. Sometimes we come in need of a good energizing workout, others we feel a need to calm our mind and feel the prana. Your intentions set the path, it determines what you are most attentive to. To know why you do something fills you with purpose, hope and gratitude. Engage yourself with intent. Intention is the positive sister of desire, it brings your determination and efforts together in a benevolent momentum, whereas desire can fill your objective with anxiety and envy.

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BREATHING - The attention on your breathing is essential. The postures organise pathways for your breathing to distribute new oxygen in places inside your body that are harder to reach. Hence the revitalizing and detoxing effect of most postures. Oxygen also cleanse your nervous system. By creating the habit of being mindful of your breathing during practice, you learn to use this as a calming and recharging ressource. Progressively you can rely on your controlled breathing to cope in strainuous situations such as effort, pain or stress.

BE TRUE TO YOURSELF - Try not to be in the performance : the idea is to find a path of authenticity toward yourself. We are our own harshest judges. While practicing no matter how unnatural it is at first, you must find the discipline not to push yourself too fast too far, not to judge your limitations. Be present in your journey. Each stage, properly invested with mindfulness holds treasures to be explored. Not unlike a mountain hike, where we would of course set our objective to getting to the top, we would also find ourself enjoying the action all the way up. The view at the top is certainly rewarding, most importantly the exploration starts from the beginning and abunds with discoveries to be made. It is also the way to aquire the necessary knowledge that ultimately allows us to get to the top safely. In fact, we are not the same person at the bottom of the mountain as we are as we ascend, and as we arrive. Experience changes us, we have the capacity to apprehend a situation both with previously gained experience and with a new eye. Once we become conscious of the impermanence of everything we break free from habits of perceptions and offer our most open mind to welcome new situations. Once we accept impermanence, we can calmly embrace the ever-changing flow of conditions arising and vanishing.

If you practice with no connection to who you really are, without listening to your inner activity, your thoughts, your senses, the practice cannot become yours. A path to a greater underdstanding of yourself is the basis of yoga. We wouldn’t choose to play football if we didn’t want to kick a ball with our foot. Choosing yoga is choosing to know and accept ourself.

When we start being trully honest with ourselves, we start lifting a filter and unveiling our authenticity. Little by little we become conscious of how much our understanding relies on perceptions and habits. For we are too rarely attentive to the novelty of a situation. Mindfulness is the discipline to assess each arising moment without the filter crafted by the feelings accumulated on previous experiences. Practicing in honesty and mindfulness relaxes our relationship to ourselves and to our surroundings.

PARTICIPATE IN THE MOMENT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT - Walk into the yoga studio with an open mind. Do not judge neither others nor yourself. Let go of the expectations and explore what is happening here and now. Engage yourself physically and dedicate your attention to your breathing and the present moment. When directions have yet to make sense, fully commit to trying. Keep an open mind and explore where the teacher you chose is trying to take you. Our bodies constantly move, our minds constantly think, yoga teaches us how to slow them down towards stillness. With the power of attention you can learn to let go of agitation and invest your every movement and thought with directed energy. Once you understand that your energy is yours to manage and set in the direction that you want, inner peace and true freedom becomes a realistic possibility.