Body & Emotion

One of the joys of teaching is the exchange of knowledge. While my work relates to the ostensible outflow of yoga knowledge, it's the rare yoga session where I don't come away with something, too. Perhaps I refine my teaching methods by noting a pattern in someone's body/mind, sometimes I'll learn what not to do from hard experience, and sometimes I get to see yoga through the lens of another subject area.

I've been fortunate to work with many experts. Working with acupuncturists invariably demonstrates the relationship between yogasana (postures) and the nadis (or meridians, as the Chinese call them). Teaching surgeons often yields insights into the internal workings of the body. While working with a veterinarian a few years back, we observed that the musculature of the human pelvic floor is remarkably similar to the pelvic floor musculature of dogs and cats.

For humans, the pelvic floor muscles juggle the responsibilities of supporting upright posture, supporting the organs, and regulating reproduction and elimination. For the four-legged animals, the pelvic floor muscles are primarily associated with elimination, reproduction and communication. The functions of postural and organ support are a moot point when the spine exists in the horizontal plane (as in the case of four-legged animals).

While our furry friends don't use words to describe their mental state, they do use their tails to communicate. We can ascertain the mindstate of a dog by observing its tail. A tail lifted high suggests an enthusiasm and zest for life (it's time to play!) The tail tucked between the legs communicates fear and submissiveness. If you've lived with quadrupeds for long, you're likely familiar with the nuances communicate by the tail such as annoyance, apprehension, fear, exuberance, etc. The muscles of the pelvic floor support the expressive tail, and are a vital aspect of the quadrupeds' communication of its inner state to the outside world.

Since the quadruped pelvic-floor musculature is so similar to the biped pelvic floor, I've long contemplated the relationship between our human pelvic floors and our minds. Subjectively, I think the parallels are compelling. When I see a person holding their tailbone tucked in a yoga pose, their eyes communicate distress. You can literally see the effort involved to "hold it all together." This is not a pleasant way to navigate the world, and most certainly is not continent with the aims and philosophy of yoga. While the tension involved with "tuck the tailbone" is readily visible, it remains a common yoga instruction. This is unfortunate, as a toned pelvic floor (leading to mula bandha) is very important for good posture, while a tailbone that's rigidly tucked suggests that the sky is soon to fall. Surely there's a middle way.

Just last week I was working with noted animal behaviorist, Patricia McConnell. Patricia (http://www.patriciamcconnell.com) is a joy to work with, as her infectious curiosity is a perfect fit with Alignment Yoga. During our last session, our conversation drifted into the realm of pedagogy.

Patricia related the dilemma when well-intentioned dog owners try to teach their furry friends the end-result. In their enthusiasm for the result, they often neglect the intermediate steps required to get from here to there. We both had a good laugh, as I find the very same thing in yoga teachers/students.

In education, it's important to know your starting point - where here is. Once you've defined your starting point, define where it is you'd like to go - where there is. Once you have identified here and there, identify the steps that lead sequentially from the starting point to the goal.

A toned pelvic floor is imperative for the health of the reproductive system, urinary tract, bowel, and good posture. Unfortunately, many people have disconnected their minds from their pelvic floor, and the musculature has defaulted into a state of chronically contracted weakness. Suggesting that students tuck their tailbone in a yoga pose teaches that good health and vitality is not their natural state. While tensing the pelvic floor may be a starting point to bring awareness to an unfamiliar region, to suggest moving through the day in this alignment suggests that we bipeds don't have a secure place in this gravitational field. In Alignment Yoga, we use progressive techniques to guide students back to a comfortable relationship with being in their body. Good health and vitality is our natural state, as a dog's natural state is the very definition of joie de vivre.

A healthy pelvic floor results from taking appropriate steps to get from here to there. Next week I'll be posting a video blog that describes a reliable technique to reconnect with the pelvic floor, and concrete steps to develop more functional strength and flexibility in this often misunderstood part of the body.

Relationships

Solitude can be a powerful ally in the inward journey, though just as readily, can be the province of self deception. Perhaps you've experienced moments of great clarity, only to have your repose shattered by the intrusions of your wife/husband/child/pet. How many of us daydream about the potential for enlightenment, if only we could escape from the distractions all around us?

Relationship becomes the true test of our inward journey. If we are as kind, open-hearted and generous when surrounded by the most difficult people, then our practice has really borne fruit.

In the body, relationship is every bit as important. The state of any given muscle is only of passing interest. No matter how strong or flexible a particular muscle may be, it's only healthy if it's in harmony with the adjacent musculature. I encounter many yoga students who have studied individual muscles at great length, yet have neglected to consider how the muscles are to glide across each other in healthy movement.

The body is a collection of layers. Atop the bones are the deepest muscles, and atop those muscles are more layers of muscles. The capacity of muscles to glide fluidly one across the other predicts optimal health far more reliably than the condition of any specific muscle. The relationships among the muscles are more important than solitary muscle-enlightenment.

The individual muscle fibers are wrapped in a sheathing called fascia. Fascia is a form of connective tissue made of the same stuff as ligaments and tendons. It's very tough, and helps define the shape of each muscle, and in turn, the body. The thin sheathing of fascia not only contains each muscle, it also acts as a sort of lubricant, in that healthy fascia glides smoothly against adjacent sheaths of fascia. In optimal health, the fascia is very slippery, and adjacent tissues can glide freely without dragging or getting stuck on its neighbors.

For many of us, however, our tissues don't glide very smoothly. Regardless the health of the individual muscle, if it cannot glide smoothly across adjacent tissues, this drag on the system will cause stresses to be transmitted to the joints. In teaching therapeutic yoga, I often find these sorts of adhesions underlying the common pains of the neck, shoulders, back and knees.

There are many causes of fascial adhesions. One of the most common causes is a previous injury. When a muscle is strained or torn, the body logically adheres the injured tissues to adjacent muscles. This forms a sort of splint that allows the injured tissues to heal. Once the healing is complete, however, the adhesions usually remain frozen in the body-matrix. I've worked with many students whose current pains are related to adhesions resulting from injuries or surgeries two or more decades previous. One of the benefits of a regular, intelligent practice of yoga is to restore the fluid relationships among neighboring tissues.

Another common cause of fascial adhesions is stress. When under prolonged stress, the body naturally tries to create its own armor. When adjacent tissues are glued together, the body becomes nearly impenetrable. While this may buffer the short-term stress, the body becomes progressively stiffer and less resilient. When a sudden movement is required, such as catching one's balance or reacting to an unforeseen situation, the brittle tissues are more likely to over-stretch or tear. A practice of yoga that includes a committed focus on breathing can be a powerful antidote to stress, which will yield long-term benefits for body & mind.

Along with prior injury and stress, another common cause of fascial adhesions is poor hydration and/or diet. Dehydration literally dries out the body's tissues, and the fascial layers inevitably glue together into a dessicated mass. Drinking at least 1/2-gallon of water each day is a good starting point, and many people may thrive with much more than that. A healthy diet that includes a balance of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and protein contributes to healthy connective tissue. Overly processed, salty or sugary foods have a dehydrating effect on the connective tissue, which can contribute to sticky muscle relationships.

This body is engineered for tremendous vitality and longevity. By avoiding interactions that may cause pain/injury, we barricade ourselves from the potential for growth. When we fully commit to the risks of a well-lived life, however, we may get hurt. Rather than recoiling from the possibility of sticky relationships, a dedication to the practices of meditation and yogasana are profound lubricants for both body and mind. Through the harmony of body & mind, the doors to spirit are thrown open.

Best wishes during this holiday season!

Namaste.

BMDC Winter

Alignment Yoga is indigenous to the Driftless Region. The seasons keep us honest, and days like this invite a longer than usual practice.

After a few hours of snow removal and a hot cup of tea, an afternoon inversion practice seemed just the thing.

Seasons Greetings!

Micromanaging and Moksha

Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot was not known as a yoga teacher, though his scientific work has great application for those of us interested in Moksha (yogic liberation.)



Carnot was a French physicist who laid the theoretical groundwork that led to the development of the internal combustion engine. Whether you loathe or love this particular technology, Carnot's work was the start of a long line of innovation that led to harnessing the Motive Power of Fire. Along with developing the thermodynamic principles (now known as the Carnot Cycle) that made internal combustion engines possible, Carnot also described what's now known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Understanding the conceptual framework of the Second Law of Thermodynamics can be liberating for students of yoga.

There are many ways we can express the 2nd law, as its wisdom has proven useful across many branches of science. In essence, the 2nd Law tells us that an ordered system is very difficult to maintain. As time goes on, it takes progressively more energy to maintain a high level of order. Put another way, the natural state of things is to decay into less orderly arrangements. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics refers to the tendency of highly ordered systems to relax into stable equilibrium, which is sometimes called Entropy.

The houses we inhabit demonstrate the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Houses require a good deal of maintenance. Without regular applications of energy (time & money) a house inevitably decays. The older the house, the more energy required to maintain its order.

The bodies are great examples of entropy prevailing! Our bodies are highly organized and structured when we're young, and with the passage of time, the body becomes less and less orderly. By investing energy (time & energy) into our health, we may slow down the aging process. Inevitably, however, the passage of time will see disorder creep into the system.

The laws of thermodynamics apply to yoga poses, too. The effort to align the body in a yogasana takes a good deal of energy, both psychic and physical. Maintaining a high degree of order for any length of time takes progressively more and more energy. While this effort harnesses the mind and builds strength, at a certain point it becomes futile. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics describes the workings of the natural world; the pursuit of orderliness takes more and more energy, and at a certain point the disorder will inevitably prevail.

At first this may sound a bit discouraging, though within entropy is yogic liberation. In the yogasana, attention to alignment can be an effective means to still the mind and re-balance the body. Perfect alignment, however, flies against the laws of nature. Striving to hold onto a notion of perfection in the poses not only defies the laws of physics, it's one of the root causes of suffering that was first identified by the Buddha - the idea of attachment.

When practicing yoga postures, an awareness of alignment can develop both body and mind. Too much focus on alignment, however, can take us farther afield from the state of Yoga. The perfection of the pose is the depth of knowing its transitory nature. The effort to perfectly sculpt the body into a static form is the mind-trap from which many of us are seeking liberation. When practicing, be sure to keep in mind the irony of focusing on alignment; too little, and we remain stuck... too much, and we swim against the currents of the natural world.

The just right amount of alignment awareness? Firsthand we get to experience the Motive Power of Fire that Carnot described over two-hundred years ago.

Triangle Pose and your SI joints

The other day I was reading an article about yoga injuries. When you're a full-time yoga teacher, the subject of yoga-injuries is a pretty disheartening matter. I imagine an auto mechanic feels similarly when a wheel falls off during a test-drive (not that I know anything about that particular example.)

The article, titled Understanding and Preventing Yoga Injuries, appeared in the 2009 International Journal of Yoga Therapy. While yoga remains a safe and effective path, the article underscored the need for yoga teachers to better understand the mechanics of the body.

Just the other day I was watching a colleague teaching Utthita Trikonasana. The Triangle pose is virtually ubiquitous in most yoga classes, and while it has the potential to open the hips and free up the spine, it also has the potential to strain the sacral-iliac (SI) joints. Given how many millions of Triangle poses are taught each day, a deeper understanding of pelvic anatomy could help many people live happier in their body, rather than contributing to the statistics cited by Dr. Fishman and his colleagues.

Each joint has its healthy range of movement, just like the hinges of a door. Within that healthy range of motion, practicing yoga creates a healthier, stronger and more flexible body. Moving beyond that healthy range of motion places a good deal of stress on the joints, and persistent stress on a joint is likely to be injurious. Perhaps you've had a door yanked out of your hand by a gust of wind? Most of the time it's no problem, though occasionally the hinges are bent and the door no longer closes right. Triangle pose, if done correctly, exercises the hip joints and surrounding musculature. Done incorrectly, the triangle pose torques on the SI joints, which may cause sufficient strain to cause injury. Door hinges can be replaced - SI joints take a long time to heal.

The hip joint is a ball and socket joint. Like any joint, there's a balance of stability and mobility. Because the hip joint bears so much of the body's weight, its design favors stability over mobility. The hip joint has huge range of motion in flexion (folding forward) and significantly less mobility in abduction (out to the side.)

When a yoga teacher suggests that the pelvis face straight forward in the Triangle Pose (perhaps you've heard the instruction like your pelvis was between two panes of glass?) they are insisting that moving into Triangle Pose comes primarily from abduction. Because the hip socket has less range of motion in abduction, bringing the hand to the floor or onto a block takes the hip joint to the limits of its range of motion - and then some. Unfortunately, it's often the sacral-iliac joints that pay the price. I've seen many yoga students injure their sacral-iliac joints in Triangle Pose.

In Triangle Pose, the hips should not face straight ahead. Yes, many practitioners can do that, though in the process they're often putting the hip socket into a bone-on-bone situation, or they're asking their sacral-iliac joints to torque in an unhealthy way. When practicing Triangle Pose, be sure to let your hips turn slightly to the floor as you enter the pose. Once you're sure that both sides of the waist are lengthening evenly, then experiment with turning the hips forward. Since your body-weight is already shifted into position, the turning of the hips is less likely to strain the hip socket or the sacral-iliac joints.

Caveat Emptor
The benefits of yoga come through regular practice. It's through regular practice that yoga passes from a theoretical pursuit, to become a highly practical and life-affirming endeavor. It's also through practice that you get to test the instructions that got you on the road to a home practice in the first place. If these cues yield more vitality, you're on the right track. If you feel drained after a particular pose or sequence, then you know there's something amiss.

Most yoga teachers are repeating the instructions they heard from their teacher. Their teacher is most likely repeating the instructions they heard from their teacher, and so on. The vast majority of instructions are insightful, beneficial and most assuredly safe. Some of these instructions, however, are taken out of context. Some of these instructions were misunderstood (remember playing Telephone when you were a kid?) Some of these instructions were flat-out inaccurate/incorrect years ago when they were first spoken, and have survived largely because the originating teacher spoke them with such confidence.

Many yoga injuries can be prevented. Be sure your yoga teacher is well-versed in anatomy and physiology. Also be sure they’re thinking independently, and not simply repeating what they’ve heard without having tested it in their own practice. If you feel pain, discomfort or feel drained in a particular position, inquire whether you’re moving in harmony with the body’s mechanics, or in opposition to the body’s brilliant design. Let’s see yoga injuries become a footnote in the history of this great path!

Autumn at the BMDC

The equinox marked the official start of Autumn, and our recent spate of cool weather underscores this astronomical observation. We've had our fair share of frost-on-the-pumpkin days, and what wasn't harvested already is next season's compostable material.

After a string of cool & rainy days, a sunny day in the 50's is shorts & T-shirt weather. It's also the time to get the windows washed and the screens put away. Such are the rituals of the Midwest.

Have a great Fall, and for those living in Northern climates, don't forget to drain your outdoor spigots, put away the screens and make sure there's no debris around to clog the inlet of the snow-blower.

From all of us at the Blue Mounds Dharma Center,

Happy Autumn!

Balance and the Senses

While the majority of creatures occupy a more horizontal place in this world, the human being occupies a uniquely vertical niche. We exist within a tiny operating window in the vertical plane, which requires both functional hardware and operable software.

In practicing yoga, we often focus on the hardware; are the muscles sufficiently toned, and the muscles flexible, do the joints have full mobility within the healthy range of the musculature? While functional hardware is essential to optimal health, it’s only a portion of the equation. Without coherent software, our motions are disjointed and inefficient.

The software of the human being is the interface of body and mind - clearly within the jurisdiction of a healthy yoga practice. It’s not sufficient to ask whether we can make a movement… optimal efficiency asks how we make a particular movement. For any given movement, there are generally several ways to accomplish the desired movement. There’s the most efficient way, and then there are all the other ways. Optimal health is moving with utmost efficiency regardless the task at hand.

I often broach the subject of optimal efficiency via the sense of balance. There’s a good deal of redundancy built into our perception of vertical. We can utilize our eyes to determine where we are in space. We can utilize our proprioceptive sense to determine where we are in space via the perception of weight distribution in the joints & muscles. We can also gather information on our relationship to gravity via the feedback from the semicircular canals (vestibular sense) in the inner ear. The healthiest sense of balance utilizes information from all three senses to inform the mind where we are in space.

As people age, I generally find the visual sense becomes the dominant source of body-position information. As a result of this visual-sense dominance, the connection to proprioceptive and vestibular senses tends to wither. This may not pose a problem for a relatively young person with good vision and relatively elastic muscles, though for an elderly person with declining vision and slower reflexes, this over-reliance on visual feedback may well portend a nasty fall.

A balanced and healthy yoga practice asks us to exercise prioprioceptive, vestibular and visual senses. This not only benefits the sense of balance, but may well also keep the mind more elastic. Within the yogic tradition we have many tools that can provide this benefit, though we often find these techniques are thwarted by our lack of understanding.

I’ve heard many yoga teachers suggest students gaze at a specific point in order to steady their balance. While this assuredly helps many students stay upright in balancing postures such as the Tree (Vrksasana,) it directly feeds into our over-reliance on the visual sense. To reconnect with the dormant vestibular and proprioceptive senses, it’s important to be aware of your overuse of the visual sense.

In a healthy practice that includes a balanced routine of movement (sun salutations,) inversions, front bends, backbends, twists and breathing exercises, the head is placed in every possible relationship to the vertical. Varying the head position exercises the vestibular system, and if one practices the correct gaze points, keeps the visual system in its proper place. Balance is a team effort, and the visual sense tends to be the proverbial ball-hog.

Another effective means to strengthen the vestibular and proprioceptive senses is by practicing yoga blindfolded every now and then. The blindfold removes the facial tension that often accompanies closed eyes, in addition to removing the subliminal visual information that sneaks through the squinting eyes.

Each Tuesday morning the Advanced Class meets at Madison’s Mound Street Yoga Center, and periodically we run through a sequence of postures wearing the Mindfold masks. Students are often surprised at how relaxed they are after this routine, and often comment at how quickly their balance improves as a result.

I wish I could claim I invented something this clever, though I must defer to BKS Iyengar for this particular inspiration. It was eye-opening (pun intended) when I first experienced Iyengar’s eye-wrap over twenty years ago, and remains effective to this day. Our technology has improved, though the insight remains the same. A balanced practice includes both hardware and software.