ideas of our selves and sensing our body

1    IDEAS, GRAVITY AND SPIN
What’s the advantage of giving ideas the qualities of gravity and spin? We can then think of ideas pulling us towards themselves, once we know what those ideas are.

It’s a special kind of gravity that ideas have, one that acts on us when we put our attention on the particular idea that we want in our lives. The idea pulls us into contact with it, then with its spin, or its energy, the idea expresses itself through us.

We can imagine that by thinking of an idea or being conscious of it we give the idea energy, and that energy gives the ideas its pull. The clearer the idea is in our heads, the better we can see it, the more energy we can give it and the greater its ability to pull us towards itself.

Some of the ideas that pull us towards themselves are unconscious ideas. Ideas like “I can’t, I don’t have the money, I’m not worthy, I’m not good enough.” Those are some of the ideas that I am trying to deal with. I’m dealing with them by filling my head with ideas that I like. I’m also dealing with them by being aware of when I think of those negative ideas.

Seeing myself in beautiful Tuscany in an old restored house or on a beach in the med or the Caribbean I become aware of the small voice that says no.

It is a step in the right direction for me, recognizing that small quiet whisper of a thought.

2    BEING MY OWN BOSS
I have been thinking of the bigger idea of the life I want. For a while I’ve wanted to run my own business, be my own boss, be directly accountable to my clients and express the ideas that I want to express. The company I currently work for isn’t bad, actually it’s pretty good and on the whole it treats its employees reasonably well and perhaps more importantly the people who work there are nice people. But I’d like the chance to run my own company, and a chance to be free at the same time. I think common wisdom has those as two conflicting ideas that couldn’t possibly work together.

I thought of running a yoga studio because that is what I teach. One of the dangers, one of the problems, trying to make sure that all the teachers do a good job, which is funny in a way because where I am teaching right now I am the person with the smallest class sizes. What would I do if I had an employee like me? What advice would I give myself to help improve my numbers? Well, the one thing I am trying to do now is show the people in my class what I am doing and why I am doing it. I am trying to connect with them and in turn help them connect to the ideas that are a part of me.

As an example, last night I was teaching arm balances. Not the most practical of yoga poses… or are they? Well, if for example we can learn to use our hands to sense where our center of gravity is, and then use our arms to move our center of gravity so that it is over our hands, well then we’ve gained the ability to sense with our hands and use them to control where our body is at the same time. It’s like the knowledge that in a car, the accelerator and brakes are what we use to control our speed and the speedometer tells us exactly how fast we are going. Use them together and we can see when we are going at 70 mph and we can see when we are over that speed so we use the brakes to slow down or we see when we are under that speed so we use the accelerator to speed up. Then we simply maintain the speed gently pressing or releasing the accelerator as we need to.

If we can learn to do the same with our hands and arms while doing an arm balance pose, use our hands to sense where our center is and our arms to move it where we need it to be then we can use that same skill if we want to dance with somebody. We can use our hands to sense where our partner is and we can also use our arms to position ourselves relative to that person, maintaining our position or changing it depending on the move that we want to do. We can use the same skill riding a motorbike, use our hands to feel the bike and our arms to help steer it, pushing with one, pulling with the other, while remaining sensitive enough to feel when the bike is in the position we want it to be in.

Another reason for learning arm balances, depending on the arm balance, it can lead to a more efficient yoga practice, combining arm strengthening poses with leg stretching poses, all at the same time.

So why would I want to own and run my own studio? So I could run it the way I believe one can be run and provide guidelines for other teachers to play within should they choose. Guidelines to give their classes direction and meaning should they have those times when direction and meaning are hard to come by. Guidelines would be based on principles not only usable in yoga but in any aspect of life.

So what might a customer come to such a company for. A good workout? To learn? To learn what though? Perhaps how to create their own yoga practice. Perhaps to learn to feel their body. Perhaps to learn be free in their body. To learn what their body can really do. To learn how to be conscious. To learn about center and how to feel where it is. To learn how to consciously connect, about unifying their whole body in one purpose, one pose. How to create the maximum amount of space in their body. How to work with their breath, working with natural rhythms of the body and how to dance within those rhythms.

And the even bigger picture, a yoga studio, one with a mission that would include rather than exclude, basic principles, there for teachers to use or to put their class in context if they wish. Like the little black book that starbucks gives to its employees.

The beauty of that is that I am not tied to the company. It isn’t totally reliant on me being there once it is set up. Instead, it is a company where all the people involve dance together. We have a framework within which to connect and a framework within which to express ourselves.

There is more to it than that, but it is the skin of the idea, the basics.

3    BREATHING WITH OUR SPINE

We can breathe with our spine, sort of. When we breathe, what we may actually be feeling is the action of our muscles, or the movement of bones that are the result of actions of our muscles. The same muscles that we use to breathe with, we can use these same muscles to move our spine as we breathe, and so it can seem like we are breathing with our spine, or into it, or we are breathing in such way that our spine is part of the process, in a positive way of course.

If we learn to feel our diaphragm when we breathe, or at least learn to breathe using our diaphragm, we can combine its action on an inhale (it presses downwards) with pulling in our lower belly and at the same time pulling up on our pubic bone. This action expands the upper belly and also straightens the lower back. Then as we exhale we can relax our lower belly and allow our lower back to resume its normal curve. We also have the option of keeping the lower belly pulled in and contracting the upper belly inwards as we exhale so that our lower back stays straight. This can be useful if we are doing something like a push-up that requires us to use our abs to keep our body straight.

We can also breathe using the muscles of our neck and thorax. We can pull our head up and back, keeping it level, and so straighten the back of the neck. If we are sensitive enough of our spine we can actually feel our cervical vertebrae coming into a straight line as we do this action. At the same time this action naturally causes the chest to open because it also pulls the top half of the thoracic spine straight. At the same time we can use the muscles between the ribs to open the ribs further so that the muscles of the neck and ribcage work together to cause an inhale and straighten the spine at the same time. Then during an exhale, if we are upright, we can smoothly relax our neck and ribcage and allow the weight of our bones to compress our lungs and cause an exhale.

(Or we can use a muscular exhale to keep our upper torso rigid if we are doing a push-up.)

Done in combination with pulling the pubic bone up these actions all together straighten the spine when we inhale. Then when we exhale and relax the spine can resume its neutral curvature.

So why would we want to breathe with our spine or breathe in such a way that our spine moves?
1.    To keep our spine and ribcage mobile.
2.    To keep it moving so that in moving it helps to pump fluid.
3.    To keep it moving so that it in turn helps to massage our organs.
4.    To cause pressure variations within the thorax and abdomen to help the heart pump blood.

Also by moving the ribs relative to each other we can affect the main arm muscles (and shoulder muscles) that attach to it. As a result our shoulders can move when we breathe.

By moving our pelvis as we breathe we affect the hips and the muscles that act on it so that when we move our spine as we breathe we affect our whole body. Our whole body can breathe.

It’s a way of connecting to our breathe and our body at the same time, particularly the core of our body. We connect to our self.