Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

mountain yogis, many of whom lived in Himalayan caves. Some had long matted locks piled on their heads, some were naked, some smeared in ashes from the sacred fire. They were muscular and severe looking, but friendly. They were yogis who had mastered the inner heat principle and could live in the freezing cold without clothing, going days without food. His message was obvious. There is much more to yoga than only the surface practices.

The Rhythms and Seasons of Practice
    We do not have to sit naked in the Himalayas to master yoga, but the Hatha yoga student would do well to learn about the play of opposites represented by the sun and moon. Start with something as simple as learning about heating and cooling in your body. Our practice needs to work with balancing these energies. A practice of yoga might cycle like the seasons. All things move in cycles of change. Spring brings blossom and growth. Summer brings more light and nourishment. The inner flows and expresses itself outwardly. In the fall, energy is gathered and stored, and in winter, reserves are used and inner processes dominate. The changing cycle of seasons in nature can inspire and guide our practice. Our bodies move through seasons of change from childhood to old age. The seasons of our practice change with the natural seasons, in subcycles of their own and in the cycles of life from youth to old age.
    Our process of yoga can grow and adjust with the cycles and subcycles of living. This suggests tuning into the rhythms in the body. Many changes occur within us each day as well as from week to week. We do not live in just one season either, so we must think and feel beyond just the calendar. In the winter, we heat our homes; in the summer, we use shade and cooling. Similarly, our practice always involves a mixture and interplay of many opposites. Sometimes we need more Ha, or sun, type sessions that are stronger, more vigorous workouts. At other times we need the moon, or softer, more relaxing sessions. No fixed formula dictates which to do when; only the subjective process of learning to listen and balance can guide us to self-healing. When we understand and do not resist, our bodies want to move toward balance. Remaining in extremes actually creates the difficulties. Nature will always throw us back from an extreme to the middle or to the other, opposite pole. The body’s intelligence often findsits own way to stop excess. Paying attention to sun and moon, hot and cold, and their ever-changing cycles will help in learning the balance of yoga.

Tension Is Your Friend
    Muscular tension is necessary. The body constantly adjusts and changes its levels of muscle tension to support the skeletal structure, to protect the joints, and to absorb shock. The musculature of the body acts on the skeletal system like a series of interrelated springs and tensions that are constantly resetting each other at levels appropriate to the particular activities we engage in. These “springs” are composed of multiple processes of varying tensions, strengths, flexibilities, and hard and soft structures. Tensions interact and combine in many variations to reach higher levels of order and performance.
    Stiffness is not a hostile adversary; rather, it is the operation of intelligence in the body. It is probably more appropriate to think in terms of keeping tension in the right balance than of eliminating it. A construction worker needs a different balance from that of a dancer. Hard work carrying lumber and bricks strengthens and hardens the musculature in different relationships than a dancer might desire. When we hike or do heavy work, the body naturally tightens. When we sit for a long time, the body adjusts its tensions accordingly. When we stand up and walk after sitting for a long time, we feel stiff. What we’re feeling is residual stiffness from the previous activity dissipating as the body resets its tensions for the new activity. If we do not keep the muscles pliable and able to reset, we may create imbalances that result in stiffness, pain, immobility, or lack of skeletal alignment.
    Both our activities and our inactivities affect the tension balance in our bodies. One purpose of yoga practice is to keep limits of strength, flexibility, tightness, and softness malleable and transformable. Broadening the limits of flexibility and the body’s capacity to adjust isone of the purposes—and effects—of the asanas. Yoga practice leads to spring tensions that are more