Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

Physical forms also include many energetic fields—metabolic, electromagnetic, gravitational, thermal. Nonphysical energy forms include the movement of prana, or life force, healing energy, feelings of well-being, and the flow of consciousness, attention, and awareness. In the Triangle pose, for example, electrical currents and consciousness flow back and forth between the brain and muscles throughout the body. A lifting feeling comes from pressing the feet into the ground and an equal and opposite descending feeling meets it. A sense of well-being and pranic energy can be made to flow in the body and there is mental concentration moving to different points while attention sees all parts of the body simultaneously. All of this can be referred to as awareness of the energy body. Becoming aware of theenergy body in all postures is the beginning of cultivating the inner practice of yoga.
    Every posture has important principles of structure, alignment, and kinesiology, but equally important to these mechanical aspects of asana is learning about the internal movements of energy. Muscles and bones are articulated and activated by flows of energy. Our practice can be broadened and deepened by expanding it beyond attention only to external form and including awareness and emphasis on the quality of energy and feeling in the postures. It is not only how far we move into a given posture that matters, but also improving the quality of the flow of energies. Energy flows can be strengthened, made more dynamic; energy currents through the nerves can be increased, and healing qualities improved. All of these dynamics and benefits make yoga more effective and enjoyable.
    I was watching a friend do some yoga informally while watching TV. I saw her struggling farther into the Forward Fold pose. I came over and offered to share an insight with her. She immediately said, “No, no, it will hurt, I’m stiff, I can’t go any farther!” I told her my suggestion wasn’t about going farther into her edges, but about developing a deeper inner quality. She tensed and said she was already doing all she could. I noticed her resistance and fear and just asked her to back off in the pose, not to stretch as far. She was trying to grab her toes, and I suggested she grab her ankles instead. Once she was no longer struggling, I was able to have her lift her chest, extend her torso, and drop her shoulders to release tension in the neck area. Through acknowledging her fear and resistance, I guided her into a variation of the posture wherein she could feel good energy flow in her legs and along her spine, and where she could experience a general sense of well-being in the posture. This was the first time she had done an asana that way. She had thought she always had to go to her maximum, pushing her maximum edge. It can be beneficial to push to a maximum edge or limit of flexibility or strength at times, but it is equallyimportant, if not more important, also to have regular practice in an enjoyable range of movement and ability that focuses on better feelings and internal energy flows. Both approaches to asanas are useful and have different ends.
Upward and Downward Energy
    The body has two principle directions of energy, upward moving energy and downward moving energy. In youth, upward moving energy is rising and at its peak, like plants growing and rising toward the sun. Children seem to have an endless supply. They are always in movement, at times almost “bouncing off the walls,” and we often advise them to “settle down.” Children are hard to keep down, while the aged are hard to get up. Throughout youth we are growing taller, lifting and expanding. Ideally in adulthood the two energies are balanced. But, as we age, upward moving energy begins to decrease and we’re more affected by the downward pull of gravity. Our bodies begin to shrink, sag, hunch over, and stoop down. In the womb we are like a seed; our body is in the embryo position waiting to grow and expand, and then outwardly blossoming throughout the period of youth. As we become older our bodies tend to fold and shrink inwardly back toward the womb. Many of our elders are no longer able to stand erect. They bend at the knees and waist and have curved upper spines, often needing a cane to walk. The aging body folds back toward the embryo position. These patterns can be changed, or at least greatly slowed down, with yoga.
    Upward moving energy should be cultivated and