Multidimensional Yoga Practice from Julia Fernandaz's blog

Multidimensional Yoga Practice

Ashtanga Yoga and Hatha Yoga Teacher

We continue to develop the topic of conscious practice and awareness of the tasks that we set for ourselves on the mat in addition to mastering asanas. You can mark the tip of the iceberg for yourself in my previous article . But we all know that "the further into the forest - the more firewood"!

Everyone is familiar with the situation (probably from personal experience) when a person during a class is distracted directly from the practice, looks at himself in the mirror (it's cool that our studio does not have them), looks at other students, and someone manages to answer messages on a mobile device or take photos (aaaaah!!!). Such people do not give themselves peace even in Shavasana: they toss and turn, sigh, impatiently wait for the "command" to finish Shavasana, or suddenly get out of it on their own. What result do these people take away from the lesson? At the very least, their state with which they came to practice has not changed at all, physical and psychological tension remains, and perhaps a feeling of dissatisfaction with their practice has been added. Often, a teacher can hear from such practioners that they lacked something in the complex today, and are unhappy with something: themselves, the set of asanas, the temperature in the room... As a result, the person is upset - they did not receive anything, did not master anything, the load was not enough... but is it the load that matters? Would they be more satisfied if they were also tired after the class? I assure you - no! But a competent teacher can certainly help them.

The fact is that today there is a tendency for practitioners to have a mass misunderstanding of what they are doing or should be doing in a class that has the word “yoga” in its name. But the problem is not with the students, the worst thing is that most teachers do not understand how to correctly guide a student and in what directions they need to work at the same time so that the practice produces results and is not just a pastime. These students have yet to (or not yet, at their choice) begin to practice yoga as a full-fledged practice.

For those who are not yet aware of what they need to “do” in class — except for changing the poses demonstrated by the teacherevery two or three minutes — yoga will not bring much benefit. Most likely, they will either become disillusioned with the practice, or will do it routinely, without interest, and will have a superficial, cynical attitude towards yoga.

First of all, an understanding of the deep, multi-layered structure of the yoga method and the directions of attention is required. Below I will provide the main aspects that we can touch upon during practice. All these facets, naturally, overlap with the steps of yoga:

Asana (posture, position of the body in space);

Pranayama (Breathing);

Superficial concentration of attention (Drishti);

Mudra (Deep direction of attention and state of mind);

Sanskalpa (Intention, the goal of the practice, which sets the vector of energy direction along which we then send intentions);

If a person also works with the spiritual aspect of the practice, then he also works with the concept of Ishta-devata or the chosen egregor, quality or, more simply, “deity” for identification.

Note: If the goal is only to improve health and strengthen the body and energy, the first four points are important and basic.

Let's try to understand how it works with an example!

For example, Paschimottanasana calms, affecting the parasympathetic nervous system. Virabhadrasana or Utkatasana increase strength, invigorate and tone the nervous system. Backbends stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, invigorate more than caffeine, lift the mood. If we talk about this in the context of the chakra system and energy impact, then backbends "open the heart", give a feeling of sincerity and openness, "strengthen Anahata". Meditative asanas, for example Padmasana or Shavasana - calm and balance the mind, harmonize the flows of prana and apana (energies in the body) - they are important for muscle rest, breathing alignment, acceptance by the mind of the end of the practice, the maximum state of awareness and presence here and now, for the balanced work of the internal organs and glands.

But in fact, the state of mind of people practicing the same poses, even within the framework of one session, can be very different. Practitioners differ not only in their level of physical fitness and overall health, but also in their ability to concentrate, their state of mind, and the intention with which the practice is done as a whole. Sanskalpa is not a quality of the body, but of the intellect, consciousness. The situation becomes more complicated if the teacher also recommends working with bandhas or mudras (these techniques are also called pranic impulse, since they are directly tied to the closure of energy flows in the body and their redistribution). And working with intention … As a result, in order for the practice to be similar to yoga, and not physical education, we need to work on several facets and dimensions of the practice at once.

Each more subtle level affects the state of each more gross one: the state of mind on breathing, breathing on the body (and vice versa!). It turns out that compliance or non-compliance with subtle, non-obvious "rules" not only complements, adds depth to what we do, but radically changes the effect of the asana. This is what distinguishes the yoga method in the aspect of personal self-development from the development of the body in any other type of physical activity.