Breathe into [insert body part here]

This post is a follow-up to the one titled Breathe Into Your DNA.

I would like to quote from a wonderful article by Kat Heagberg found at the Yoga International website, titled "Six Things I Don’t Say in Yoga Class Anymore"

I believe that Heagberg has found the golden sweet spot between suggesting distracting visualizations and not suggesting anything at all. 

The instructions she suggests giving are anatomically realistic while serving to direct students' attention.

In other words, she has discovered visualizations which are not distracting, but actually useful.

[Another cue I no long give is:] “Breathe into your right little toe.”

 Or your left hip. Or your lower back. Or anywhere other than your lungs.

As a practitioner, I actually really like cues like this. They help me to bring my attention to (and often release unconsciously held tension from) the parts of my body that could generally use a little more attention. That’s why I used to give them often. But eventually, after receiving some helpful student feedback, I learned that “breathe into [insert body part here]” isn’t a cue that works for everyone.

For one thing, some students will automatically think Oh my God, does she really think you can breathe into your little toe? I’m far from an anatomy expert, but I’d rather my students rest assured that, as their teacher, I at least know enough about the human body to understand that they can’t actually, physically breathe air down into their pinky toes. And even if they’re not scrutinizing my anatomy and physiology credentials, for other students this is simply a confusing, abstract instruction that can be easily misunderstood, ignored, or worse, can make them alienated, like they're "not advanced enough" to be in this yoga class.

If you (like I) really like this cue, you might find that a version that’s slightly less, well, literal-sounding is easier for more students to grasp—like “breathe as though you could breathe right into your right little toe.” Or even “bring your attention to your right little toe."

Breath mechanics aside, perhaps the most important lesson I learned when I discovered that an instruction I often gave was confusing for a lot of my students was this: Just because I enjoy or benefit from a certain cue, it doesn’t mean that everyone else will find that particular cue helpful. 

Notes on hearing an interview with Sharon Salzburg

Here are highlights from notes on this insightful interview. I can see why Sharon Salzburg is a respected teacher; the comments were gentle, compassionate, human. There is a lot to reflect on here. Taking and reporting the notes is a beginning.

• Rather than hate the "bad wolf" aspect of our human nature, be gentle, offer a cup of tea, and gently let go. This is our choice and the power of our choice. Really, how to metaphorically 'offer a cup of tea'? I might couple that with a bit of interrogation: "Ms Wolfie, tell me how you are planning to contribute to the situation?" 
• Loving Kindness in essence is the sense of connectedness between living things. 
• Loving Kindness is also the strength to recognize the connectedness of all beings and to respond from that place. 
• Compassion, the "feeling with" of others' pain, includes discrimination and the ability to set and respect boundaries. 
• "It is never too late to turn on the light." 
• The action of going back to one's intended focus, again and again, to "turn on the light" repeatedly, is the most important training that formal sitting practice provides. Consistent practice trains a person. This is important training because in life, we will have to renew our focus and begin again many times. 
• Use the inquiry, "What do I need in this moment to be happy?" to awaken discrimination and to empower right choice. 
• Tibetan Buddhist philosophy identifies four "enemies" 
• Outer enemies 
• Inner "visitor" enemies of rage and fear, which can become chronic states 
• Secret enemy: the construct of a separate self which is not interdependent. Living from this separated orientation causes great suffering. 
• Most secret enemy: a kind of self-loathing where we don't understand our tremendous capacity for growth, which is a capacity that we retain even when hidden. 
• A key aspect of mindfulness: to turn attention to our motivations. A motivating element continually contours everything we say and everything we do. 
• Action and motivation-for-action are inseparable. The heart space that we come from when we act is inherent in the action. Mindfulness and self-awareness must include awareness of our  motivations. 
• "The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our intention."

Breathe into your DNA

Our yoga teacher trainer had been explaining that the most authentic teaching comes from the teacher's true self and true experience. No need to put on some official yoga-teacher persona or voice. As a case in point, I recounted an experience of my daughter's in a San Francisco yoga class.

"The teacher would say the same thing every class. His voice would get all deep and strange. He would tell us to do various things, and always ended up with the suggestion to 'breathe deep into your DNA.' This whole speech was just so odd, somehow. After several weeks, when I heard it coming again, I just couldn't resist laughing."

We laughed at the story and rolled our eyes a bit, too.

Later, my daughter corrected my report. "Mom, what he actually said was 'send prana into the mitochondria of your deep organs.' Different wording, but still sounded silly."

• • •

Another yoga training day brought an anatomy class with Lisa Biow of Sacramento. Lisa knows her stuff, ranging from deep theoretical knowledge of anatomy to the practical intricacies of Rolfing actual people.

She led us through a partner exercise. One partner extended an arm out to horizontal and by force of muscle tried to keep the other partner from pulling the arm downward. Then we repeated the exercise, with one difference. Rather than using muscular forces, we were to visualize or imagine a line of energy extending from the middle of our bodies out through the extended arm. When our partners pulled down on our extended arms, we were surprised. We were able to resist with much more ease than the first time.

Why? Lisa explained that our amazing nervous systems know how to convert imagery into an action plan. That has big, big implications . . .

• • •

"Imagination is the ability to create an idea, a mental picture, or a feeling sense of something. In creative visualization you use your imagination to create a clear image, idea, or feeling of something you wish to manifest. Then you continue to focus on [it] … until it becomes objective reality… Your goal may be on any level — physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual." — Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

• • •

On second thought, the suggestion to send prana to the mitochondria was not so silly after all -- given what the nervous-system-body-mind is actually capable of.  Perhaps the yoga teacher just needed to make himself more comfortable with that suggestion, so that his words came from a place of authenticity.

I've thought that somehow our minds, through imagination and visualization, have considerable power. Now that I have a better sense of the mechanisms, I even more than before would like to keep learning, in order to harness that toward my highest and deepest goals.

Dancing with the glowings

During Halloween this year, the Monterey contra dancers put on a spectacular weekend of dance to completely fantastic music. (The bands were Riptide, Barefoot, and Celtic Spring + Larry Unger, for the research-inclined.) I danced and danced and danced some more, with new friends and old. The musicians, too, included new friends and old. So in all, an active, celebratory, very social time.

Yoga. Helped me recover during breaks. Good breathing and healthy joints for dancing. And -- I remembered the glow.

I didn't literally see the glow. But I remembered the feeling of the glow that can happen during an inward āsana practice or an absorbed sitting session. The glow that encompasses the spine and the crown of the head.

So in the midst of the raucous fiddle and mandolin and guitar and drum, whoops and hollers of enthusiasm, dancing together with 150 folks, I remembered the glow. From both outward appearance and fact, I was dancing with friends. The inward view from here: sometimes I was dancing with twirling and sashaying and turning embodied glowings.

Sometimes this yoga stuff will surprise a person.