Making Sense of Yoga-ese

By Brooke Hewes, 8-15-08

	Babs Brady, below

There are certain phrases that yoga teachers say in class to relax and center their students. “Ground your big toe mounds.” “Open your heart.” “Feel your pelvic floor.” You may know exactly what your teacher intends by these sayings. Or, especially if you are new to yoga, you may not. Perhaps you have hunch or can muster an image that roughly corresponds, but these grasps are vague at best and the last thing you feel comfortable doing is interrupting the class to reveal your confusion (even though reeling in your pride and raising your hand can be part of your yoga practice).

Well wonder no more. Yoga instructor Barbra (“Babs”) Brady, a former Missoulian who now lives and teaches in California’s wine country, has graciously agreed to share her own intentions around these phrases. And while different instructors may mean different things depending upon training, his or her students, and the general energy of the room, the following insights can at least support or redirect your ideas.

YOGA-ESE: “Come into your breath.”

BABS BRADY’S INTERPRETATION: How handy, the breath. It is always right under our nose. Indeed, when our breath is “right under our nose,” we are breathing like a yogi. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali gives but a whisper of guidance on pranayama, or breathing techniques. He notes the more relaxed (quiet mind) we are, the shorter the distance our exhale extends beyond the tip of the nose.

Before you go measuring (that’s “maya,” by the way, measuring seeming limitations) how far your exhale expels, for me, I know I am “in my breath” when I remember that within the air flow is prana, or vital force. We refine our prana when our breath is balanced. How do you know if you’ve really come into your breath rather than just pretending to? A balanced breath has three essential elements. The length of the inhale and exhale is even (a ratio of 1:1 is an ideal place to start pranayama), the texture of the breath is steady (smoothing out any catches or breaks within the inhale or exhale) and the sound of the breath is delicate (a noisy or gasping breath is an indication of prana being spent). 

A yogi is one with energy (another okay interpretation for prana) in his or her spine. So coming into your breath is huge. It’s not just yoga-babble. It is aligning the flow of your energy. As you do your yoga, it should feel like you are riding your breath. Then, your asana becomes pranayama, and you feel your practice becoming more steady and effortless.

YOGA-ESE: Ground the four corners of your feet.

BB: You might also think of this one as Coming into Your Feet. It’s one of the key ingredients in building Tadasana, or Mountain Pose. (I favor its a.k.a. Samasthiti, meaning “state of balance.”) There are importance structural reasons to distribute the weight in our feet equally front to back and side to side. From a physical standpoint, grounding the four corners of your feet increases our ability to balance, and to feel a grounding anchor so we may extend into the standing poses. In my own practice, I bloom in this one when I sense I am energetically more grounded, and free to expand into the poses. The more space we create in an asana, the more room we have “sukha” or good space. It’s not unlike how coming into breath makes more space for prana.

If you have spent any time in yoga classes, you’ll know we teachers have a thing for feet. In the standing poses, they are your foundation, and if you have a well-balanced foundation, you can build “bigger” poses, and feel more stable. I love telling new students who feel intimidated about trying yoga this: Stability is more important than flexibility.

YOGA-ESE: Hug the mid-line.

BB: Here, we come into our core. I almost always get a little fun feedback from this one. “I can’t find it.” “I don’t have any abdominals!”

In yoga, as well as many of the martial arts, our center is our powerhouse, our fuel. As we become aware (getting the feeling being aware is on the important side?) of our navel center, we can draw upon our inherent reservoir of strength, groundedness, and stability. The navel chakra is associated with the fire element, and where there is fire, there is a yogi with increased capacity for digestion. I don’t just mean the food we take in. Everything we see, hear, and take in with our senses goes into our system, and stays in our deep tissue or nervous system until we either eliminate it or digest it. To engage the core is to up your ability to digest toxins of all manner. Isn’t that worth finding your core? It’s in there, I promise. (Try tapping into it by silently chanting its mantra, “ram,” rhymes with bomb, when you do a twist).

YOGA-ESE: Set your intention.

BB: You’ve just come to a yoga class, hoping to stretch out, relax, let the day go. Then the teacher asks you to sit in a meditative seat, and set an intention for your practice. My intention? How in Ganesha’s sake am I supposed to know that? Which makes this a good place to insert one of my favorite cues to use, “Think less, feel more.” Don’t think about it so much. Just get really quiet, and listen. That’s it. The answer is in there too, my second promise.

YOGA-ESE: Open your heart.

BB: If I could simply say the words “Open your heart” and everyone in class could pack up all their cares and woes, all constrictions banished at my command, I’d…probably be on Oprah (and invite her back to Missoula to hang out for a while this time).

It can sound pretty scary, opening your heart. Who knows what evils lurk out there? And even if I want to relax and allow myself to be so vulnerable as to lay down my defenses in a room full of potential strangers, how do I do that after years and years of not connecting with myself, much less with other people I may not know, or especially cotton to?

One of the best things I ever learned from a teacher came from David Life, co-owner of Jivamukti Yoga. He said something during my teacher training that at the time blew my mind. “You’re never on your mat just for yourself, you are in service.” Another is from my teacher Rod Stryker (www.parayoga.com), who says you know your practice is working for you when you feel more joyful, more fearless, and the length of time between knowing your heart’s desire and it manifesting becomes shorter and shorter. Now there’s some mighty good yoga, well worth finding the courage and determination to open your heart to a more vast horizon.

YOGA-ESE: Feel your pelvic floor.

BB: Just do a kegel exercise at first you say? Why? And how’s the teacher gonna know if I’m doing it or not? I can slide on this one, right? Perhaps. But something grand is in store when you do ramp up access to your pelvic floor, or root. (See Hug the Mid-line. )You’ll increase your stability and focus, and have open source to your prana, it resides there. So does Ganesha. Your root is his abode. You know Ganesha . He is the remover of obstacles. And removing obstacles is what yoga is about, far more than being able to stand on your head. Gam Ganapati!

YOGA-ESE: Cultivate an inner awareness.

BB: So, yoga is not competitive? But her abs are flatter than mine, and he can do a handstand. What’s a mind to do but compare to what’s out there? Focus on what does feel right. Set your inner gaze on what chimes, not what goes bump in the dark night of your soul. Let that external static fall away. As it does, notice what remains. Here is a practice: Allow your gaze to be only 1/3 external, 2/3 internal. As poet Paul Valery wrote, “Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” Therein lies the magic. See the world like a Happy Baby.

BABS’ PARTING WORDS ABOUT WORDS: Don’t over think things. Don’t worry about memorizing or remembering every step and cue. Trust that what chimes for you will stay with you. And all of the above being said, as Erich Schiffmann (www.movingintostillness.com), one of my main teachers says, “Dare to do as your inner feeling prompts you to do.”

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