Healing with Asanas – Chakra 1: Forward Fold and Chair

While much attention is given to form and alignment in poses, very little emphasis is placed on the second half of the practice – the act of total and complete surrender. This is most evident in poses that work with gravity such as all Forward Folds.  Beneficial for releasing control and balancing the nervous system in general, forward folds are great for dissolving all kinds of lower Chakra blockages.

Every forward fold begins with grounding. Whether sitting or standing, there is a sense of alignment and length in the spine, that main life force channel fully open and clear. As you breathe in feel the vital energy you draw from your feet into the reach of your crown. When standing, pull the energy up your legs, squeezing inner thighs and buttocks. Do not lock your knees. Push your hips gently back and observe your torso hinging forward, leading with the heart. Arms can be diving open or coming down through prayer. Allow your upper body to cascade over your legs, crown of the head reaching towards the earth as weight shifts slightly towards the balls of the feet. And then surrender completely, to breath and gravity, releasing any tensions in the head, neck or shoulders. When feeling complete, bend the knees slightly and keeping an unbroken stream of awareness, roll up one vertebra at a time. Feel everything as you come up into standing. Merge into the stream of energy.

When sitting, ground through the front of the sit bones, walking your buttocks slightly back, one at a time. Extend the arms shoulder width apart in front of you palms facing each other. As you  breathe in raise your arms and reach up towards the sky,  Extend your side waist, push down through the sacrum, up through the crown of the head and out through the fingers. As you exhale pushing the hips back slightly, let your upper body come out of center and hinge forward, arms alongside your ears. Allow yourself to find your edge, never pushing or straining but rather using the effortless ease of gravity. Let your arms descend towards your shins, ankles or feet while maintaining the extension in the spine and on the next exhale surrender fully into the pose. As you continue to hold and breathe let yourself dissolve into the ocean of energy surrounding your body. Then bring your attention into that place of greatest holding and tension. Feel it fully, keep the mind disengaged by being totally present with that sensation. Breathe and hold until it feels complete for you. Then roll up one vertebra at a time. Close your eyes and just feel…

The holding in Chair or Utkatasana also requires total and complete surrender into the pose with attention to edge. Here the edge is found in the holding but it is steady and mentally relaxed, not driven or ambitious. Stand with your feet hip width apart and find your grounding force as you close your eyes. Find the center below you that determines your balance. Tilt your tailbone down towards that center. Lift the arms in front of you, palms facing down and begin to bend your knees as if you were sitting on a chair. Shift the weight slightly into your heels and settle back a little further on the exhalation. Arms alongside the ears are reaching forward as is the sternum. Breathe and hold…. Again disengage the mind by moving into presence, the  total awareness of sensation. Give yourself permission to experience any feelings, emotions or thoughts that occur throughout the holding.

In order for blocks to release, breath must be flowing freely, effortlessly. Any tension in the breath creates more blocks instead of releasing them. As you hold keep redirecting your attention from mind to sensation. As mind steps in to qualify, resist what is and desire release, gently guide it back to feeling fully.

We rarely feel fulfilled because we do not allow ourselves to immerse fully into whatever it is we are doing. The mind is always rehashing the past or anticipating the future. We are never in the here and now.

Practicing yoga poses with focus and attention on feeling fully their intensity, we practice being in the present moment. It is only here that healing happens.