Alignment in Yoga Practice
Some yoga classes focus on physical alignment, starting with the feet on the mat, stacking of the bones, and feeling into the vertabrae in the spine.
In some yoga classes, the alignment may start with the breath, with energetic lines of energy that run through nadis (energy super highways), or through cables of nerves that plug into the brain and emerge from the spine to the extremeties (nervous system).
To me, alignment feels like all of it together - the musculo-skeletal body and freedom between the joints, energetic body with free flow of energy unblocked through movement, and cooling the nervous system with gentleness and peace of mind, and connecting all that to life - align it all like a combination padlock and unlock the magic of being vitally alive!
I felt low and irritable this morning so it was more important to feel into my yoga practice and by the end of my session - the ripple effect of moving my body through a set of asana, some pranayama breathing to blow away the cobwebs of my crappy mood, seated meditation to generate loving-kindness, and then...savasana - awareness in the present moment, it felt kind of buzzy, throbbing, vibrating, in tune, grounded, truthful, an altered state beyond, in a sacred space, pure spacious awareness...and it looked like this...my mat felt like this, I felt like this...Just for a short while until my mobile phone started ringing and I jumped back to daily life. I managed to stop myself just for a moment to bathe in the awareness, to feel it fully, breathe it into every cell, familiarise myself with the feeling, and let my cells receive it fully...and then it was gone, and I checked my voicemail - message received...and I knew my cells had received a message too.
If you want to find out how you can feel like this, check out Judy Hirsh at Yoga Headspace.