Today in yoga class, somewhere between the beginning of class where I think "ahh, how lovely, I'm so glad I came to class" and "good grief, this is hard, why did I come to class" our teacher was reminding us, as yoga teachers so often do, to breathe. This teacher is particularly good at getting you to breathe, well, better than you normally would - more deeply, more smoothly, more consciously. But today, one phrase he happened to use was "breathe like your life depends on it." And, in Downward Dog, I happened to giggle just a little because I thought that was a bit of a dramatic expression.
And then, of course, I thought, "But my life does actually depend on breathing!" which may, incidentally, have been his point. As a friend told me a while ago, most of us humans breathe the same amount - that is, just enough to stay alive, and no more. Breathing is something we've definitely lost track of, myself very much included. This goes back a bit to the mindfulness article I posted here a while ago, and I won't for a second consider myself qualified to talk about things like breathing, yoga, or mindfulness with any kind of expertise. But I do try my best at those things.
Of course, we can't always, in every instant, breathe consciously or mindfully. If we did, we'd never sleep and we'd look really silly in meetings, just to name a few problems. But I think there's some room for a bit more awareness when it comes to things like moving and breathing. I think that's why yoga helps so many people with pain - whether it's back pain, leg pain, head pain, whatever. Yoga (and the breathing and mindfulness that generally get talked about in those classes) makes people conscious of what their body is doing - you have to be, or you'll fall on your head during class. (Sometimes, as I have proven, you fall on your head anyway, but it happens less often if you're paying attention.) I don't think necessarily that the poses or stretches you do in yoga help specific back/leg/head/neck problems - however, when I leave a yoga class, I am aware of how I am walking, how I am sitting (at least the first time I sit down after class). I'm actually present in the moment, and sometimes, I realize that how I sit out of habit might in fact be why my back hurts. I'm aware of my limbs after class.
I'm one of those strange people -- well, for many reasons - I've been told by several people that I'm very graceful, but I also have a tendency to overreach myself or overthink things (sometimes overthinking the audiobook I'm listening to while running) and the result is that I fall over, or knock things over, or occasionally elbow people in the face (I'm so sorry, C). But when I do yoga, I do that less often. My limbs seem more closely connected to my brain.
So, that's why I recommend yoga to people. It's not that I think Downward Dog or a Sun Salutation will actually help your back in itself (though it could). It's what it does to your body and your awareness afterward.
And as for a last piece of non-wisdom from yoga, I have been going to the 1-2 level class since I came here to Santa Cruz, so beginning to intermediate. And I took the risk of going and asking the teacher to whose classes I most frequently go if I was ready to attend the 2-3 class perhaps - and she said that I was! So, non-yoga-y as it is, I feel so damn cool that I can go to a 2-3 class and try to do the cool arm balances and things now. It's hilarious. Yoga is supposed to be about awareness and being in your body. Yoga is so not about "did-you-see-how-long-I-held-that-handstand" and "the-person-next-to-me-totally-fell-over-first", but that's such a human reaction, and the juxtaposition of those two types of thoughts in my brain (and they are always both there) in class just makes me laugh.
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