Yoga is awareness of sensations through movement and mindfulness. Mindfulness is awareness of sensations through breathing. Good movement is mindful movement, and is available at all times.
Everything we do with our body requires muscle tensioning. Smiling, shouting, talking, running, and lifting, all require muscle tensioning. If it is not tensioned then it is relaxed, unless it cannot be relaxed. If a muscle cannot be relaxed then it is because our mind cannot let go, or because another muscle has atrophied, or been locked in place with connective tissue.
Yoga
All behavior is muscle tension. Yoga releases muscle tension. All thinking is imagination. Mindfulness releases imagination. Meaning is the connection between thinking and behavior. Yoga is meaningless without mindfulness.
All movement is muscle tensioning, and all muscle tensioning is behavior.
Good behavior is mindful behavior, and is available at all times.
Breathing is through the belly. Breathing in fills the belly below the button, breathing out empties the belly. Ujjayi is a worth while variation.
Good posture is achievable at all times, in all normal positions of sitting, standing and walking. Deficiencies from birth, and injuries or illness during life may limit, or prohibit you, but yoga and mindfulness can enable you to make best out of what you have.
Good posture is achieved by lifting chest, letting shoulders roll back, straightening neck and back, and holding an arch at the base of the spine. Shoulders are above hips, and hips are above heels.
Good posture is when you feel equal tension along the front line and the back line of your body. You’ll get the sensation that your head is sitting on top of your body perfectly balanced, and needing no effort. Sit, or stand, achieve good posture, then lean back until you get that sensation. Explore that sensation of balance while breathing mindfully.
When this position becomes more natural, having practiced yoga for a while, you can feel the sensation of balance through out the body and during all normal positions of sitting, standing, and walking.
Mindfulness
This is a simple mindfulness practice to bring you out of the mind where the internal voice is, and into reality so that you can sense how your body feels. The more you practice this the more you will feel, and at some point, it will become second nature to be in this state of sensing.
- Sit down. Close your eyes. Feel gravity. Inhale through the nose and inflate belly. Straighten neck then drop head down, lift chest high, push butt backwards and arch back deeply, roll shoulders back and down. Feel the spine, and twist and extend it a little more. Blow the cheeks out, purse lips, and exhale emptying belly. Inhale, and exhale while relaxing shoulders, face, jaw, and all other parts of body. Repeat.
- Feel the whole body moving with the breath, the whole body expanding and contracting with each inhale and exhale. Breathe and listen to the body, feeling gravity. Stay in this way, breathing and feeling the body. Hold this feeling for a moment, or a few minutes, or longer, whenever you get the chance. In the car, standing in line, in a meeting, before dinner, before sleeping. Feel the body moving with the breath, expanding and contracting, and feel the force of gravity grounding you.
You are now sensing more, and thinking less. Your internal body sensors are giving you information about how you feel, whether you are tired, or hungry, or perhaps deeper feelings about people and things.
If you used this information, how would it effect you? How would it effect your decisions? How would it effect your relationships? How would it effect your plans?