|
amazon seller when do i get paid
why does yoga make you feel
so good?
by rod stryker
there are a dizzying number
of styles and approaches to yoga
these days. some involve resting in
simple supported postures in quiet,
candlelit rooms. others push
students to the edge of their
physical capacity or are done to the
beat of loud, rhythmic music. some
focus on physical alignment, while
others offer a heart-centered
approach. there is so much variety
that describing them all is
impossible.
different in tone and
substance as the
various yoga styles might be,
they share one quality that inspires
people to practice them: they work.
put simply, you feel better when you
walk out of class than when you
walked in. the question is, why?
better yet, how does yoga work? as
you've probably heard, one reason
asana leaves you feeling so good is
that it activates your
parasympathetic nervous system,
thanks to two elements that almost
all asana practices have in
common—the lengthening and
strengthening of musculature and
calm, even breathing. the
parasympathetic is the part of your
nervous system that slows you
down—it's responsible for telling
your muscles to relax, improving
your digestion and assimilation,
boosting immunity, and helping you
sleep better. it also normalizes
your blood pressure and lowers your
heart rate. the parasympathetic
nervous system counteracts many
stress-related symptoms and the
negative by-products of our modern,
fast-paced, high-output lives.
but the truth is that much
of the yoga being practiced these
days doesn't do as much for the
parasympathetic nervous system as
you might think. to build your
parasympathetic nervous system, you
need to do poses that encourage deep
relaxation, such as forward bends
and hip openers; do fewer standing
poses; and do more sitting, supine,
and prone postures as well as
inversions. you also need to hold
poses longer, as you would in
restorative yoga, and dedicate
longer periods of time to developing
slow and complete breathing.
vigorous vinyasa, backbends,
handstands, and arm balances are
powerful and beneficial, but they
don't stimulate your parasympathetic
nervous system as much as the
practices listed previously. so if
the positive changes you gain from
yoga can't be entirely credited to
its impact on your nervous system,
what is helping you feel and live
better? the answer is life force.
almost all styles of hatha yoga
increase the flow of prana, or life
force, in your body.
yoga, like the science of
acupuncture, or tai chi and qi gong,
is based on prana (referred
to as chi in the chinese arts and
sciences). these disciplines see
prana as the essential force that
sustains everything. yogis went a
step further, prescribing the
intelligent use of prana as the key
to facilitating spiritual awakening.
"having known the origin...and the
physical existence of prana, one
achieves immortality," says the
prasna upanishad. in other words,
the aim of life (and practice) is
realized through the skillful use of
prana.
amazon seller when do i get paid
prana has always played a
vital role in hatha yoga. ancient
tantric texts, like the
hatha yoga pradipika and
gheranda samhita, list various
techniques to help build, channel,
and regulate life force. in these
writings, asana is described as the
foundation for hatha's deeper
practices because it is so
accessible and helps to free life
force: the process of holding a
pose—while "breathing through
it"—dissolves pranic blockages.
different postures unlock prana in
different ways. forward bends, for
example, increase the types of prana
that calm, soothe, and ground;
backbends unblock pranic forces that
are more expansive and revitalizing.
a key reason you feel
better after class is that the
practice has helped move your life
force in a way that is more
balanced, complete, or suited to
your particular mental and physical
needs. the principles of how
different asanas affect life force
are explained in both the hatha
tradition and ayurveda. the more we
learn and practice these teachings,
the more we know about which poses
will help at any particular time.
you may notice a particular practice
(or style) that used to make you
feel great is doing so less and
less; that may be a sign that it is
time for a change.
the more you control and
build your storehouse of life force,
the more you can achieve through
practice. "the control of prana is
the ultimate strength," says the
srimad bhagavatam, one of india's
revered scriptures. the more you
learn to skillfully utilize the
power of prana that begins with
asana, the closer you come to
realizing yoga's limitless
potential.
amazon seller when do i get paid
this article
appreared in the febraury 2010
edition of the yoga journal
|
