7/30/2019 Yoga Class notes

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In the West, we have come to view the body as an object to exercise, as a separate entity from ourselves. When the body becomes an it, we become

someone doing something to somebody; mind and body become dissociated. In Yoga, we imagine the body as a community, with each body system and

each layer a representative of consciousness. When we affect one minute part of the body, we affect the whole. When we our emotions fluctuate, so

does our posture. When our mind is otherwise engaged, we lose contact with our bodies.

When we work from the outside in, we primarily use the sympathetic nervous system (the part of the central nervous system that is responsible for fight

or flight responses) and this is so highly charged in most of us in our everyday lives. Being under constant pressure, the sympathetic nervous system runs

on overdrive most of our waking hours. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, governs respiration, relaxation and functions such as

digestion and when the sympathetic nervous system is in control, this takes a back seat and therefore we can feel ungrounded. To ignite the

parasympathetic nervous system and balance the nervous system, yoga is traditionally practiced very slowly, with each movement synchronized to the

breath.

When we practice yoga from the inside out, we reconnect our minds with our bodies. As we give our full attention to every breath, movement and the

subtlest sensations, the body becomes mindful and the mind become embodied.

Setting Your Intention(s)Rather than, or as well as, having goals or resolutions for the year, I invite you to set an intention and the intention is this:

I will embody my mind in everything that I do

I will be more mindful with everything that I do

Feeling What IsWhen we enter a pose, we start by feeling what is. We simply feel how we are and offer ourselves complete acceptance for whatever we are bringing to

the mat. We observe purely from a neutral viewpoint for without this we cannot possibly know how we actually are, and we cannot know where to begin

or how to skillfully work with ourselves in the practice.

Feeling Where We Are StuckOnce we enter a pose, we are met by our ability or inability to take on this new form. We feel all the places where we hold tension. As we think, so we

become. It is also entirely possible that you are unaware of feeling anything with certain par ts of the body where we have become dissociated. If that is

the case, hold your attention at that space and with time, you will be able to feel.

Linking With The BreathNow we begin to link our awareness with the breath and to use the breath to palpate and feel places of tension. As we breathe we begin to realize that

there are 4 phases to each breath - arising, pausing, dissolving, pausing. Learn to synchronize your practice so that you expand with the incoming breath,

pause in the silence, relax effort on the outgoing breath, and pause in the silence again.

Moving Into Stillness

As our practice becomes more refined, we redirect our awareness to the stillness that is in between, inside and throughout all movement. This experienceof stillness within the movement can happen anytime we become completely merged with the movement itself.

Practice

GETTING GROUNDED OPENING THE HEART FLOW

Sitting Cobra Intense

Childs Pose Seal Aeroplane

Seated Butterfly Pose Camel Standing Split

Half Frog Table Top High Lunge

Modified Half Lotus Supported Corpse Vinyasa (+ Half Table Top)

Kneeling Salutations Wheel Corpse

YOGACLASSANN-SEE YEOH

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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