Yoga makes us travel into challenging postures, and then leads us to engage into a journey through it until we master these postures/asana. As we take this journey we will notice ups and downs, some days we can do the asana better than other days.
And so is life…
You may want to try the asana that you find quite extraordinary, but when you try it for the first time either you struggle, fail or fall due to the novelty of the posture and your body not being used to it.
But guess what? You get back on your mat and you try again!
You may fall and fail once more but you will get back to it, again and again… until one day without even realizing you are doing that extraordinary asana that you loved so much and ready to engage into another asana-adventure.
And so is life…
We are constantly dealing with stressful situations on a regular basis, and if we don’t sort them out at once we will carry them until they become a serious heavy burden.
As you begin to practice yoga, you will notice that the skills learned on your yoga mat can be transferred to your daily life. “I did, and I’m still learning so much with my yoga practice”.
Yoga has different enchantments, different ways to awake your senses depending on how much attention you pay to what is happening in your body, in your mind or around you in your class…
So, if you are an assiduous yogi attending different yoga classes, you may have also noticed that yoga teachers have a particular language to explain how to move in and out of a yoga posture and also how to correct yourself into that posture. Allegoric words to give a better understanding and to visualize better the posture.
One of them is the word “grounding”.
For example: “… Inhale deeply and as you exhale twist to the right looking over the right shoulder, as you ground the hips on the mat lengthen the spine…”
Grounding is also a meditative exercise we use in yoga to help people connecting with themselves and the universe, and it can also be used as an exercise to minimize the daily stressors of life.
So, here we go: sit comfortably and up right on the mat with your legs crossed. Close your eyes and imagine that your spine is the trunk of a tree and from its base (Mooladhara Chakra), roots extend down into the very centre of the earth itself. Now you can draw power up from the earth which each breath you take. Feel the energy rising up through your spine, visualizing the bright light traveling up through each vertebra towards the top of your head (Crown Chakra). You grow stronger with each breath.
Visualize branches that sweep up into the air and back down again towards the earth; these are coming from your Crown Chakra. Feel that power (energy) burst from your Crown Chakra and sweeping down towards the earth again where it completes a circuit, then returns to is source. Swirl the energy into your core, at the centre of your abdomen – Solar Plexus. Raise it up through your body and send your intention through your breath. Once you complete this exercise, ground the excess energy back in the earth from where it came. Reach down with your hands and touch the earth with your palms flat on the mat.
Keep what energy you need and release the excess. Relax.
Feel the excess of energy leave your body and flow into the earth. Breathe deeply and let yourself drift peacefully.
Enjoy Grounding…
Namaste.
David Marques – Yoga Teacher