Mindfulness Yoga

by Frank Jude Boccio

  While the text most often has instructions on how to move into and out of the asanas, a general rule is that one exhales during any movement that draws the body in on itself, as in moving into a forward bend or twisting, and one inhales when opening the body up, as in reaching your arms overhead or lifting up into a backbend as in LOCUST.

  While many may focus on the precise structural form of the asanas and the “ideal” body or shape, I will place less emphasis on the detailed structural aspects of the asanas. Rather, I hope to encourage you, the reader-practitioner, to practice the asanas as tools for self-learning. Your aim should be to let the postures live in your body rather than to force your body into the form of the asana. As I heard David Swenson, a brilliant ashtanga yoga teacher, once say, “Don’t make an asana of yourself.”

  1. Corpse Pose

  3-5 MINUTES

  Begin in CORPSE POSE, with your legs about 12-18 inches apart and your toes turned out. Your arms are at your sides, at least a few inches from the torso, with your palms turned upward.

  First, just let your awareness rest wherever in your body you experience the breath. Forget for now all you think you know about your breath or what you’ve been taught about the proper way to breathe and simply notice how the breath is coming and going. Remember, let go of the tendency to control or manipulate and just see for yourself what is happening now.

  Some may feel the breath as the rising and falling of the abdomen. Others may feel the breath more in the chest rising and falling or the ribs expanding and contracting. Still others may feel the sensations of the breath at the tips of the nostrils or at the back of the throat. Wherever you feel it, rest your attention there.

  Know an in-breath as an in-breath and an out-breath as an out-breath. Notice the specific feeling tone of an in-breath and the specific feeling tone of the out-breath. Feeling tone refers to the full sensational presence of the body as experienced, the “tone” of what your body is feeling. When you inhale, there is a subtle sense of expansion and of tension, while the exhalation is normally experienced as a release and contraction. Then begin to see the various other qualities of the breath. Following the entire “breath-body,” know a long breath as a long breath and a short breath as a short breath. Avoid trying to make them even. Just breathe and experience. The breath may be long or short, even or uneven, deep or shallow, rough or smooth. Just note the breath, paying attention, without trying to make the breath any particular quality. As you pay attention to the breath, notice any changes that happen naturally.

  Then, still allowing the breath to come and go naturally, expand your awareness to include the whole body. Are you holding tension in the body, perhaps tensing the legs or the buttocks as if you need to still hold yourself up? Now that you are aware, does the tension release? Feel the weight and volume of the body as it presses into the floor. Can you feel the tips of your toes and fingers without wiggling them? How do you know where in space the body is when you remain still and quiet? Do you experience hard and fast boundaries or does the outline of the body seem indistinct?

  Trace the back of the body and see what parts of it contact the floor and where there is space between the floor and the body, like behind the knees. Where else is the body not in contact with the floor?

  Avoid letting the mind drift into daydreaming and simply remain still and aware of your breath for three to five minutes, and then gently begin to move into the next posture.

  2. Knee-to-Chest Pose

  45-60 SECONDS EACH SIDE

  From observing the breath and the body at rest, we begin to observe the breath and the body during movement. Again, let go of all you think you know about how your body moves. Imagine that you are an alien intelligence that has just entered into this body and you are tentatively making your first movements. Now, slowly slide the right heel along the floor, bending the knee toward the ceiling as you slide the foot toward the buttock. Pay attention to the feeling tone of the leg and the whole body as you do this. Can you feel any changes in your weight distribution or the center of gravity in your pelvis as the foot moves into the buttock? Once there, slowly lift the foot off the floor and bring the knee into your chest while holding it with both hands.

  After 6-8 breaths, slowly lower the foot to the floor near the buttock and then slide it out to straight. Notice the discrete point where you know you can fully release the weight of the leg to the earth, and when you do, notice any changes in the breath and the feeling tone throughout the body. Have you been holding the breath or holding tension in the body?

  Repeat with the other leg.

  3. Simple Cross-Legged Sitting Pose

  2-5 MINUTES

  Sit with your legs crossed, with your feet underneath your knees. Notice which shin you naturally place over the other. Sit on the forward points of your sitting bones (avoid rolling the pelvis backward and rounding the lower back). With your hands beside your hips, feel the sitting bones pressing down into the ground as the crown of your head rises up, lengthening the spine. Feel where in your body you sense your weight as it presses down into the earth.

  Now place your hands on your knees, close your eyes, and open to the feeling tone of “just sitting.” Then lean as far to the right as you can without falling over and see what happens to the feeling tone. Where do you need to hold tension to keep from falling? What has happened to your center of gravity? How has this affected your breathing? It is unlikely that the breath is deep, full, or relaxed while the body is so precariously balanced.

  Then slowly lean over to the left as far as you can, and watch how the feeling tone changes across the range of motion, growing more relaxed as you approach the center, and then again getting more tense and restricted the more off-center you go to the other side. Then begin to rock side to side in ever smaller movements, letting the quality of your breath show you where center is. The breath will grow more relaxed, smoother, and the feeling tone will be one of ease. You may feel the tension in your upper back and shoulders melt. Without needing any external reference, your body and breath will guide you to your center. Let your breath be the guru.

  4. Cross-Legged Forward Bend

  8-12 BREATHS EACH SIDE

  Now, extend out over the crossed legs resting your forehead on your arms. As you sit here, notice where the breath is experienced in this forward bend. Do you feel the belly pressing against your thighs? Can you feel the breath in your back? Perhaps you can feel the ribs expanding and contracting with each breath. Notice if you are holding tension anywhere in the body and see if you can just let go. Do you find that the in-breath lifts you slightly while the out-breath releases you back down into the forward bend? If so, don’t exaggerate this movement, but also refrain from inhibiting it. Let the breath move the body freely and release into the experience of the movement.

  When coming up from this posture, draw the navel back to the spine and roll the spine up, one vertebra after the other until you come back to SIMPLE CROSS-LEGGED POSTURE.

  Repeat with other shin placed on top. Notice how unusual this may feel. You most probably sat first with your legs crossed your habitual way. A simple change such as this can already show how conditioned we are in our behavior.

  Modification:

  If you find your lower back rounding and your head and forearms do not come to the ground, sit on a blanket or two so that your pelvis is elevated and you can tilt forward from your hips, and rest your torso on a bolster or enough blankets so that you can rest with your spine extended.

  5. Seated Side Stretch

  8-12 BREATHS EACH SIDE

  Place your right hand beside your hip and stretch the left arm up. Slowly slide the right hand out to the side, placing your forearm on the ground, while bending over to the right. Keep grounding your left sitting bone, while stretching through the fingers of your left hand; bring the left arm as parallel to the floor as possible. If it’s comfortable, turn your face to gaze up. If your left arm is blocking your view of the ceiling, try to take the left arm
back toward your ear.

  Sitting in the posture, feel where the breath is experienced. Notice the difference between the left side of the body and the right side. Come up on an inhalation while stretching the fingers of your left hand up to the ceiling. Exhale as you release the left arm to your side.

  Repeat on the other side.

  6. Cat/Cow Pose

  6-10 REPETITIONS, LINKED WITH YOUR BREATHING CYCLE

  Position your hands straight down from your shoulders and your knees straight down from your hips. On the exhalation, round your back like an angry cat, tilting the pelvis backward and tucking the tailbone between your legs. Let your head hang down as you gaze back toward your pelvis. On the inhalation, tilt your pelvis forward, dropping your belly toward the floor as the crown of your head and your sitting bones reach up toward the ceiling, your back moving into a soft backbend. Here your back takes the line of a cow’s back.

  Let your natural breath determine the duration and rhythm of your movement. Begin the movement with the tilting of your pelvis, and let the movement generated by this action flow up your back like a wave moving through water. Pay attention to the body of the breath as well as all that arises as you move from one position to the other.

  7. Downward-Facing Dog

  10-30 BREATHS

  From COW POSE, tuck your toes under and, reaching your sitting bones up and back, straighten your legs into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG. Keep the sitting bones lifting and let go of the notion that you need to have your heels come to the floor, yet do keep them moving toward the floor, but not at the expense of the elongation of your back.

  As you breathe in the posture, shift your weight from limb to limb slowly enough to sense the changes in the body’s tension and relaxation. How does the added effort of supporting yourself through one limb over the others affect the breath? Then begin to shift your body weight more and more into center, and notice how the breath again grows more even and easy.

  Modification:

  With tight hamstrings, the lower back will round and compress. Simply bend your knees until you can feel the back lengthen and the lower back regains its natural (inward-moving) lumbar curve. If the backs of your legs are really tight, in addition to bending your knees, you may want to experiment with stepping your feet a bit wider than hip width.

  8. Lunge

  3-6 BREATHS EACH SIDE

  From DOWNWARD FACING DOG, step your right foot forward between your hands, keeping the back leg straight and extending out through your back heel. Make sure the bent knee is not coming forward of your toes. The front knee should be bent at a 90-degree angle with the shin perpendicular and the thigh nearly parallel to the floor. Come up onto your fingertips and roll the shoulders down your back while opening the heart as you gaze forward.

  Without straining or becoming rigid, keep making the effort to lengthen out through the back heel while keeping the chest lifted. Let the breath move freely through the body. If the breath seems constricted, notice if you are straining in the posture and let the breath guide you to a more easeful posture.

  Step the right leg back into DOWNWARD-FACING DOG and repeat with the left leg. From the LUNGE, step forward into the HANGING FORWARD BEND.

  Modification:

  With tight hips, you may find it difficult to extend your back leg while keeping your front leg bent 90 degrees at the knee. You can place your hands on blocks and even unbend your front knee until you feel more openness in the hips. Ground the front thigh toward the floor while lifting your back leg up toward the ceiling.

  9. Hanging Forward Bend

  6-12 BREATHS

  Have your feet about a fist’s width apart (hip width) and lift your sitting bones up as you drape your torso over your legs. If there is tension felt in the lower back, soften and bend the knees. Cross your arms, interlocking them at the elbows, and just hang.

  In this, our second forward bend, it may be easier to see the way the breath moves the body. As you inhale, can you feel the torso rise up a bit? And as you exhale, notice how you release back into the forward bend. It is as if your body was bobbing on the surface of a gentle wave. Again, don’t exaggerate this movement, but also do not inhibit it. Just let it be and experience it. You may or may not go deeper into the stretch as you continue to hang here. Don’t force it.

  Modification:

  Those with tight hamstrings will find that they will round in the lower back, eventually causing tension there. Bend your knees to release the back tension and let your torso be supported by your thighs. This action stabilizes the lower back and sacrum and allows you to bend from your hip joint rather than from the back. Keep the sitting bones lifting, while simultaneously pressing down through your feet.

  10. Spinal Roll

  20-40 SECONDS

  Release your arms and let them dangle freely. Don’t hold them in any particular place. With your knees softly bent, draw your navel back toward your spine and roll up one vertebra at a time. See how little or how much of your spine you can actually experience as you do this. Let the breath be natural.

  Keep your eyes open and if you see your arms coming in toward your legs, or reaching out away from you, see if you can consciously let go and surrender them to gravity. The main function of this pose in Mindfulness Yoga is to help us become more aware of our habit energy. We tend to hold so much tension in our shoulders, neck, and arms that it becomes second nature, and we are not even conscious of it. So see if you can become aware of the tension as it arises by observing the stiffness move into your arms, and each time you see that happening, just keep letting it go. Be like a rag doll. Do not lift your shoulders as you roll up. Simply let them roll back into place. Remember that there are seven vertebrae in your neck, so see if you can get a sense of lifting and stacking them right up to the base of your skull.

  Modification:

  If there is pain in the lower back, even with bent knees, then use your hands on your thighs for added support.

  11. Mountain/Balanced Standing Pose

  2-5 MINUTES

  Stand with your feet hip-width apart and parallel along the midline of the foot (roughly straight back from the second toe). Your big toes will be slightly closer to each other than your heels when lined up along the midline of the foot. Feel the weight of your body descend down through your legs and into the earth just in front of your heels. Let your spine rise up out of the basin of your pelvis, upper chest lifted, and shoulders relaxed and slightly back.

  See if you can feel the natural curves of your spine. The neck slightly curves in, while the upper back has a slight roundness and the lower back again curves in gently. Avoid collapsing into the lower back. Keep the front ribs soft.

  Now, as we did in the SIMPLE CROSS-LEGGED SEATED POSE, let’s experiment to find our center. With your eyes closed, try keeping the body straight and lean forward as far as you can without falling on your face. Notice where you need to maintain tension in order to resist gravity. Your toes will be literally “holding on.” Notice what happens to the natural curvature of the spine in order to keep from falling. And then notice your breath. I hazard a guess that it will not be deep or slow or very expansive.

  From here, lean as far back as you can and feel how unstable this is. Again, notice the body and where you need to hold tension in order to keep from falling. Notice the quality of your breath, and perhaps you can also begin to notice the quality of your mental space. It is probably as constricted and tight as your breath! Lean forward and back, lessening the arc of movement until you can feel the breath grow a bit deeper and more spacious. Notice how you can release all the major muscles in the back and shoulders and be buoyantly straight. Again, let the breath guide you, and accept the feeling tone of the body as your teacher.

  Repeat this observation meditation as you lean to the side. Trying to keep your body as straight as possible, lean over as far as you can to the right and see where in your body the tension must be held in order to keep from falling. Notice where you feel the breath a
nd what its quality is. Then, lean over to the left and see here how your weight presses down through the left foot and how unstable the right foot’s contact with the earth is. Can you feel how you need to distort the spine, curving it up toward the ceiling as you lean out to the side? Then shift back and forth from left to right in smaller and smaller arcs, using the feeling tone of ease and stability to guide you to center.