The importance of foundation.
"You want to stand on your head and you don't even know how to stand on your feet."
-- B.K.S. Iyengar.
The rooting of the foundation, or base, allows extension, space,
balance, and ease in a pose.
Lightness is cultivated from
grounding so start here. Give your attention to mastering Tadasana from the very beginning, everything you need is in this pose.
Try this simple exercise. Sit down on a
firm chair with your heels directly under your hips. First sit in a slouched position and notice how the body feels and be
aware of the quality of your breath. Now, sit up tall, without leaning
against the chair back. Find the center of each sit bone and balance your weight evenly over both sitbones and into the chair seat. Observe the rebounding, lengthening
action that lifts your spine out of the pelvis. Enhance this by
using your inhalations to broaden the back and you exhalations to softly lengthen up through the spine, right to the top of your head. Observe the body and the quality of the
breath. Do you feel lighter? Is the breath fuller and deeper than when you sat in a slumped position?
The tallest trees in the world, the redwoods, have a
vast intricate network of roots supporting their skyward stretch. I like
to think of it the same way in practice. Whenever my hands or feet are
touching the floor I consciously ground my awareness down
toward the ground. This is where I gather my strength.
The standing poses, among other things, are designed in a manner to ground
and center, attaining an intimate relationship with our bodies. We start
from a gross level of awareness, then through time and practice,
slowly, things become more subtle. They are intelligently designed. Often I feel gathering
strength originates from focus and awareness. Even if it hasn't
physically manifested yet, it doesn't matter. We are working the most
challenging muscle of all in between the ears. You have to start to learn to work from the inside out.
Finding the 'perfect' pose isn't really the goal, think of it more as the byproduct of consistent
practice. Practice is the goal. Your body will change everyday.
Grounding is also about
fully inhabiting the body from root to tip. Feeling every part of our body integrated with the greater whole. This
doesn't mean tensing, grasping or holding. This simply means feeling and being aware. If we can't feel it, we can't
transform it. Equally stated, we can't let it go either. What we are trying to do in practice is wake up the parts of ourselves
that lie dormant or inert. We already have everything we need so think of it
as an excavation. Some may have to dig deeper than others, however in
the larger of scope of things it doesn't matter. Our body, our lesson. Somethings you can't just be told. you need to practice and find out for yourself. If in doubt just take yourself back to the beginning.
"Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
- St. Francis of Assisi
