You will be amazed
to discover that, if you are kind to your body,
it will respond in
an incredible way.
Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening
The Spine [16]
The practice of
yoga is fundamentally an act of kindness toward oneself.
Judith Lasater,
[judithlasater.com]
IN MODERN YOGA PRACTICE, the idea that yoga is an act of
kindness toward oneself is likely to be more of a dream or aspiration than a
reality. If “kindness” only
references taking time for exercise to enhance body-mind health, then all exercise, no matter how stressful or anxiety-driven might be referenced as “kind”. But if “kindness”
references practices that relax and listen to the body and, at the same time,
enhance body physiology and functional strength and suppleness, then many
sequences of yoga are far from “kind”.
Body-mind practices such as tai chi and qigong are universally more
physiologically and mentally “kind”.
Contemporary yoga practice is dominated by a fitness
orientation, with the most popular classes in fitness centers and yoga-specific
studios offering a flowing “workout” aimed at toning and trimming. And yet, even with this orientation,
there is often an inherent quality that underlies the physicality that offers
something mentally soothing which participants cannot find in general exercise.
Speeding up the flow of typical yoga asanas [poses] may decrease the soothing quality and be more
akin to interval training and classes such as “cardio-pump” where the emphasis
is on fitness. Slowing down the flow of typical yoga asanas opens up this soothing quality and brings this
soothing quality more to center-point as yoga itself, as something beyond
exercise. And this shift to
slowing/holding may optimize gains in flexibility and strength because more
time is spent in releasing and expanding muscle and joint tension. The language of the health objectives
may gradually evolve from fitness terms
such as “flexibility and power/strength” to wellness terms such as “mobility and functionality,” and even
go to very cutting-edge thriving
terms such as “suppleness and balance/proportion.”
Fitness
flexibility
strength
[power/core]
Wellness
mobility
functional strength
Thriving
suppleness
proportional body balance
An intentional emphasis upon kindness is not simply
something of ethical value or for spiritual transcendence, but a process that
may directly affect and improve the physiology of practitioners. Writing on the impact of yoga on
endocrine glands, Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda writes, The glands are
stimulated not only by your physical movements, but by your thoughts as well. [p. xx,
Integral Yoga Hatha. Buckingham, Virginia: Integral Yoga
Publications, 1995]. And so, an
intentional orientation toward yoga as a process of kindness toward oneself,
directs mental activity to direct physical actions to be qualitatively
different. And has been described
in detail in the posts in this blog [Islands Of Grace], the process of intentionally calming and quieting
and holding asanas largely
flip-flops all body systems [neuro-endocrine-cardio-lymphatic] from a
sympathetic [fight-flight] response to a parasympathetic response.
Let us be less
impatient. Let us move wise and
take things easy.
If the asanas are done peacefully, this
yoga will indirectly slow us
down (also improving the immune system
which suffers from stress)
and strip us from
many useless and harmful efforts, giving us the
feeling of a different quality and
introducing a delicate fragrance
into each day’s existence.
Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening
The Spine [130]
Restorative-Yin Yoga
can be the penultimate (near the pinnacle) expression of “kindness yoga.” Restorative practices are
“gentle, gentle” yoga to optimize both a qualitative leap in physiological
restoration/rebalancing and high-level listening to the body-mind-spirit.
Other forms of “kindness yoga:”
Soft “Cat-Stretch” Yoga that moves beyond restorative poses to increase the
variety of yoga poses but with a primary emphasis on
· [A]
Stretching without discomfort [like a cat waking up in the morning],
· [B]
Selection of a sequence of poses that stretch and that do so with comfort,
· [C]
Calmness/slow movement into and out of poses.
Target
Populations:
· Those
who would like to stretch but finding stretching agony [involving those who
have done little intentional exercise and athletes who have become very
inflexible], and
· Those
who can stretch, and want to deepen their relaxation/body-mind work
Soft Power Yoga incorporates the full vocabulary of yoga poses but
with an emphasis on holding poses and relaxing into them [See Islands Of
Grace 10/11/2011 post: “Soft
Power: A Remarkable Outcome Of Restorative-Yin Yoga” and 4/5/12 post: “Soft
Power Mini-Workshop [3/14/2012] Post-Workshop Notes.”
“Kindness Yoga” is a QUALITATIVE SHIFT in body-mind
work: It is a shift from a mindset
of “no pain, no gain” to one of
“no pain, GAIN.”
In
“no pain, no gain,”
We
work against the body, not with the body….
In “no pain, GAIN,”
No
self-centered attitude, no self-immolation, no violence against ourselves, all
these things belong to the past
and it is an old-fashioned way of behaving.
Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening The
Spine [87]
