Listen to Your Body
Listen to Your Body
To listen to your body means to respect its physical limitations and not let your ego rule how deep you go into a pose or how far you push. You have to play with your “edge” as we call it which is that fine line where you are at your maximum point of expression in that particular moment in that particular pose. Your edge varies from day to day based on several different contributing factors which is why it is so important to listen to your body. You should never feel pain in any pose although you may experience severe discomfort or new sensations, this is all part of the process of learning to listen to your body and differentiate between pain and uncomfortable or unfamiliar sensation. How can you differentiate you may ask, and the truth is it’s different for everybody but as a general rule if it’s a zinging sort of quick shooting pain that is where you stop before creating injury as that is your body speaking to letting you know you’ve gone too far. Although yoga is intended to heal, if not performed properly, or with the right intention, injuries can happen which is why it is crucial to learn to listen to and respect your body and what it’s telling you each and every time you practice.
Listening to your body begins with getting very quiet inside. When we begin to quiet the mind, we start to be able to recognize where blocks are in the flow of prana, breath. Feel prana trapped behind the right shoulder blade or hiding in the pelvic bowl. Our mind turns inward and we’re able to use our mind to guide the flow of prana, to hear the body’s whispers and cries, to begin to be a gentle parent coaxing, nudging, moving the whole – mind/body/soul – toward a feeling of safety and opening.
Listening to your body and taking the steps you need day in and day out will be the best for your practice, your mental clarity, and your whole life, no matter how it looks today. You need to appreciate the fact that I can be in the room today, and practice what your body is able to do today.
Your body is Home.Your Home, your only home.. where everything Is.
To listen to your body, you must first be able to be humbled by and honest with yourself. To listen to your body, you have to decide that you have an awareness that is deep and utterly necessary to your well-being. To listen to your body means that you set aside ego, ambition, and complacency, and do what is right for you. “Do it because you can” !!
If you can push, you push, if you have reached your edge, you maintain. If you have sharp pain or illness, you back off. What you hear in your body, you respect and honor with actions that mirror what your body is telling you. Always listen.
Your body speaks to you all the time. Listen to all the signals and communications your body is sending you, not the chatter in your mind that’s filtering it”. So, let yourself feel and don’t feel the need to label what you’re feeling or analyze it. Slow down, get quiet, stop thinking for a moment and focus on your breath!
Breathe deep, breathe as deep as you possibly can. This breathing will cause sensations in your body that you are not used to feeling. If you notice that you are stiff or tense somewhere in your body, let it go. By breathing deeply, your body will move without you thinking about it. When you breathe in, your chest and shoulders will lift up. When breathing out, you become more loose, more alterable. That is a good place to start, get to know your body and when you’re in yoga class keeping consistent with your breath you’ll know the days where you can go deeper and push and the days where you should hold yourself and not push so much.
Your body speaks to you all the time! Listen to all the signals and communications your body is sending you, not the chatter in your mind that’s filtering it.
