7 Essential Principles
7 Essential Principles
7 essential principles to a practice
Relaxing the Body:
Wherever there is gripping or tension-relax.
Quieting the Mind:
We position ourselves on the mat, distancing ourselves from our responsibility to react to worldly affairs.
Intent:
The heart embraces the practice with all its might, directing the minds focus into the awareness of the body.
Rooting:
Let the weight of the body sink into the expansiveness of the hands and feet, feel the power of the downward movement flowing through the body.
Connecting:
Be conscious of two opposite directions that are connected to each other. The more each part of the body is distinct, the deeper the connection.
Breathing:
Be aware of the oscillating moods of breath, inhale-widening, elongation, exhale-steady, rooting and connecting. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. At times in the background, at times the source of action, breath is always present.
Elongating and Widening:
When elongating and widening occur, not one ring touches another as the chain called the Body moves in space. There is no sagging into The joints, no effort in the muscles.
Finally:
All the principles coexist to create a unified practice and need to be applied at all times. When we feel ‘stuck’ we need to look carefully to find which principle is neglected and then revive it. We work at all levels together, providing beginning students with the challenge and inspiration of working with others more experienced, and for yoga veterans an opportunity to cultivate their own practice.
