Asana: Mind + Body

Asana is the third of the 8 limbs of yoga, following the Yamas & Niyamas. Likely the form of yoga we're most familiar with, directly translated, asana simply means “posture” & relates to the physical practice. 

Mind + Body

During the course of our lives, many of us have felt a need to, in a certain sense ‘reject’ our bodies. We may have felt disappointed with how our body looked or moved. We may have felt betrayed by our bodies through pain or illness, seeing it primarily as a place of discomfort rather than our own home. Or maybe we’ve gone through periods of living primarily in our heads, numbing or zoning out of our bodies & putting all of our energy into our minds. 

Whatever the reason, many of us have ended up with a severed relationship between our minds & bodies, seeing our bodies as something to be changed, controlled or ignored rather than nurtured & appreciated.

Yoga asks us to pay attention to the present moment, looking inwards, what do you feel right now? 

Maybe you feel tension, maybe openness.

You might feel the fabric of your clothes resting on you, or maybe the air touching your skin.

Maybe you feel the subtle sensation of your heart beating.

You might notice your breath, the movement of your belly or chest or the sensation of air moving through your nose.

Making a conscious decision to turn inwards, helps bring us back into the present moment & grounds our awareness within our bodies.

Through an asana practice, consciously placing ourselves into different postures, we begin to heal a disrupted mind-body relationship. By learning to move & breathe in new ways, we open ourselves up to thinking & feeling in new ways, seeing ourselves & inhabiting our bodies from a new perspective. We can begin to find space & freedom where we previously felt caged.

By tuning into our bodies, choosing to focus in on sensations within our bodies & allowing them to be, whether pleasant or unpleasant, mild or intense, rather than zoning out into thought, we learn not to run away from ourselves, we begin to completely inhabit our own body through every change & shift.

By choosing movement which nourishes our minds & bodies, which challenges & lifts us up or calms us down into stillness, we can begin to work with our bodies from a place of love, acceptance & appreciation.