2014 YLT: 2nd Weekend Summary

Posted on May 1, 2014 by admin

Theme for Weekend # 2. An Introduction to Anatomy and Kinesiology

Class begins with: Heart Field Meditation,
followed by Dan Siegel’s Hub of Awareness Meditation

Sutras Studies: review I-1 to I-16, and II 46 – 48. Get a feel for basic vocabulary. Find a sutra or two you can work with practically.

Asana practice: Continue to refine energy flow from heart to feet, into earth/ground, and back up through core. Special attention to standing poses and dog pose. Refine action of feet, ankles, knees and hip joints to relieve unnecessary stress on spine and, using DFL as guide, track through all axes of movement through hips. Become more clear on the three basic movements of the pelvis and the femurs: saggital flexion and extension (forward and back bending); lateral flexion/extension or ‘fish body’ as seen in trikonasna, ardha chandrasana and parsvakonasana; and rotation or twisting as in revolved half moon, revolved triangle and side angle and parsvottanasana. .

Main Theme: Somatic based spiritual practice requires an understanding of soma, the embodied expression of spirit. This weekend we will start with the obvious, muscles/bones/connective tissue structures. looking for ways to work holistically, and later in the course bring in the organs, physiology and the cellular levels of consciousness. But first, an overview from a yogic perspective.

In the Vedic tradition, human ‘anatomy’ consists of three nested bodies:
1. The gross body (Sanskrit: sthula sharira) is the body of mass and weight. It is tangible, and includes all structures from muscles and bones to cells, water and more. Our key word here is ‘stability’, sthira in Sanskrit. (sthira sukham asanam, PYS II-46)

2. The subtle or energy body (Sanskrit: sukshma sharira) includes the energies of the body such as heat, electricity, motility and motion, including the physiological and psychological processes of aliveness. It can be directly felt, but is not ‘tangible’ like the gross body. Neither is it separate from the gross body, as matter, as Mr. Einstein points out, is just a very dense form of energy. The key words here are flow and fluidity, or sukha, sukham in Sanskrit.

3. The causal body (Sanskrit: karana sharira), seed of all seeds: No perfect English translation but rainbow light body or the body of limitlessness can be useful. Another way to consider this ‘body’ is as the organizing intelligence of the cosmos, manifesting as fields: gravity, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear. The key words here are space, spaciousness and light.

For a yogi, kinesiology, the study of movement, is more important than anatomy. The main principle of kinesiology is known as joint congruence, which states that any joint, whether still or in motion, is most stable and safe when the center of one of the bones is exactly centered on the opposite bone. This is where alignment in yoga meets kinesiology. If my hip joint is aligned properly, the center of the femur head will remain exactly centered on the mid-point of the acetabulum of the pelvis throughout any healthy movement. This implies that all the muscles and muscle groups in the region are in balance throughout movement. An unhealthy movement will disturb the alignment by contracting one or more muscles asymmetrically and pulling the femur slightly off center. This will be felt as having a ‘tight hip’. As we build perception and begin to feel our way through the sensations, we can start to use simple movements to re-align the hip joints. Here the energy body and gross body work as one and we will start by moving in and out of the basic yoga poses. See Notes from St. John for details on working in the poses.

For our anatomical enquiry into the gross body structures, we will approach the muscles and bones from a holistic perspective, using as our primary reference “Anatomy Trains” by Tom Myers. Anatomy tends to be taught by learning/memorizing the body as a series of parts: muscles, bones, organs, nerves, etc. This approach totally misrepresents the reality of the human body which is a living, dynamic, integrated presence. We will use Tom’s work as a map to begin to see and feel the fascial continuities that link and integrate the layers and levels of the body in action and perception. Later on in the course, we will take a deeper look at four levels or layers of fascia: the pannicular or superficial fascia; the axial fascia with anterior and posterior compartments; the meningeal fascia and the visceral fascia.

The key Anatomy Train line for yogis is the ‘deep front line’, or DFL, which allows us to connect the myofascia of the muscles with the visceral fascia of the gut body, as it includes the diaphragm and pericardium. This line integrates the core of the body from head to feet and is the root of tadasana, our primary standing pose.

1. Find the DFL origins in your feet. The heel bone is bypassed, so the gastroc/soleus muscles, which become the achilles tendon where it attaches to the heel, is not part of the action. Overusing these outer muscles is a habit that is difficult for beginner to overcome. Learn to be ‘on your toes’, which actually means to carry your weight on the tarsals and metatarsals with the heels very light. This allows instant movement in any direction and is the foundation for all skillful movements that begin with the legs. Watch a cat or dog as they move and notice their heels and wrists never touch the ground.

2. Feel the inner thighs awakening. We overwork the quads and hamstrings, neither of which are part of the DFL. The adductors can be taught to be engaged in trikonasana, parsvakonasana and ardha chandrasana. They are the ‘mediators of the legs, the muscles in the middle that bring a balanced energy flow. Find this. Repeat. Again.

3. The iliopsoas is a major player in the DFL’s healthy functioning, but these muscles tend to be overly contracted and isolated from the legs. Most lower back issues stem from this dissociation. By learning to slowly move in and out of the standing poses such as uttanasana and trikonasana, without collapsing the upper torso, we can begin to reconnect the psoas muscles with the rest of the DFL in the legs. Ida Rolf, pioneer somatic innovator described the psoas as linking walking and breathing, as the diaphragm is the next section of the DFL to be integrated. Moving in and out rather than holding brings the breath more clearly into focus. Most beginners ‘hold’ their breath if they are ‘holding’ a yoga pose. This is an unconscious habit that needs to be transformed asap.

4 Diaphragm: He we find a huge muscle dividing abdomen from chest cavity, attaching to ribs, spine, heart. It has opening for the blood vessels and esophagus, but is pretty strong and relatvely unconscious. Our work in exploring the breath will help differentiate ribs from diaphragm and learn to recognize the pressure cavities that play a major role in the shape they take on. Most important is to feel an upward lift to the lower dome of the diaphragm coming up from the feet. The diaphragm should ride on the aliveness of the feet through the integration of the DFL.

Now Into Skull and Upper Limbs: As the diaphragm receives support from below, the intercostals can awaken and support the ribs from the inside. this then relieves pressure on the scalenes from trying to hold up the front ribs. The shoulders can also relax and the arm connections through the blood vessel highways can now be felt. Hands can connect directly to the feet, head to the tail.

From the awakening and refining of the DFL, we can see the role of some of the other Anatomy Train Lines. The Superficial Back Line, or SBL, and the Superficial Front Line, or SFL, work as a pair when integrated with the DFL. In a forward bend such as uttanasana, the SBL lengthens if the DFL maintains its core support and low. In a backbend, the SFL lengthens, again if the DFL is supporting. Notice the SFL breaks at the pelvis. The quads need to lengthen for everyone. They chronically over work. The upper SFL is trickier as the abdominals are often weak and the inner muscles of the chest wall to tight. There needs to be two differetn action for most beginning students to fully open the SFL.

The lateral lines, right and left, are opened in the lateral poses like trikonasan, parsvakonasana and ardha chandrasana, again with support form the DFL.

The spiral lines can be explored in standing twists, using the support of a wall for extra clarity.

Au Revoir, Emilie

Posted on April 14, 2014 by admin

I just heard the news of Emilie’s passing from my friend Deborah and I am feeling a deep sense of loss, for myself, and for all of us somanauts and explorers of the mystery of aliveness. Emilie was a mentor and friend and her deep support and encouragement of my own unfolding was incredibly powerful and important to me. She was unique, to say the least, and fearless and will be tremendously missed. This is from the Continuum web site and offers a brief glimpse into Emilie and her life’s work.

A Letter from Emilie Conrad, Continuum Founder

Although Continuum officially emerged in 1967, the work basically represents a lifetime of freeing myself from the confines of culture.

As a very young person, my intuition sensed that all life was imbued with a unifying spirit and somewhere within my body this spirit could be experienced. The impression I received from the world around me was, “God was elsewhere”.

For years, I had a recurring image of the movement of fish dissolving into the undulating waves of the ocean, becoming one inseparable reality. I felt that somewhere in a secret long ago, we were all swimming with the very same boundless wave movements of ocean fish, and if only I could discover how to get there, the “real” world would be revealed to me.

In 1953, I received a scholarship at the Katherine Dunham School in New York, where I steeped myself in the magical world of Haitian dance. A few years later, I arrived in Haiti, and through a series of fortunate events, I became involved in a newly formed folklore company as choreographer and lead dancer. It was there that I had an epiphany that would change the course of my life.

What I witnessed in the prayer rituals was the undulating movements I had been searching for all my life. Though I had seen these same movements at the Dunham School, it wasn’t until I was actually dancing in a Haitian hut and feeling myself drawn deeper into the primal call of the drums that my known self dissolved into the memory of those ancient rhythms. To this day, deep in my eyes, there still dances a timeless undulating resonance.

What I saw was how the undulating wave movements of the Haitian prayer became the connecting link to our spiritual bio-world. At last I saw the movement of ocean fish personified in human movement. I knew in that moment that these fluid undulating movements transcended time, place or culture and provided the crucial connection, linking organism to environment as an unbroken whole.

I returned from Haiti in 1960, and spent the next seven years exploring the universality of those undulating wave motions that so inspired me. These explorations eventually led to what is now known as Continuum. It’s important to know that each of us carries billions of years of an ongoing global process, a sequenced continuum of life on Earth, which is taking place within the galaxy and human alike.

We are basically fluid beings that have arrived on land. All living processes owe their lineage to the movement of water. Our implicate pre-existent memory beginning with the first cell, lies in the mysterious deep, quietly undulating, circulating, nourishing this aquatic being on its mission to planet earth. God is not elsewhere, but is moving through our cells and in every part of us with its undulating message. The fluid presence in our bodies is our fundamental environment; we are the moving water brought to land.

I would like to suggest that the far-reaching consequences of having a body are not just to serve as a conveyance, not just to propagate, but that we are composed of a mysterious substance that has no defined boundary. Without this substance we could not exist as humans. We may, at some time in the near future, learn to replace our pulsating wet body parts with metallic ones, in which case, we will become something quite different.

It was the vision of a universal human that beckoned me. I had no map to follow except my strong urge to experience our essential bio-lineage and my certainty that our existences were fed far beyond our cultural moorings. It is my belief that we carry in our cells, in our tissues, in the very throb of our existence an underlying flow that urges, inspires, flares our nostrils and beats our heart. This encompassing atmosphere of love has its own destiny — perhaps using humans as its messengers, this love has arrived on Earth.

Meditation: The Toroidal Field of the Heart

Posted on February 12, 2014 by admin

“Centered attention on the movement and activity of the heart, including stillness, is the foundation of biodynamic (craniosacral) practice, as I teach it.” Michael J. Shea.

In a previous post we introduced the torus as one of the most fundamental shapes in nature. Now we will begin to explore variations on a meditation centered on the toroidal field of energy emanating from and pouring into the human heart, and the ever present stillness that underlies all movement.

This will help begin the awakening of the light body, which we will then integrate with the sound (energy) body in the form of vibration, and the physical or structural body in the form of flesh, bones, water, organs and cells, so the three bodies can function as a whole, in stillness. Stabilizing the light body energy is the next and crucial step in the process of transforming human consciousness.

Step 1: Find a comfortable position for the meditation. Any sitting posture will do. Feel tall, wide and soft. Relax and drop everything into the breath. Release the breath and let it flow as effortlessly as possible.

Step 2: Bring your attention to your heart. The physical heart will do, although you can also use the heart chakra or the space just behind the physical heart to rest your awareness. Getting in the ballpark is good enough. Feel the energy here. It may be warm, vibrant, expansive, fluid. If the heart feels dark, heavy or unconsciousness, imagine a place in nature, or an experience in your life when your heart felt naturally soft and open. Nurture this feeling. Invite gratitude and loving kindness to arise. Feel that the heart is your center, your true home.

3. Now invite your heart energy to feel that is sits at the center of a torus with openings up to the heavens and down into the earth. Imagine your heart energy in the form of love, travels down through the bottom opening, through your root chakra, (the muladhara,) into the earth, dropping and spreading as it unites with all the layers and levels of Mother Earth. Allow your love to embrace all. Feel rooted, grounded and stable. find the stillness of Mother Earth and rest here.

4. Now allow the energies of Mother Earth, in the form of love and nurturing, to rise up into the center of the torus, through your root chakra, to the heart. feel the heart as a lens focusing the earths energies and send these throughout the body circulating around the toroidal field.

5. Now allow your heart to open to Father Sky, the heavens, sending love and well-being up to the moon, sun, stars, galaxies and onward, embracing the whole cosmos. Feel open, spacious and light. Find the heavenly stillness and rest there. Then receive the return of love from the heavenly realms pouring into your heart. Feel your heart full of love and send this on to your organs, cells, fluids and structures. Return to your heart and rest in the stillness there. Feel light, grounded, stable, centered, ready for the day.