YogaJournalSingapore-February092018

36

february / march 2018

yogajournal.com.sg

MEDITATION IN MOTION

According to Anne Cushman, director

of the Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation

program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center

in Woodacre, California, the practice

of moving in mindfulness is especially

helpful for those who can’t seem to get

a sitting meditation practice going. “It’s

a way to open more deeply to your

yoga practice and extend that feeling

into the rest of your life,” she says.

That’s true for Rachel Lanzerotti, a

social worker and yoga therapist based

in San Francisco, and past participant in

the course. “It has taken me further in

a direction that I was already going—

of slowing down deeply into the

practice and truly being present with

what arises.” She uses the example of

standing in Tadasana (Mountain Pose): “I

was captivated by the feeling of my feet

against the mat, and the mat against

my feet, and everything rising from

there,” she recalls. “I was drawn into that

moment of sensation and breath and

observation even as I was noticing it. I

ended up standing there for minutes,

and it was incredibly precious and rich.”

Practitioners say that embracing

mindfulness has helped them be

able to deal more skillfully with the

everyday stresses of holding down a

job, managing relationships, and finding

their place in the world. Lee says that

mindfulness works because it offers a

realistic approach to dealing with life’s

challenges. “It’s very earthy, grounded,

and time-tested material,” she explains.

“It’s not about escape, creating a bliss

state—and then when you open your

eyes, you come crashing down into

reality. It gives you a path for shifting

your general scenario away from

attachment or aversion, to thinking

there is fundamentally no problem and

everything is workable. And that is very

liberating.”

Tadasana

(Mountain Pose)

Mountain Pose is too often

perceived as just something to do between the more

important asanas. In fact, it is foundational for all the

standing postures.

Stand with your arms at your sides.

Press the four corners of your feet into the ground,

distributing your body weight evenly between

both feet and centering it just in front of your heels.

Imagine your pelvis as a bowl with its rim level, both

front to back and side to side. Let the spine rise up,

keep the lower ribs from jutting out, gently lift the

chest, and open the heart. Relax the shoulders, with

your shoulder blades moving into and supporting

your upper back. Keep the chin parallel with the floor

and your ears centered over your shoulders.

See what happens as you simply

stand there. Be awake to all the sensations that arise:

the subtle swaying of the body, the movement of the

breath. Does boredom, impatience, or anticipation

arise? Can you just be here? When you feel like

you’ve been here long enough, take another 6 to 8

breaths and see what happens.

Adho Mukha Svanasana

(Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

From hands and knees, tuck your toes under, lift your hips, and straighten your legs into

Down Dog. Playfully explore the pose by bringing the heels to the floor one at a time.

Coordinate with the breath and notice if your mind wanders in the face of repetition.

Once you straighten both legs, remain in the pose for anywhere from 8 to 15 breaths,

staying alert to sensations, mental formations, and the way the experience continuously

changes. Teachers often talk about “holding” the postures, but notice how there is no

fixed thing to hold on to. Moment by moment, breath by breath, the posture re-creates

itself; the Down Dog of the first breath is not the same

as the Down Dog of the sixth breath.

You will begin to see that this is true not only for this asana, and all the other asanas,

but also for all life experiences. You will come to see that you are not the same “person”

when you come out of the posture that you were when you went into it.

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