t
he price of balance is
constant attention. Think
of all the actions you must
coordinate to remain stable in a
pose like Ardha Chandrasana.
You must keep your center of
gravity under close observation
and tight control to maintain its
precarious position above its nar-
row base of support: the standing
foot. To manage this, your ner-
vous system must stay on its toes
and do some fancy footwork. It
keeps repeating three steps: monitoring your position, calculat-
ing any necessary corrections, and directing these adjustments.
To monitor your position, your nervous system has to answer
the questions “Which way is up?” and “Where is my body?” It
has several ways to do this. Before you turn your head to look
up in Ardha Chandrasana, your eyes collect data about your
position from the horizon line or wall in front of you. The
semicircular canals, which
are balance organs in the
inner ear, also help you find
“up” by feeling the down-
ward pull of gravi ty. And
pressure sensors on the
bot toms of your feet de tect
which way you are tilting.
To indicate body position,
nerve endings in your joints signal the angle of your limbs,
trunk, neck, and head. Nerve endings in your muscles and ten-
dons detect force and stretch, and others in your skin detect
stretch and pressure. In addition, your eyes provide visual
information about the location of various body parts. From all
of this sensory input, you can tell whether your body is where
you want it to be—for example, whether your lifted leg is too
far forward or back for an optimal Ardha Chandrasana. You can
also tell not only where you are in space but which way you are
moving and how quickly.
To calculate corrections, your brain adds up all of this infor-
mation, compares it with an image of where it wants your body
to be, and does some heavy number-crunching to decide which
movements to make. To direct the needed adjustments, your
brain and spinal cord do additional computations and send
nerve signals to dozens of muscles, telling them to contract or
relax as needed. As you make these movements, your sensory
systems constantly monitor the results and start the cycle of
correction over again.
That’s a lot of work. No wonder it’s a challenge to balance
and chew gum at the same time! Let’s look at how this complex
pro cess affects your practice.
If you’re like most people, you depend primarily on visual
input to maintain your balance. Have you ever tried balancing
on one foot with your eyes closed? If so, the odds are that you
couldn’t stay there for long. You’ve probably gotten so good
at using your eyes for balance that you don’t bother to use the
other systems you have available.
Now think about what happens when you practice Ardha
Chandrasana outdoors. If you direct your gaze toward the hori-
zon, you can probably balance, but if you turn and look up at the
open sky, you may quickly lose your equilibrium. Even though
your eyes are open, you no longer see a fixed point of reference
to tell you which way is up or which way you are moving.
Another reason it’s hard to look up in Ardha Chandra sana,
even indoors, is that turning your head changes the position of
the balance organs in your inner ears with respect to gravity.
Nerve impulses that used to mean “up” and “down” now mean
something different. Your brain needs time to reinterpret all
of these messages. If it doesn’t adapt to the new conditions
rapidly enough, you may fall over. One way to overcome this
problem is to turn your head very slowly and incrementally,
pausing to rebalance at various points along the way. Another
good approach is to focus your attention on the sensations
from your standing foot, ankle, and hip, allowing them to guide
your balance as you turn
your head.
Since the brain compares
your actual position with an
image of where you want to
be, it helps to have a pretty
precise internal image. And
some mental pictures are, of
course, more helpful than
others. One very useful image is your old friend, the plumb line
that runs vertically up from the center of your standing foot. If
you can develop a strong internal sense of this line, it will help
your nervous system calibrate movements that maintain equi-
librium around the line.
In Ardha Chandrasana, it’s helpful to expand the concept of
a plumb line to a plumb plane. Imagine that the plumb line lies
on a flat, vertical surface, like an infinitely thin wall, that divides
your standing foot in half lengthwise and runs up through your
body. Concentrate on keeping your head, trunk, pelvis, and
both of your legs balanced on either side of this plane. But don’t
abandon the plumb line; you still need it to keep your stand-
ing leg from leaning too far back toward your heel or forward
toward your toes.
At a higher level of the nervous system, your attitude toward
practicing balancing poses has a tremendous effect on your suc-
cess. Approach them seriously and with determination, but also
with good humor, patience, and curiosity, like a child learning
to stand. If you can laugh when you wobble or when you fall
yet be ready to try the pose again in earnest, you have found
true balance in your practice. ✤Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher and research scientist Roger Cole, PhD,
specializes in human anatomy and physiology, relaxation, and biological
rhythms and sleep. For more information, see rogercoleyoga.com.Attention
focus on balance
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standing & balancing