mind. Awareness brings life. Life is dynamic, and so therefore the
asanas should also be.Dynamic Extension:
From the Core of Your Being
The goal of all asana practice is doing them from the core of your being
and extending out dynamically through to the periphery of your body.
As you stretch, in turn the periphery relates messages back to the core.
From head to heels, you must find your center, and from this center
you must extend and expand longitudinally and latitudinally. If exten
sion is from the intelligence of the brain, expansion is from the intelli
gence of the heart. While doing asana, both the intellectual intelligence
and the emotional intelligence have to meet and work together. Exten
sion is attention, and expansion is awareness, I often say. It is the
bringing of attention and awareness to the tips of your body and acti
vating the skin.
While practicing the asana, it is very important to develop the sen
sitivity in the skin. One has to create room between the skin and the
underlying tissue so that there is no friction between them. The tissues
wntain the motor nerves, and the skin contains the sensory nerves.
They have to function with an understanding of each other in an asana
in order to make the intelligence circulate freely without interruption
111 the body. This is somewhat like an otter that is attached to its skin\only through its nose, four paws, and tail and appears to move freely
.mnmd within.
Extension and expansion always stay firmly rooted in one's center.
They originate in the core of one's being. When most people stretch,
1 hl'y simply stretch to the point that they are trying to reach, but they
lorget to extend and expand from where they are. When you extend
.111d expand, you are not only stretching to, you are also stretching
/mm. Try holding out your arm at your side and stretch it. Did your
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