Article 3, Blue Moon Yoga Springwood: Author: Greg Brady

This is a question you have probably never thought about, let alone know its importance.

There is a significant trend that more and more new-to-the-studio but otherwise “experienced” yoga students do their practice “hard”.  Sadly many of these “experienced” students have great difficulty in accepting the reality of practicing “softly”, let alone actually having the ability to act that way.

This article is focusing on signs of your physical work that will enable you to tell if you are currently doing your asana practice “soft” or “hard”.  This will then give an indication of your mental state of either being stressed and tense, or not stressed in your yoga pursuits (and life in general.  Having a level of understanding of the relationship between the stressed/not stressed and its impact upon your body and behaviour is a significant step in any yoga practice.  Even more important is knowing how to positively change these influences.

What does doing your asana practice “soft” and “hard” mean?

If instead you were asked if you are doing your practice with or without stress/tension, many students would dismiss this as an issue for themselves.  Because they have been in a stressed state for so long, it is now their new normal.  Hence the type of word used to describe something makes a huge difference to how we relate to that subject/issue.  By asking if you are being “soft” and “hard” physically directly relates to how the body actually is/feels.  Not understanding that being “soft” is how it needs to be all the time, shows both a lack of any body bench-mark awareness, but also a set of attitudes that are not compatible with yoga.

Stress (also called the fight or flight response) for limited periods is essential for dealing with threatening situations to enhance our physically survival, or even perform better at times.  If, however you perceive (consciously or not) things in your life as frequent threats and they are rarely stopping, then this adversely impacts upon you and spreads to all those around you by your stressed-induced behaviour.  Naturally those people who have experienced (or are experiencing) chronic stress events (such as divorce, loss of job, death of someone close etc.), definitely know they are stressed but hope it will not last forever.  Unfortunately in our current Australian society, the chances are very high that you are in a constant low-level stress life-style. 

If you are not stressed most of the time, the list below gives some idea of what is like to be free of stress.  You would then:

1. Mostly be content with your relationship with yourself.
2. Mostly be content with your interpersonal relationships.
3. Mostly be content with your family relationships.
4. Mostly be content with your activity relationships (i.e. work, retirement, community etc.).
5. Mostly sleep well.
6. Eat sensibly.
7. Maintain a healthy and pain free body, within the limit of what life has dealt for you (such as accidents, birth defects, some diseases etc.).
8. Rarely be a couch potato, escaping into your favourite electronic media.
9. Your breath rate will be mostly slow/steady. (See Article 2: The story of your natural breath).
10. Rarely, if ever requiring substances for “comfort”, such as food, beverages, drugs etc.
11. Rarely, if ever get headaches.
12. Rarely, if ever have stomach upsets.
13. Rarely grind your teeth.
14. Rarely have tense shoulders.
15. Rarely get annoyed, or worse: angry, aggressive or frustrated.
16. Mostly do natural abdominal breathing. (See Article 2: The story of your natural breath).
17. Can turn off your electronic device/s (especially your mobile phone), for long periods of time without being anxious.

The above list is not extensive, but adequate for you to make your self-stress judgement.

If you said “yes” to most of the above list, congratulations………keep doing it all with whole-hearted joy.  However, if many in the list above do not describe how you mostly are, then whether you realise it or not, you are stressed, with the accompanying negative body, emotional and mental issues occurring.

In your yoga class, while you are stressed, you would likely:

• Move stiffly, and possibly have frequent low level aches and pains. In the list above, if you particularly said “No” to numbers 10 to 17, then it is certain you have a stiff and tense body.  You rarely then get that release and extension feeling that happens when you are doing postures softly.  If you have been stressed for a long period of time, then your body readjusts itself to the regime of stress chemicals (at the cost of your health: physically, emotionally and mentally over time).  The saddest and scariest aspect is that you do not even realise that this stiffness has happened to you.
• Have an adrenalin release or feel “buzzed/pumped-up” during or after the class. All you are doing is feeding the stress-beast.  Adrenalin is one of the important stress chemicals.  This release is also the most difficult to appreciate the dark side of the feeling……..because it does feel good for the short term.  Like all additions, you need to do it more and more to keep the feeling, and hence maintain more and more stress.
• Be competitive. This again is feeding the stress-beast, and doing yoga as a sport/exercise.  Yoga is by its very nature never competitive, but cooperative.
• Regard pain as a usual/necessary part of the physical yoga experience. This is abuse of your body.  You don’t inflict pain onto anyone else, so why is it acceptable and necessary to inflict it upon yourself?  Again this self-aggression is a sign of stress.  If you are in a class where your teacher promotes this, get out of there fast and find someone who teaches yoga.
• Allow a teacher to physically push/press you beyond your current thresholds of stretching or making you go into pain. This again is feeding the stress-beast.  This also demonstrates poor judgements on both your and their parts, neither of you having respect for your body by abusing it, nor having sufficient body awareness.
• Often being achy and sour or stiff after a class. For many students this starts one or two days later.  This is a sign of pushing your body too far, and not being truthful to yourself.  Basically again abusing the body, particularly if you go back each time and repeat the same mistake.  (See article on body awareness-in preparation).
• Be easily distracted by thoughts. Even apparent “normal” thoughts are a sign of not being able to focus/concentrate.  Mundane things like “when will this finish, I’m hungry/thirsty”, planning what to do next etc. are not a good sign if it happens in every class, and is again a sign of stress, and not actually “getting” yoga.
• Have troubles being still, physically or mentally. This is again a sign of being in stress.  I have found that many students who are tense and are attempting to relax in class are a long way away from actually achieving this.  Basically they have no reference point of what relaxation feels like, so their “relaxation” level, although of some benefit, misses the real mark by a wide margin.  (See article on body awareness-in preparation).

 

If you are ticking most of these dot points above, and you are a beginner (and therefore learning), here is a great list of what not to do, and work towards avoiding.  If you are ticking most of these dot points above, and you are an “experienced” person, you are reinforcing all those negative stress-related attitudes and behaviours.  You are also just doing exercise, not yoga.  Don’t get this wrong, exercise is extremely important to our health (notice it is listed as No 7 and 8 above, as essential for a healthy body, and not be a couch potato), however transforming exercise into yoga has benefits way beyond what you currently realise.

A person decided that they wanted be a swimmer.  As the person had no experience in swimming, they went to a swimming class.  They learnt all the different strokes, honed their skills in coordinating arms, legs and head movements and breathing for all the different styles.  Altogether the person got fitter and healthier, built up their stamina and strength, and felt that they were doing great!!

There was one slight problem………..the person had never been shown how to do all the movements and breathing in water.  The person never had the experience of the wetness, buoyancy, resistance of the water, the joy of actually being in there.  The difference between doing exercise and yoga can be considerably greater than the difference for this person.

You may have also noticed that there is a rapid drop-off in the number of people doing any form of physical exercise, even from their mid 30ies.  Our body does control our behaviour more than most understand.  If you continue to give it pain and/or have that regular after-class/activity achiness and stiffness, then your body will stop you doing physical activity.  This is without you being consciously aware of it (similar to low-level stress).  Just as stress can cause you to get annoyed, or worse: angry or frustrated, stress, due to this self-induced body pain, may show in maladaptive illness behaviour, such as fatigue and listlessness.  In other words turning into a couch potato with all the others.

When in stress mode, the chances of you getting an injury are significantly higher than if you are practicing “softly”.

You may not know, or have noticed, but a lot of high performance/ high energy/high profile yoga teachers actually carry injuries, from the days when they allowed themselves to be caught up in the adrenalin, competitive and push-your-body mind set. 

So you think “soft” means being wimpy?

Knowing how to and achieving your asana “softly” is the highest performance standard you can achieve.  How is this true?

You only need to look and watch anyone who performs at the highest level of their physical activity: be it sport, playing a musical instrument, singing, martial arts etc.  All these people flow with their movements, no stiffness, and the whole body is being passively active to support the parts of their bodies that are currently working.  Hardness/stiffness means: tensing up, not breathing freely, and thus not being able to sustain the activity for any length of time.  If you asked them, you would find they all became “one” or introspective with their activity, highly focused, completely at ease and relaxed, and time flowing without noticing it.  Therefore they are all performing “softly”.

This is exhibiting the higher levels of doing a physical yoga practice.  The main difference between these high-performance people and doing it as a yogi is that the aim being a yogi is to perform it all the time and for the whole of your life-style.  All those aspects that may have attracted you to starting a physical yoga practice will still occur when you are doing your yoga “softly”, but more so.   However to achieve this, you need to recalibrate completely.  The more experienced you think you are (particularly if the stressed yoga list is very familiar to you), then the more challenging it will be.  Not because it is physically hard…………..quite the opposite.  This challenge is to readjust/recalibrate your attitude and change most of the ways you were doing postures.

Doing any asana “softly” means doing the posture steadily, comfortably, with equilibrium, and with no tension or effort.  When you start to achieve the natural (and necessary) introspection, you would say you are also doing it mindfully.

Tame the stress-beast

Break the stress cycle you are in and tame the stress-beast!  See where it leads you!

Your stress load will make you very resistant to this idea.  For most people, it is an unknown territory.  Without the actual experience it would be difficult, if not impossible, to have a concept of how freeing and uplifting doing yoga softly can be.  Like all aspects of yoga, it is the doing and practising and being committed (fairdinkum) to the doing that makes it possible.

Otherwise it could be compared to going on a diet:  cutting back on food intake, changing what you eat etc. until you reach your weight goal, then you stop the diet and the kilos quickly return, often worse.  We all know that the only way a diet works is make that lifestyle change…………..and that is the same challenge for your asana practice.

Will doing your asana “softly” prevent stress? NO.  However, it gives you a range of tools and skills to minimise many of stresses effects  and the length of its reign.  It is also beneficial under chronic pressure, if you are committed.

To work towards taming your stress-beast, you need to give yourself at least 6 months for results to begin to show in how you feel and treat yourself.

While being “soft” in your physical yoga practice in class, you will begin to notice and feel:

• Time nearly stops. The class feels like it has just begun at the end of 1.5 hours.  This is a great indication that you are achieving the necessary concentration and mindfulness.
• You feel rejuvenated (not buzzy energised) and at peace during and after the class, and you know you can function in the world that little bit easier.
• You do listen to your body and operate within the boundaries it tells you. That way you do postures within your limits, not the teachers or the rest of the class’s.  This is being truthful to yourself and not self-abusive.  Naturally, you are, at the same time, building up your body awareness to make those better physical, mental and emotional judgements.  (See article on body awareness-in preparation)
• You flow with all your movements and feel fluid in holding postures. It is less effortful, and generally you can hold postures longer with greater ease and resilience.
• You can actually relax, not just superficially (As a teacher I can actually see and feel the difference in the softness of muscles of students). Relaxation then converts all that pent-up destructive tension into a positive reserve of energy for your daily functioning, so you have more overall physical vitality.  This also translates into more peaceful mental energy.  As a result, you have greater tolerance for all those incidences that occur during your day. (See article on body awareness-in preparation).
• You will be just as strong, more flexible and significantly more attuned to your body and far less stressed, and have a significantly less chance of doing yourself an injury.
• You feel secure in often closing your eyes during practice to be in “greater tune” with your body to make any of those extra subtle adjustments.
• You have a great night’s sleep after (and not from exhaustion).
• You are more productive and effective at home and work, accomplishing what you need to, for a couple of days after your class. The more you achieve being “soft” in your yoga, the longer this effective period becomes.
• You will be become aware of the sometimes subtle effects particular asana have on your mental state. Therefore in your own practice, you can then choose a series of asana that help you become more in equilibrium, when you feel the necessity.  Often it is the ones you are more resistive to doing at the time that indicate the ones needed.
• For those who have some knowledge of the philosophical side of yoga, your attitude is reflective of that within Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and you will naturally become more committed to a yoga life-style.

 

You need to make yoga your “way” not a “means”.  If you do yoga with the required commitment and changed attitude towards yourself, then you will find that you can start to diminish other parts of your stressed life-style.  This can only make the positive impact upon yourself and others, well worth the change.  You will experience long-term health benefits, making your life that much more at ease and enjoyable.

 

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Updated 12/9/2017