Out of alignment?
How often do we hear yoga teachers talk of ‘correct alignment’ and how important it is. It’s true, sometimes we can injure ourselves whilst in class.
Is this because we move in a way that’s not ‘correct’ alignment, or is it something else? A wise teacher of mine once said “always is always wrong and never is never right”. Most injuries occur in beginner classes, when we first begin our practice we normally come from a new place of not having moved that way before, which can result in injury. All movement comes from the brain, and movements are patterns or sequences of behaviour, so it makes sense that we’re more likely to cause injury when we’re doing something new. ‘New’ to our brains means dangerous, and our brains’ job is to keep us alive, if it doesn’t feel safe (new!) then the chances of us faltering are much higher.
The key take from this is to learn something new the brain MUST feel safe, so make it feel safe. Maybe putting your hands on blocks to reach the floor more easily in a standing splits, it might mean standing with your feet wider apart, it might mean choosing one spot (dristi) to focus on instead of letting your eyes dart around the room. There are many ways to make your brain feel more safe, the easiest is probably breathing. Your brain needs two things; fuel (Oxygen and Glucose) and activation. Notice when you are holding your breath, to learn something new we need to be safe and to be safe we need to breathe. Sounds simple right? I know it’s easier said than done.
Our yoga practice is an amazing way to increase our life longevity by moving all kinds of ways, but moving mindfully and allowing our brains to catch up to SAFETY.
So you’ve been practising for a while, always with your knee in line with your toes in your lunges and warriors, because that’s ‘correct alignment’ right? What if you bring your knee forward, or out to the side? Like a normal movement that might happen if you were skiing or walking upstairs. By practising mindfully we can make the body feel safe in all kinds of shapes, shapes that might happen if we were to slip or trip in everyday life. This can be injury prevention rather than injury in class. Our yoga practice is an amazing way to increase our life longevity by moving all kinds of ways, but moving mindfully and allowing our brains to catch up to SAFETY.
Your brain is amazing, it is forever changing, which can be good or bad. Neuroplasticity, the brain is constantly rewiring and growing to suit the behaviours and patterns in your life. This is fantastic news! It means whatever you want to be, put in repeat patterns slowly day by day and the brain will rewire itself to suit whatever you want to do. Want to be a couch potato? Great, your brain has that covered, it will get you to be the best couch potato you can be. Want to be a handstand expert? Keep practising and your brain will wire up to be the best handstander it can be. Want to live a long happy pain free life? Then explore different ranges of movement and motion in your practice. The reason being, most of the movement skills and patterns you use in everyday life are not aligned. You do not have your knee stacked above the ankle when you go up stairs, you might twist and bend to get something off the back seat of your car, it is great patterning to include ALL movement patterns.
So, I dare you to explore, expand, enquire and maybe break some of the rules.
