Yoga can be a powerful tool for releasing body-held
suppressed negative feelings, and a vital adjunct to any
self-therapy program.
The higher purpose of Yoga is to provide a vehicle
to bring us into greater contact with our feeling, spiritual selves,
through the body. Yoga for consciousness work should be meditative
in nature, with minimal exertion. The postures should be performed
passively. You should think of them as “poses of relaxation”
– not as a discipline or task in which you must excel or from
which you will benefit. The sense of seeking, striving, trying to
achieve anything through the practice is counterproductive and should
be put aside. Yoga should relax us, not challenge us. We should
come more and more into the moment, through the body, not remain
fixed in the mind, driving the body to perform and accomplish.
Meditative yoga maintains an
effortless inner attitude
Do not think of yoga postures as exercise but as
meditation. Enter with a meditative attitude; drop all intention
and effort. Consciously relax all parts of the body except those
that must be tensed to hold the pose. Maintain a sense that the
body is assuming the pose by itself, not being directed by the mind.
Let the wisdom of the body take over and direct the body to what
it needs. Let the body find its own point of comfort. Do not push
with the mind. Simply watch and witness. Observe and feel what is
happening in the body as you go through the sequence of poses, without
trying to interfere or change anything. Do not feel that you have
to do any posture perfectly or that you are competing with yourself
or anyone else. Do not judge yourself either good or bad. Keep relaxing
more and more deeply into the posture. The object of your meditative
focus is to go deeper and deeper into feelings in the body that
come up, both physical and emotional, as you stretch muscles and
stimulate chakras.
Witness physical sensations, choicelessly accepting.
You should gently push the body to the point where you are experiencing
a comfortable amount of strain; this can be enjoyable and relaxing.
You are training yourself to be self-accepting, getting into the
body’s feeling centers and out of mental self-rejection. Other
feelings that come up will be emotional. You may experience a variety
of negative emotions, along with their associated thoughts. You
should welcome these feelings, because they are cleansing. Be with
the feelings in the Witness, neither reacting to nor rejecting them.
In this way you access deep, hidden levels of body-held suppressed
negativity and open the door to transcendental experiences of higher
consciousness, approached through the body.
Yoga summary:
1. Drop all sense of striving or performing.
2. Relax all parts of body possible during a pose.
Keep scanning the body to see what else is tensed and can be consciously
relaxed.
3. Keep a gentle connected breath going at all times.
4. Anchor the mind on bodily sensations - physical,
psychic, energetic, or emotional.
5. Gently accept and experience.
Other tips:
1. Practice on a soft surface such as a rug and
towel. You don't need a sticky mat.
2. Pace session to run between a half and one hour.
3. Hold poses for substantial periods - from 1 to
5 minutes or longer for problem areas.
4. Rest periodically during the session by relaxing
on your back, but stay mindful of body feelings while resting.
Go
to John's Conscious Yoga Posture Flow
