Intelligent Yoga: Listening to the Body’s Innate Wisdom

again as the work subsides. It might be the feeling of contact with the floor through a foot or hand, or any other body part that is in contact with the ground. Other things we can notice are the fluidity of a movement, the acceleration and deceleration of the body in transition from one place to another, the sense of weight through bones, and the

metaphysical one that is difficult for many people to ‘get’. This nuance in language may seem a small point but it is based on an important concept: the more powerfully we assert abstract, metaphysical ideas, the less chance we have of allowing people to have their own experience, derived from their own personal

In other words, our bodies can safely reflect these movements, as long as they are not taken to extremes. So it is fairly safe to say that a certain amount of side-bending, flexion, extension and rotation can form a basis for safe and useful yoga practice. If we are teaching movements that do not reflect these patterns, we need to ask ourselves why

‘mereological fallacy’. This describes a way of thinking about things where we wrongly ascribe a value to a part of something that is properly ascribed to the whole. In

Side-bending was still the preferred method of movement, however; fins eventually became legs, acting at the apex of the side-bending curve and increasing the leverage of side-bending propulsion. The intercostal muscles (the group of muscles between the ribs) in lizards act as both respiratory muscles and locomotor muscles for side-bending. This is

Our response will be noticed in our muscles, which will tend to tighten when our environment discomforts us, and relax when it nourishes us.

What we want to find out is whether the body adapts the breathing to the pose effectively or not. What we do not want to do is to try and control the breath in some supposedly idealised way while we practise.

certainly developed as a result of the early lizards having to twist their way over obstacles in their path.

This might mean noticing the feeling of muscles stiffening as they take up the work of a posture, then releasing and softening