Yoga Adjustments: Philosophy, Principles, and Techniques

“Habits,” Dewey (2008b, 21–22) writes, “are demands for certain kinds of activity,” the predisposition of which are “an immensely more intimate and fundamental part of ourselves than are vague, general, conscious choices.”

Staying with the breath as we feel it in the body, we come to realize that we can breathe into the body in conscious ways, consciously directing the breath to places of tension or holding, and in this come to experience from inside how the breath transforms bodily sensation, emotional feeling, and mental awareness.

the many dimensions of respecting a person’s process, injuries, and tweaks as well as the important boundaries that are necessary for entering this territory that is often like being a “midwife of the embodied experience.”

aimed at releasing deeply held tension. Much of this work uses physical stimulation or manipulation in specific areas of the body to highlight stress responses in which the sympathetic nervous system—the fight-or-flight response—is activated. Using specific breathing techniques—some are similar to ujjayi, kapalabhati, and bastrika pranayamas—one th