Grace: Mind/Body Practice

USING YOUR BREATH

• What does breath do?
• breath moves the body
• Vayus
• inhalation and prana and udana vayus: 
• exhalation and apana and samana vayus
• Mula (root)
• moves forward (I) and backward (B) with breath
• breath is the communication between your mind and your body

GRACE

• What is grace?
• using just the right amount of effort to complete a task/movement/posture
• only what is essential
• moving with your breathing
• breath leads movement (starts just before the movement does)
• spiritual grace and physical grace...are they connected?
• imagining your essential self/nothing that isn't you = self-realization
• evenness of breath coupled with evenness of movement equals evenness of mind

FLOW

• Flow (inner focus) is a state where the right amount of effort is applied, no more or less, creating a single minded focus (eka grata) so that the body moves as one coalesced piece. (peak experience)
• needs a certain amount of challenge to maintain interest for focus
• needs to avoid frustration
• needs to be without self-consciousness (extra)
• Technique allows one to be embodied, 
• hyperfocus is a characteristic of flow., but it is not always described in such universally glowing terms. 
• For example, some cases of spending "too much" time playing video games, or of getting side-tracked and pleasurably absorbed by one aspect of an assignment or task to the detriment of the assignment in general. In some cases, hyperfocus can "grab" a person, perhaps causing him or her to appear unfocused or to start several projects but complete few. 
• Can a practice suffer from hyperfocus to the detriment of the prospect for flow? (yes) What percentage of practice should be focused on technique, and can our technique get in the way of the peak experiences that we seek? 
• In her doctoral thesis, studying the meditative experiences of Zen Buddhist practitioners, Aska Sakuta looks to neuroscience to understand altered states based in embodied practices. Sakuta notes the central importance of the “meditative, attention training processes, embedded in the act of movement” in various somatic disciplines, from dance to theatre, and within other performance styles:…within this process of meditative moving, the mover experiences an altered state of consciousness, which can be expressed as the state of ‘no mind’– a sense [of] complete emptiness of the mind. It is thought that the strong concentration on the felt experience of moving facilitates a state of deeply embodied consciousness by stripping the mind of distracting thoughts. The mind, thereby ‘emptied’ of higher level cognition, allows for movement execution at the most intuitive level.
• This intuitive execution of movement is akin to the state of flow (described above), a state of deeply embodied consciousness; and is acquired through training in techniques (specific to each discipline), which, once mastered, allow for the practitioner to achieve peak performance through altered sensory states 
• This state is achieved through practice in a series of stages beginning with effortful concentration (cognition), advancing into “optimal movement economy” (embodiment), culminating in “complete automation” (phenomenology), where the body seems to move on its own; the experience may be described both as effortless and spiritually charged.
• Learning technique is a necessary stage in the process of mastery which allows for optimal movement, and only after such knowledge is mastered—integrated into one’s body/mind -- can movement occur naturally, and a meditative state be achieved. This is embodied as ease of movement, and may be observed aesthetically as “grace.” It is this grace which in vinyasa practice may be likened to seamlessly moving with both attention to and in response to one’s breath.

ALIGNMENT FROM WITHIN

• ujjayi breath will allow for inner alignment
• moving from the mula (hips as your primary center of gravity) will allow you to move from within
• make space on the inhale, deepen on the exhale. This is true for EVERY POSTURE! (even backbends). The inhale will always take you out of the depth of a posture.
• BANDHAS and MUDRAS
• locks, seals and ways to close the circuit, so they can be very useful in creating alignment
• mula, uddiyana, jalandara
• maintain the natural curves of the spine
• keep the arms and the legs engaged. 
• Surfing the edges: Knowing where you are at the moment and exploring deeper variations with absolute mindfulness. 
• views the practice as fascinating (interesting)
• helps with focus and attention
• Control versus surrender: 
• this is an issue of grace.
• con be utilized in the process of surfing the edges
• control is necessary in the body, but only what is essential: when we are first learning something, we often over do it. In fact, as we advance in our practice, our awareness gets more and more subtle, as does our control.
• bodily surrender is not useful in hatha yoga where engagement is required, but may be in yin styles, however the surrender is in the limiting notions in the mind which prevent the body/mind from full ability to observe at that moment
• Finding Balance: Balance is found in yoking the body into one piece which acts in unison. This is called Kinesthesis. High levels of kinesthetic function are indictive of high levels of embodiment and a balanced state
• balance can also be viewed as distributing the "work" of yoga throughout the body, so that one part is not strained by taking on too much of the load or effort.
• this entail proper technique and full bodily engagement
• Full bodily engagement (somatic integration)
• innervation
• resistance
• isotonic
• isometric
• resisting force (gravity)