Kinesthetic Learning

For some people yoga is an experience, for others an Experience. Some call it a workout, others "stretching," others a yuppy pile of horseshit. Regardless of your perspective, there are some nuts and bolts of repeated practice which, if you are savvy, you can connect to other aspects of your existence in the world, as anyone willing to learn does with any sustained practice.

I'm in headstand in class the other day, and I receive an adjustment from the teacher. With her index finger, she pushes my shins maybe two inches back in space, aligning the posture to its intended form in which the legs rise in a perpendicular line from the floor. Two inches help, and all of the hellishly difficult and unnecessary work my musculature and mind were exerting to maintain a shape not quite in accord with skeletal structure and gravity fell away. Being inverted is a tremendous joy. You hit the right spot on the top of your skull--engaging your locks, hugging your leg muscles to the bone, aligning mindfully--and there is an exhilarating sensation of lightness and effortlessness. As easy as standing, except upside down, and for those moments you are granted the liberated perspective of limitless potential, having shattered the incorrect perception that when we are standing, we are right-side up.

For some people, myself included, this is how they learn. The moral of the story is not the joy of headstand, it is the action of getting there: a situation in which tremendous, concerted effort and a touch of fear at tumbling over maintains a shape that is not quite right, when a bit more ease and attention is all that lacking to be where you want to be. This is a worthwhile lesson, taught through a physical practice, and it bleeds into everything else I do. Skittering about in a panic trying to organize all my junk for work then rehearsal then two hour break then class then rehearsal then... I remember floating into headstand, and it helps me get out of my own way.

Bodies are intelligent.