The Power of Breath

Principles of Yoga Anatomy from Leslie Kaminoff

• Yoga is fundamentally an educational process which frequently has therapeutic outcomes. We are not therapists.
• Yoga practice is designed to teach us how to uncover and resolve obstructions to prana.
• Yoga is not about doing the asanas; it’s about undoing what’s in the way of the asanas.
• The maximum benefits of yoga practice are derived from the simplest things that are taught, not the most complex.
• The simplest thing that yoga students are asked to do is to coordinate long, slow movements of the body with long slow movements of the breath.
• The first task with any student is to help them more fully inhabit their physical body by drawing their prana (sensory experience) inwards. If they can’t feel what’s happening inside themselves, they need to know that the recognition of confusion is a form of clarity.
• Healthy movement is well-distributed movement i.e., a little bit of movement from a lot of places. Unhealthy movement is too much movement coming from too few place too many times.
• There are no straight lines in the body. All movement exists as three-dimensional spirals moving through three-dimensional space.
• There are no parts in the body; everything is connected to everything else; we can potentially find those pathways of connection in an infinite variety of ways.
• In order to get something unusual to move, you need to get the usual movements to be still.
• Support starts from the ground up.
• Breath starts from the top down.
• For every movement in the body, there is an opposing movement that travels in the opposite direction.
• Initiating the action of exhaling from the bottom upwards can help to ground the feet, legs and pelvis.
• Initiating the action of inhaling from the top downwards can help to generate lift and support for the upper spine, ribcage and shoulder girdle.
• The head has a hard time knowing where the head belongs. Sensory-driven movement (like drishti) can help free the neck so the head finds support from below.
• Images can get people places that language can’t.