Yo! ga

"Imagine a ball of energy between your navel and pubic bone. It's orange in color. It is glowing, soft, gentle, juicy, warm and its glow is spreading to cover your abdomen and thighs and arms and legs and head and your entire body as you breathe in. And as you breathe out, its glow spread to those around you to bathe the world in tranquility and peace."

I've been trying yoga for some days now and it's hard to keep a straight face through monologues like the one above by the yoga instructors at my place.

They're very professional and helpful though. And they know what they are doing.

They have this knack of describing body movements in strange exquisite details.

So, a simple 'straighten your back' becomes 'pull your shoulders to the back of the room and the floor, zip up your stomach, push out the heart center, reach the crown of your head to the roof (reach! reach! reach!) and let your chin float farther away from your chest as you inhaaale deeply taking in all the positive energy from the atmosphere into your body and let the negative energy with all the stress, anxiety and tension out to feel a sense of alert calm coursing through your entire body'.


And this is just for a basic standing posture. I really need to record some of the descriptions they give for asanas.


The only quibbles I have are that some of them tend to mix in pilates with asanas and some have a habit of playing music that really doesn't go well with the practice. I can see how chants and slow instrumental music can be a part of a deliberate, slow yoga sadhana, but blues? jazz? pop? Silence is much better.

The best part of the practice is the end of course - shavasan, where you simply lie down like a corpse and let each body part relax gradually. It is much more enjoyable if the practice immediately before the shavasan has been rigorous and taxing.