Awareness

In the light of recent events I would like to remind you of some of the advantages of yoga.

How do you benefit from doing yoga? We’ve had that one before, haven’t we? Health, emotional balance, … But there are things which are to be found rather on the meta-level and one of which is today's subject: to be aware of yourself.

In which way can this be achieved by yoga?
On starting practicing the asanas I have to learn how to feel myself or my body so that, eventually, I will know how long/far/intense I can practise a posture or a technique. If it hurts, surely I can grit my teeth and continue but it’s for no good.

To say it with David Coulters words:

Honor the suggestions of pain

Do you honor or ignore messages from aches and pains? If you have back pain, do you adjust your posture and activities to minimize it, or do you just tough it out? And do you keep a deferential eye on your body, or do you find that you get so wrapped up in some challenge that you forget about it? If you do not listen to messages from your body you will be a candidate for pulled muscles, tendinitis, pinched nerves, and ruptured intervertebral disks. To avoid injury in hatha yoga you have to develop a self-respecting awareness.
Begin your program of hatha yoga with a resolution to avoid pain. Unless you have had years of experience and know exactly what you are doing, pushing yourself into a painful stretch will not only court injury, it will also create a state of fear and anxiety, and your nervous system will store those memories and twart your efforts to recreate the posture. Pains is a gift; it tells us that some problem has developed. Analyze the nature of the problem instead of pushing ahead mindlessly. With self-awareness and the guidance of a competent teacher, you can do other postures that circumvent the difficulty.

David H. Coulter - Anatomy of Hatha Yoga

Pain protects us from accidents so much is obvious - but still sometimes they happen!
When do they happen?
Irrespective of the reasons, they happen whenever I am not 100% attentive, not totally concentrated, not being aware of myself! Whenever the connection to myself is somehow interrupted and my attention isn't set enterily on me.

In time you learn - only a few days/weeks/months (some need years!) and torn muscles (learning the hard way!) later we become more attentive, more sensitive and more concentrated. Pain is a good teacher! :-/

I.E. explicitly, there always has to be a second instance of me, running in the background, which is constantly questioning: How do I feel right now? How does that feel now? And how does that feel compared to a second ago?

In my opinion this is one of the most important things we can learn from yoga (maybe even the thing). Every yoga practitioner should at least learn: how to be aware of one self and how to get a feeling for oneself. Make sure you always have a state to compare from, a state zero - a reference and the ability to improve the current state. All this tells me how I actually feel today and how far I can go today - in my yoga practice and my relation-ship, my work etc.

Finally take a look at this article by Mark Foster - a completely different view but quite interesting!

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