Gravity, that attractive force between matter/energy, is a constant presence in yoga practice. No matter what shape I move my body into, some part of it is touching the ground, and all my weight - weight simply being the force by which the mass of my body is pulled toward the mass of the Earth - is pulled through that point in the direction of the center of the Earth.
If I am not centered above that base of support, I lose my balance. There is no lead time, no warning. Gravity is always on, it's not as if you lose your balance, and then gravity pulls you down. It's a single event.
To exist and function in gravity, my body has built in systems that keep me aligned, keep my weight over my base of support, without conscious thought. Conscious thought is too slow to successfully maintain balance under the relentless, constant pull of gravity.
The body knows how to balance. Yoga begins to connect my conscious mind to those processes, so I am aware of gravity acting on my body, and how my body stays in balance as it moves from one position to another. When balance is lost, conscious awareness can look at the experience and suggest changes.
Today, leading a class, I lost my balance to the outside edge of my foot, something that hasn't happened for months. Interesting. I don't know the cause, but I know what we were doing right before - a deep Warrior I backbend. I'm going to explore that more, to see if something is carrying over in my alignment or muscular actions that could lead to imbalance. I may also find that it was just something that happened, in that moment, and no cause or pattern will be revealed.
No comments:
Post a Comment