Breathe, Extend, Soften

Breathe.  Extend. Soften.  Three words that have become my yoga practice mantra of late.  

Much of yoga practice is about finding length in the body.  Extending the spine to decompress it and make more room for movement.  Increasing range of motion - becoming more 'flexible,' usually means training muscles to lengthen.

Every movement requires muscle engagement - some degree of effort - and it's nearly certain that the effort will be more than it needs to be.  Sometimes a lot more, sometimes just a little, but always, there is too much effort.  Additionally, as I explore the limits of my movement, there's always one place - one muscle, or a layer of fascia - that has the most sensation.

Breath, of course, is central to yoga practice as a guide to the right amount of effort and as a point of awareness.  Breath, by which I mean all the muscular actions of the body involved in breathing, is also used to help move the body into the shapes of yoga.  For instance, exhaling for a forward bend, or inhaling for a backbend - the movement of the breath supports the shape we are moving into.  We can also use breathing to initiate and contain movement - begin the breath, then move, then finish the breath.  Because the breath operates from our center, our core, this practice helps all movement to begin in the center and extend outward.

When I put this all together, I initiate movement with the breath, and feel the movement as an extension of the breath.  With the energy of movement, I extend - spine, muscles, fascia.  Then I soften - first finding release for that part of me that is working harder than all the rest - and then softening overall effort in an attempt to find that point where there is no extra effort, no unneeded tension, and even a challenging pose can feel effortless.

Breath, extend, soften.  Repeat, and repeat, and repeat.