Leading your practice with your heart

Asana practice needs to be approached via the heart, both physically and spiritually.  

To approach your practice with an open heart spiritually can mean so many things.  One of them is to approach your practice as a means to stay present.  When one enters a room to practice, any judgements and emotions should be shed, thus opening your heart to an experience that will allow you to remain present and allow you to focus in the now.  This is why it is important not to look around the room to see what others are wearing, what the teacher looks like, etc this way you can stop the judgments and opinions.  When you enter a room to practice, immediately sit down and close your eyes on your mat.  Bring your focus on your breath and allow the emotions from the day to melt away.  This prepares you for a compassionate and personal experience, free of judgments and attachments.    

To approach the practice with an open heart anatomically means to lead the practice with your heart lifted and the chest and collarbones open, shoulders melting toward the center of your back.  On a daily basis, we slouch in front of our computers, on the train, as we eat, etc etc. This causes our pectoralis muscles to tighten and our upper back muscles to over stretch, resulting in bad posture and back pain.  A steady yoga practice can help release the chest so that the upper back can get properly aligned and get strong, thus making posture improve and back aches stop.  

Overall, we should think of having an open heart ALL the time. BE compassionate in and out of the mat. 

Love.

Patricia