Strength Receiving

This post is by special request. A friend has been re-reading Mark Whitwell’s book, Yoga of Heart, and she asked me to clarify what Strength Receiving means.It’s going to be fun, because I teach this stuff in class all the time but have never really tried to articulate it in writing before.

Here goes, and forgive any droning on, because this will be well-known to some of you. I just need to begin at the beginning in order to collect my thoughts.

The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj which means to yoke or to bind. Basically, when we harness all our attention in a particular direction for long enough, we no longer perceive a difference between us and it. There is just the unbroken flow of attention and a full understanding of what we are perceiving. This is the experience of Yoga.

Yoga can also be defined as a union of polarities. All of life is polarised, because you can’t properly name and categorise something unless it can be defined by its opposite. For example, if we only had one side, we wouldn’t have left and right. There would just be ‘side’.

The simplest union occurs in our breath – exhale creates inhale, which gives way to exhale. Ha, the Sanskrit word for masculine, sun, exhale, and Tha, the word for feminine, moon, inhale, unite in the pauses between breaths. Try for yourself: sound ‘Ha’ on exhale and notice what a forceful sound it is, notice perhaps that your abdominals are contracting. Now sound ‘Tha’ on inhale and notice how it slips in between your teeth, how your chest lifts and your throat opens as you sound it. Do you notice the different sensations the two sounds and actions create? Do you notice how the two parts of your breath are different?

Now, breathe using ujjayi breath, in and out in a steady stream. Begin to observe the pauses between inhale and exhale, exhale and inhale. Just observe those pauses, observe what you feel in the action of your exhale and then what you feel with inhale.

Exhale is an action, and it requires strength to push the air out. Simply put, you need some degree of tone in your diaphragm, intercostals and abdominals to make it happen. Inhale, on the other hand, happens passively as a result of the vacuum created by a descending diaphragm. We will not forget to breathe in, because our bodies are programmed to make sure we get enough oxygen, but most of us can attest to what happens when we are stressed or concentrating and we forget to breathe out. Headache, anyone? Perhaps with a side helping of anxiety? It takes muscular effort to release your breath from your body. It takes strength to surrender.

And when we are strong enough to fully surrender to our exhale, we make space to fully receive our inhale. This is Strength Receiving. This is HaTha. This is Yoga.

Let’s expand this to asana. Have a peek at the picture below. It has labels and everything. Also, totally off topic, it’s my favourite pic; it makes me feel like I wandered onto a Yoga Journal shoot.

Ok,so you see how my legs are working strongly, and my upper body is soft and arched? This is also strength receiving. Anatomically, we are designed to stand upright, and bear the weight of our bodies through our legs, pelvis and spine. This leave the front of the body open to receiving and releasing our breath. It also leaves the shoulders soft and open. Strength, receiving.

The point of practicing yoga postures, apart from helping us feel the strength receiving in our breath, is to strengthen those parts of us that need to be strong, and stretch those parts of us that need to let go, so that we can be in balance. Balance between strength and sukham, which translates as ease. It also translates, literally, as ‘space around the heart’. And that, dear yogi(ni)s, is the essence of receiving, non? An open heart will allow people in. A closed one will not.

Once we have mastered HaTha, strength receiving, in our breath and bodies, then, as Krishnamacharya said, yoga begins. Because all yoga practice is really about our interactions in this world, with other people. So we learn to be strong enough to let go of being right, strong enough to lay ourselves at the feet of those we love, but also strong enough to set appropriate boundaries. We learn to be soft enough to allow others to do things for us, soft enough to let them see our tender underbellies, our foibles and our faults. Soft enough to receive the love that is always flowing our way, even when we don’t believe that it is.

I hope I have explained that lucidly! If not, please let me know.

Happy week to you all.