Support and Music Boxes

Reading from Tuesday, August 6, 2013 yoga class

"Whatever part of the body touches the ground becomes the structural base of support.  This base dictates what the rest of the body can or cannot do.  When support is lacking in the base of a movement, the structures higher up compensate by supporting rather than being supported. When the hands, feet, sitting bones, elbows, or head make contact with the ground, it is essential that we distribute the weight of the body evenly through this base.  Equal weight distribution at the base creates equal weight distribution of stress, both in the contacting surface and in the structures supported above the base. 

Imagine what it would be like to wear a pair of shoes with the right heel an inch higher than the left.  After a short time you would begin to feel strain in one ankle and then in one knee.  After a few days one hip would begin to ache, and then one side of your back would start to feel tight and compressed.  After a few weeks the shoulder on that side would feel painful and you would find yourself unable to turn your neck evenly.  After a month you would have a chronic headache that you could trace back through the zigzag of compensations from the top on down to your mismatched shoes.

When you put your hands on the floor and practice Downward Facing Dog, you may not be able to feel whether your weight is centered in your shoulders, but you can see and feel whether your weight is centered in your hands.  Thus not only can you use the base of the pose to balance the rest of the body, but you can read what the rest of the body is doing from the action of the base support...for now consider that the action of your hands will affect your arms and shoulders; the action of your feet will affect your knees, hips, and trunk; and the action of your pelvis will most directly affect your spinal column."      

                                                       From the book Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit  by Donna Farhi


A quote by Sark:   I think of us all as music boxes--beautiful and full of music...especially when we open up!