Thanks to a comment on Twitter by YogaDork, I discovered and ordered a marvellous book – Yoga at the Wall by Nancy McCaochan…
I’ve just started reading it and I love, love, love it already.
It’s an amazing book in many ways. First, there’s the premise of a book about yoga poses using the wall as a support – the very first that’s ever been written on the topic. This year in my yoga teacher training, I’ve been taught a handful of wall-supported poses, usually with the intent of helping beginners. But never a whole series and never as a practice of itself for all levels of practitioner.
Don’t know if any of you have tried it, but for example, doing trikonasana against the wall shows you exactly where your alignment is and isn’t. Are both your shoulders back? Is your torso directly over your legs or sticking out at an angle, like a banana? Are you rotating your torso enough?
This is the way I’ve been taught to use the wall. But this book takes it way beyond checking your alignment.
And before she even starts talking about asana specifically, Nancy writes about the resistance in our mind and body in a very powerful and simple way.
I wanted to share with you the following snippets from the first chapter, which really clarified information that I already knew about yoga and the mind/body, but I’ve never enunciated it like this!
There’s more going on in each pose, however, than mechanical resistance between paired muscle groups. Muscle tissues contract in response to electrical stimuli from the neurons that enervate them. These are largely under the control of our will. However, atrophied or underdeveloped muscles, unforged neural pathways, a lack of kinaesthetic awareness, bone structure and injury are all conditions that impede the desired muscular response. This kind of resistance is more subtle than muscular resistance and demands a refined sense of how to work. We modify poses when our range of motion is compromised or when we’re not strong enough to do the full asana. We use movement to open joint tissues and to develop kinaesthetic awareness. In all cases, using a steady, directed breath, we create a kind of altered state of consciousness, so that we can bring the mind to bear within the tissues of the body.
It’s here – in the mind – that we come to see how our resistance to dealing with our stuff comes into play in our practice. Our bodies are vast libraries of information. In our DNA, there lives the history of the evolution of our species. In addition, our hips, shoulders, elbow, neck and spine carry the memories that comprise the stories of our individual lives. Each time we experience anything, a biochemical reaction takes place somewhere inside us. If the experience is pleasant, endorphins are released; we feel good. If the experience is not pleasant, we feel sad or angry or frustrated, and corresponding chemicals are released into our blood stream. We feel tired or our stomach gets upset. Our memories are born in this chemical soup, which leaves traces within our cells. Through repetition of particular reactions, we create a palpable psychic residue that becomes part of both our psychological predispositions and our physical structure…
…One of the basic principles on which we human creatures operate is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Shunting emotions into the body is one mechanism by which many of us avoid the discomfort, or negative feelings. This fundamental psychic resistance is the fodder for any meaningful yoga practice as we work with our bodies to unlock the mysteries of our minds and emotions.
~Yoga at the Wall by Nancy McCaochan
And this, ladies and gentleman, is one of the many reasons I do yoga!
~Svasti
sometimes I do an entire class on the wall especially with my college age yogis.
I’m getting this book! thanks, svasti!
Your photo won’t load on my end but I love the idea of yoga on the wall.
I have done poses like this on the wall in workshops and it is SO helpful. I also had a session with a yoga therapist and we did mountain on the floor. Sounds silly in some ways but for newbies, I think it really helps them to feel how their spine should be aligned while standing. We also placed our feet on the wall to emphasize having all 4 corners of the foot supporting body weight.
awesome! I also think that snippet was a really nice summary of mind-body connection. Beautifully written at that!
I still have to do trikonasana against the wall, honestly I’m scared at how crooked I’ll feel!
Very interesting.
I particularly enjoyed her extended version of Patanjali’s “latent impressions”–all the accumulated stuff of our experience.
Bob Weisenberg
http://yogademystified.com
Interesting, Svasti–I was just reading Yoga for Cynics and just mentioned there that I have been doing yoga for about a year now. I am really amazed at the real benefits I have gotten from doing it. My back is about 100% better than it was a year ago. I used to take ibuprofen almost every day and now I rarely need to take it. Yoga has strengthened my lower back enormously. But I think the biggest benefit I have gotten from yoga is that it really relaxes me/reduces stress. I have a tendency to get a little stressed out/overwhelmed by life but an hour of yoga really gets me to the mental place that I like to be.
I think I’m going to order that book! Thanks for the tip!
Melinda
Thanks for the tip. It looks like a fabulous book and I’ll absolutely pick it up!
Glad to hear that you’re through the worst of the struggles you faced earlier this year.
First… apologies for not seeing the comment you left ages ago! seems the email i had associated with my blogger account is no longer in service… and I’m not very observant when I sign in apparently!! but anyway, problem solved!
It’s funny what a striking similarity there is between what yoga does and what I’ve learned about Vipassana meditation… in that they both are a way to deal with past experiences, good and bad, at a cellular level…
thought that came to mind when I first read the quote…
it’s like Yoga and Vipassana are two different paths heading towards the same destination
@Linda-Sama – Yeah, I think it doesn’t matter how advanced (or not) you are, you can always get something out of wall-assisted yoga.
@Christa – In most yoga classes I’ve attended (my Guru’s and a couple of others excepted), I think there’s not enough emphasis on alignment. Its soooo important, otherwise, how do you have right perception?
@EcoYogini – The more you use the wall to assist your alignment, the more you can learn to feel the difference. I still use the wall for some poses too!
@Bob – I’m not as familiar with Patanjali as you seem to be. But I think she’s got a really great voice in her writing.
@Melinda – I’m so glad you’re getting so much benefit out of your yoga practice! I’m sure your liver is thanking you for the lack of ibuprofen!! 😉
@Marie – I hope you do! I think more people need to know about this book. And yes, I’m over the worst of things, thank goodness!
@Victor – Vipassana is another arm of yoga, so its no surprise really, that you find similarities. I hope you are travelling well!