Posts Tagged ‘awareness in the cells’
YOGA IS MY BUS (continued)
Day 2 of Faeq Biria’s workshop: An awareness in my cells
Alya introduced this concept that was so alien to me sometime ago. She said that one of the great yoga teachers told her that a benefit of practicing Iyengar yoga is to have awareness in the cells.
Usually, when we are given instruction on how to move our body, the instruction is first processed by our mind and then the mind signals our body to move accordingly. When we have awareness in the cells, that period wherein our mind processes the instruction and transmit it to our body is significantly reduced or eliminated. I suppose it is akin to how we react instinctively. For example, when a stray ball is about to hit us, without thinking, our body tries to avoid it. Within the period when that unexpected stray ball is about to hit us, we have no time to think will our selves to avoid the ball. We just do.
On the last hour of Faeq Biria’s workshop, I was picking up a block, and in the process, I happen to look at the hand picking up the block. At first, I found my hand rather strange but I could not immediately tell why. After what seemed like a long time, I realized that my fingers were bent in a funny way to make it easier for me to pick up the block. Of course, when I realized my fingers were bent in a funny way, my mind immediately commanded them to straighten and they did.
On hindsight, I wonder if I had in a tiny way achieved that so called concept of awareness in the cells when my fingers bent in a funny way to pick up the block without my mind telling my fingers to bend that way.