Far too often I find yoga students holding poses like marble statues. With tense shoulders and static stomachs, many yogis become tense as they strive to maintain an asana with the ideal image of what it should look like.
Breathe Deeply
When this happens, I ask my yoga students to inhale together and then exhale with a sigh. I wander around the yoga studio, placing a hand on their shoulder, inviting them to soften, or even reminding them to breathe. My favourite queue is asking them to slightly upturn the corners of their mouths: their smiles become wider when when they realize what I have asked them to do.
The point is that yoga should be fun. We run around and work hard all day, worried and stressed-out. The last thing we need is to bring this stress onto our yoga mats. Yoga can be an art form in many ways – a space for creative expression and a source for constructive personal release and awakening. In short, yoga can be fun, if you approach it with the right outlook.
Just Dance
Once you have progressed enough in your yoga practice to understand the basic principles of alignment, which will allow you to make sure your body (mainly your knees, lower back and neck) is safe, why not have some fun? My invitation to you is to deepen your yoga practice by letting your yoga dance!
By dance, I mean: Stop being a statue. Allow your body as many micro-movements and adjustments in your yoga poses as you need. Play around before you settle into a deep hold by moving in and out of it until you find the right spot. Experiment with the placement of your arms, the spacing between your fingers, the length of your lunge: you will never find the perfect expression of your pose until you experiment.
Five Cycles of Breathing
You can also use your breath to help your yoga dance. The next time you are in Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II pose), feel your inhale move up your spine from your tail-bone to the crown of your head. Feel your whole torso float towards the ceiling, light as a feather. Then as you exhale, imagine letting your breath flow down from your shoulders as you soften them, moving through your arms and exiting your body out your fingertips.
Try this for five cycles of breath, noticing the subtle movement of your pose: a lifting and lengthening in your inhales and a widening grounding release in your exhales. Do you feel a light flapping motion in your arms, like a bird flying above the clouds?
Open up your body to the idea of dancing and you will liberate and evolve your yoga practice. Break out of that static, statuesque approach to being in your yoga poses, and you will learn more about what feels best for you. If you can let go of any intimidation around the idea of being adventurous in your body, you will see how innately creative you are, and how therapeutic it can be to let your yoga dance.