by Heather Ma, Certified Ma Yoga® Instructor
Often when I practice yoga on my own, I find myself giving cues inside my head. They usually mimic
whatever cues I hear my teachers say the most often–things like “ground through all four corners of your feet,” or “draw your shoulder blades together and lift your heart,” or even “take a deep breath in and expand into the pose on your exhale.”
When my breath was constricted in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), the lingering voice from my Power Yoga days said, “The moment you want to get out of the pose is when the pose begins.”
Some part of me observed this thought, and immediately saw the toxic nature of believing that a pose is only effective when I feel its discomfort. I understood the damage of a yoga practice that relied on me overriding cues from my body and mind. I saw the seeds of mistrust in myself this kind of philosophy had sown in my spirit, and I felt immense relief as an alternative wisdom shed its light: “Alignment is where the pose begins.”
I breathed it in, “Alignment is where the pose begins,” and I expanded into my back as I breathed out. I continued with the Five Steps of Co-Creation that I had learned in the Ma Yoga Prenatal Certification Program: I spread my toes and planted my feet (EARTH), I opened my hips in and back (WATER), and I drew my pelvis down to activate my power (FIRE). My body filled with light and expanded (AIR) as I reached my arms a little more fully overhead, and I felt so at ease in my Trikonasana.
I don’t know if it’s any more true to say “alignment is where the pose begins,” than the alternative I learned five years ago, but it felt a lot more right for me in body, mind, and spirit. I felt like I was joining myself on a journey to self-awareness and self-compassion, not chasing the high of some accomplishment of endurance.
There is always more self-awareness to be found as I practice alignment in my physical body. As I do, it allows the easeful flow of energy to connect me back to my Higher Self. Rather than a fight to pit the body and mind against one another by overriding our body’s natural, wise cues, the path to alignment is a never-ending encounter with grace.
The Five Steps of Co-Creation are wisdom’s ongoing invitation to surrender my practice to a higher call: there is no achievement, only union. This grace deepens my yoga practice of living in – and loving – the world.
