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Grounding
What is Grounding?
Grounding is simply awareness of where you connect
to the ground. In headstand this is the top of your head. Unfortunately,
this word gets tossed around so loosely that it has lost some of
its punch. Still, used correctly it provides us critical feedback
for learning yoga.
How do I Ground?
Breathing consciously while focusing your attention
on where you connect to the ground is all it takes. Try this exercise.
1. Check the alignment from your ankles to your toes.
Align the center of your ankles with the space between your second
and third toes (starting from your big toe, that is). Your heels
will be slightly wider than your toes.
2. Close your eyes and breathe slowly and evenly through your nose.
Focus your attention keenly on the sensations from your feet on
the floor. Make sure your knees are not locked or bowed back, as
this would obstruct the feedback from your feet.
3. Press the big toe of your right foot firmly into the floor and
spread the foot as wide as you possibly can across the floor. Then
relax the foot, but keep it as wide as it will stay. Relax for a
breath or so.
4. Do the same thing with your left foot. Relax for another breath
or two…
5. All the while, keep your eyes closed and your attention focused
on sensations from your feet.
Initial Stance  Spread
Out Spread
& Relaxed
  
Even though the photos don't show what's happening
under your foot, you really will feel the difference in the balls
of your toes!
In any yoga posture you can do the same thing. Just
focus your attention, broaden your points of contacts with the ground,
relax and breathe. In downward dog, your points of contact would
be your hands and feet. In shoulderstand, they are the back of your
upper arms, the upper edge of your shoulders and the back of your
head. While you cannot literally broaden the back of your head,
you can broaden through the shoulders. Do what you can, and feel
free to let your imagination help. Imagine broadening even the top
of the skull in headstand, then relax into it for a tranquil, balanced
headstand.
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Extending the Spine
Extending your spine from top to bottom and vice versa
is another essential element in yoga. Whether you are sitting for
meditation, twisting, or backward bending, you need to extend your
spine. The idea is to do so gently, so as not to disturb your equilibrium.
Here’s another little exercise to help with this concept:
1. Sit in any comfortable position – on the
floor is best, but if you need a chair to be comfortable, use one.
Close your eyes and breathe slowly and evenly through your nose.
2. Try as best you can to tilt your coccyx and sacrum backward just
a little bit. It sometimes helps here to scoot your sit bones (ischial
tuberosities) back just slightly. You may not feel any movement,
but even the intention will help here.
3. Use the lowest reaches of your abdominal sheath to gently push
your hips down into the ground. This should engage just the bottom
inch or two of your abdominals and low back muscles.
4. Next, use the muscles around the middle of your belly and middle
back to lift up out of the hips. Again, intention is more important
than movement.
5. Then, use the muscles around and between the ribs to lift as
well. Think about lifting the torso all the way around, front, back
and sides.
6. Let the shoulders and arms hang relaxed at your sides.
7. Tilt your chin in a little toward your throat, and gently extend
the back of your neck upwards.
8. Breathe slowly and evenly. If you know Ujjayi
Breath, or Complete
Breath, those would work very well with this.
Two-way Effort and Isometric Tension
In essence, we are using isometric tension here. We
are exerting roughly equal amounts of effort in opposite directions,
while remaining still. We do so in one way or another in most yoga
asana. Sometimes, we pull in opposite directions with upper and
lower sections of the abdominal sheath, as in the Cobra.
Sometimes, we push the hands and arms down against upward pressure
in the lower torso, as in Downward
Dog Pose. Throughout the site I will point out where you can
employ two-way, isometric effort to maintain the best alignment
and get the most out of each asana.
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Movement and Stillness from
the Belly
Tapping into the strength and power of your belly
will assist you as much as anything else in learning yoga. Not surprisingly,
it’s about awareness. When I talk about your belly I mean
the entire sphere from your pelvis up to the base of your lungs
and from your belly button to your low back. Use your breath and
your mental focus to learn about your belly, inside and out, in
any posture. How is it turned? Is it relaxed? Can you move just
part of it? Can you move it two directions at once? How about three
or four? Where do all the layers of muscle of your abdominal sheath
connect (ribs, hips, low back)? How does every step you take initiate
from your belly? Have fun exploring, and work on the breathing and
abdominal exercises to gradually learn more.
Together, Pranayama
and Abdominal Exercise will not
only help you to strengthen your abdominal area. Practicing these
exercises daily will also develop an internal sense of how to use
your abdominal muscles to safely support you in any yoga posture.
You will be able to stretch more deeply with whole-body awareness.
Both of these sections begin with simpler exercises and progress
to more complex and difficult practices.
Why is it so important and valuable to practice yoga
from your belly? Aside from the more esoteric arguments about energy
centers prevalent in yoga as well as martial arts, here is a more
concrete response. It is the center of the physical mass of your
body. It connects your powerful leg muscles through your hips into
your spine. It is a muscular sphere which bridges the torso with
the hips and legs. A strong abdominal area allows you to exert powerful
effort from your legs and upper body with a reduced chance of injury.
The abdominal center literally supports, cushions and balances the
force of movements above and below. It would not be overstating
to say that the way you use your belly determines what happens in
the rest of your body in any yoga practice.
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