If you, like me, plan on practising yoga into your hundreds (hell yes, lets aim high!) then developing a healthy and sustainable physical practice is pretty gosh darn essential.
"Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. To be sensitive is to be alive." ~ Vanda Scaravelli
So, how do we do we build a practice that sustains rather than drains us? Which is in itself a reward to the body rather than some sort of unintended punishment? Well, I’m afraid it requires becoming intimate with one of our most universally avoided foes…. PAIN.
Yup. When your yoga teacher airily fairily asks you to ‘listen to your body’, she/he is not asking you strike up an actual audible conversation with your knees. Rather they are more likely encouraging a mindful pause, inviting your awareness to travel through your body feeling for any areas of new or intense physical sensation.
When, on its journey, the brain flags up a feeling that is either particularly strong or unusual, that is the very moment we have inadvertently hit the jackpot. For this is where our bodies are communicating with us through the language of sensation, and it is by listening intently to this feedback that we are able to build a practice geared towards vitality, health and longevity.
How can I tell the difference between pain and a healthy intense sensation?
The first step when you encounter one of these, um, lets call them ‘sensation conversations’ with your body is to asses whether what you can feel is actually pain or something else altogether. The more you practice yoga and begin to cultivate the skill of listening inwardly, the better you become at deciphering the difference between pain and the sometimes intense physical sensations that accompany a deep stretch or challenging pose.
This can feel different in each of our bodies but as a general(ish) rule, pain often presents itself as a sharp tugging, twinging or stabbing kind of sensation whereas a deep stretch or challenging hold will feel more like an intensely warm (sometimes hot) more continuous thrum.
What do I do if a pose hurts?
When you encounter something you think is more likely to be pain - this is your body kindly advising you to either experiment with modifying your alignment (to see if the sensation subsides) or if this is not an option or does not work, to move into an alternative pose.
I often (very kindly and sensitively of course ;) interrogate my students to get to the bottom of whether something 'hurts' or not. Honestly, I am probably borderline annoying for this (ha). I do this for two reasons. The first, and most obvious reason is because I don't want anyone to come away from my class with any sort of injury. Ever. The second is because I know that I have a massive toolkit to hand (or more rather in my head) that comprises literally hundreds of different variations of poses which will make them safer, more comfortable or more accessible to people. And if those aren't suitable I have countless alternative poses that will do a similar job to the one which isn't currently working for them.
What if this is more of an intense sensation than pain?
If you think this feeling is more of a deep and intense stretch, then we have other tools in our kit which allow us to stay in the position for long enough to gain the benefits of the pose. Some of these, however, involve shifting our perspective rather than our bodies.
Firstly, holding your awareness in the area of your body experiencing the stretch, whilst simultaneously feeling and focusing on the movement of your breath in and out of your body. Begin to imagine that as the air flows out with each exhale, your muscles begin to naturally relax automatically in response.
Another might be focusing on the movement of your breath and at the same time, consciously relaxing the muscles of your face. This will encourage your nervous system to shift into a relaxation response, which will help to relax the muscles you’re stretching and in so doing, (hopefully!) enhance your comfort levels.
How beneficial are very intense sensations during my yoga practice?
Having said all that, if a pose is eliciting such an intense sensation that it causes your breathing to become jagged or shallow, or if it leaves you with a feeling of not wanting to revisit that pose then it is worth considering the degree to which you move into a pose. Personally, I go by Eric Schiffmann's approach:
The optimum degree of intensity is the amount that elicits your fullest attention. Sometimes this will be a lot, sometimes this will be a little. The correct amount is the amount that helps you be one pointed and whole. It is the amount that feels perfect to you now. Too much is strain. And too little is not sufficiently interesting. ~Erich Schiffmann
Noticing both the quality and pace of your breathing as well as the quality and degree of your attention are excellent gauges to suggest whether you are in an optimal position for a particular pose. If you breathing is rapid and inconsistent or if your mind feels just a little too free to wander off into the ether then both are excellent indications that you need to continue to experiment with the exact alignment of the pose you are in.
Enjoy your healthy long-lived practice!
So, in conclusion, focusing intently on the sensations that arise throughout our practice is one of the most effective ways to build a healthy practice. When it’s pain - modify or change the pose. When it’s a healthy stretch - try to perhaps modify or change your thoughts about it.
In short... listen to your body ;)
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