YEM: YOGA AS ENERGY MEDICINE
LENGTHENING
The Spine
A
s we explored in my last YEM:
Yoga as Energy Medicine article, “Follow The Wave In Your Spine”,
there is a natural wave-like impulse
that flows through our spine. It exists
within us all, at any given moment. It
is the pulse of life itself.
Due to the effect of gravity and the
way we identify with our habits, we
hold tension in our tissue, electrical
and nervous systems. When newborn, our bodies/beings are highly
receptive to growth. We breathe
with life with greater co-creative fluidity. With age, we tend to become
more set in our ways, attached to
our lives being a certain way. Our
attachments resist the flow of life,
through which comes physical,
emotional, intellectual and spiritual
rigidity. This tension in turn can lead
to unhappiness and ill-health.
At a physical level, the resistance
to the flow of life can affect the
springiness and suppleness of the
spinal discs that provide essential
cushioning between our vertebrae.
Over time, our spine becomes compressed by the weight of this constrictive energy and spinal issues occur.
Spinal issues are more complex than
say a sore knee, as the spinal column is the central channel of life-force energy that moves
through our body/being. Like the trunk of a tree, it gathers and transmits essential life-force
energy to our various body parts, and is in constant communication with our ability to perceive, emote, think, sense and act. When the spine is not functioning optimally, our whole
body/being can be out of phase with our fullest potential.
Hatha Yoga provides valuable exercises to help optimize spinal health, which in turn affects
our whole self. Specific exercises that help to lengthen the spine can reverse the effect of
gravity and aging, and help us let go of that which no longer serves.