Asana

Most yoga classes use posture to build strength or flexibility, this tradition uses it for something different.

Posture work here is oriented toward reorganizing the relationship between structure, breath, and awareness: the body is approached as a field of held patterns of tension: physical, energetic, and emotional, that āsana gradually makes visible and available for release.

Specific series are used depending on what is being worked with, some sequences are oriented toward recalibrating the five elemental forces: earth, water, fire, air, and space; each addressing different qualities of holding and different dimensions of vitality; others focus on specific energetic or functional concerns; āsana is never practiced in isolation from breath, the two move together.

This is the fourth piece in the Elements of Practice series. Next: Bandha — the internal locks that seal and redirect energy within the body.