Some random questions on Asana.
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A few random questions I have on Asana:
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What should one focus the attention on during Asana? Should I focus it completely on my body and basically seek to attain ecstatic transcendence by absolute overload of bodily discomfort? Should I focus on my breath and seek to lose track of the body (and risk it shifting)?
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My feet seem to tense up a lot during Asana, and it's very consistent. I usually find them tightly holding a position in which only the balls of my feet are actually touching the ground. Is this supposed to happen, or should I seek to have them flat and relaxed on the ground? (I begin with them relaxed.)
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If I find that I've shifted noticeably during the course of the practice, should I "un-shift" and try to resume my original posture, or try to simply hold the new posture? I.e. if I begin to slouch forward, should I hold that new, slouched position, or actually straighten myself out?
93, 93/93.
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Focus on whatever you have decided to focus on.
Seriously though, letting your mind wander aimlessly is a type of 'break'. If you're early on in practice, then you could, for example, focus on maintaining good posture. Once this is done, you could focus on breath, or a part of the body, or concentrating on a thought (dharana), etc. It all depends on the regimen you've chosen. -
I don't know, but I'm sure someone else does.
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Shift back to the former posture, and consider it a 'break'. If you're slumping, it might be that your original position doesn't have good balance (e.g, you are leaning forward and putting strain on your back). If this is the case, focus on a balanced, neutral spinal column (imagining your head suspended from a wire from the ceiling is a helpful visualization).
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Thank you for the responses, Av. I hope someone can hook me up with their take on question numero dos.
I usually focus 90% on my breath, keeping an eye on my body to try to catch it shifting. I let subconscious stuff come up as it wants to (I have had many, many valuable insights into myself from this), but I restrict conscious thought except when as I use it to probe important subconscious things that come up ("oh, so X? Well, then why Y? Why not Z?" waits for answer, etc.).
93, 93/93.
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Are you sitting in god pose? Are you leaning forward slightly?
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"Are you sitting in god pose? Are you leaning forward slightly?"
Yes, I am sitting in the god pose; I do tend to lean slightly forward over time, but my chair is actually not straight-backed (it leans a little bit back, forming an obtuse angle). I usually put a pillow behind my back - it makes it less uncomfortable when I do Asana shirtless as I like to do (breathing is a lot easier), and it helps compensate for my chair so that my back is straighter. I've tried doing it on the edge of my bed (and other such places that have no back support) and found this excruciating.
I think I lean forward about as often as I lean to either side, perhaps a bit more, judging by the direction that my phone usually falls off my head! (I keep the phone on my head for the entire session about 1 out of every 3 attempts; I'm doing 30 minute sessions now).
93, 93/93
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You might be tensing and going onto the balls of your feet to counter-act your forward lean. You could try sitting a little on the front of the chair so that your back isn't touching the chair back, and then focus on aligning your spine vertically, so that everything is in nice balance, and see if that helps both the slumping forward and the tensing in your feet.
If you find your feet tensing, and you lean back a bit, and your feet relax, then that's probably it.
