The collective realm: body and breath awareness

As you are reading these words, bring your awareness into your body. Without moving, notice your posture.

How are you sitting? Are you in a comfortable position? Are your legs crossed? Is there a part of you that is straining? Is tension forming at the base of your spine? How is your neck feeling?

Now make the adjustments needed to enhance your comfort level.

This, my friends, is yoga.

Changing your position as a result of bringing your awareness into your body. Shifting your awareness to reside deep into your body unlocks stress imprints and makes space for lightness, subtleness, gracefulness.

Now take a deep breath in through the nose, and exhale out through the mouth. Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Feels spectacular, right?!

We cultivated this body and breath awareness each day at yoga school. Multiple times a day. In fact, in every moment, with every breath, we learnt how to enter this state of absolute presence.

We were taught how to invite this awareness, or consciousness, into every movement; let it be Warrior 2, or child’s pose, or bringing a spoonful of raw triple chocolate berry cheesecake to our mouths. Yes, awareness was quick to appear when it came to that raw triple chocolate berry cheesecake!

Awareness joined us while we swam laps in the pool or shared smiles and stories with our new friends.

I felt my taste buds salivate in anticipation each time the chefs brought out dessert after dinner. Admiring, adoring, oooing and ahhing. How aesthetically pleasing that night’s creation was to the eye, the edible flowers, the shredded coconut sprinkled lightly over this whole, untouched, delicious looking cheesecake. Knowing a mouthful of pleasure was to come, I took a deep breath and became completely present. I seduced that cheesecake from its safe haven on the plate, into a big bowl, onto a little spoon and, finally, into my mouth. Tasting the raw nutty base of almonds and soft Medjool dates, the subtle crunch of buckwheat, a hint of vanilla. Then, a creamy trickle of cashews and sweet maple coated my tongue; fluffiness, lightness and coolness flooded into my mouth. My first chew, bursting a blueberry so fresh and alive with flavour that spilled all over my gums…

Oooops, I got a little side tracked there! Just rediscovered that highly detailed moment of chocolate berry happiness. Yummm!

Ahhh, so, as you can see, we were taught present moment awareness. We allured this awareness to warm our bodies and still our minds during meditation and pranayama practice. Awareness joined us while we swam laps in the pool or shared smiles and stories with our new friends.

This awareness of the present moment, of our breath and our every move, became our tool, our guide, our instrument for making choices. Bringing our attention to the subtle sensations of comfort or discomfort provided the guidance of right action, right movement, right release. Discovering exactly what our body and mind needed in every moment.

Becoming more aware of the signals our body is sending us releases the healthy flow of life energy, or prana, and allows it to move freely throughout our bodies. This is consciousness in motion. Awareness in action.

Consciousness with blueberry explosions and sweet edible flowers and silky, smooth raw chocolate flowing freely into my mouth. Yes. Now that is more right action than right action could ever be right.