Taking Your Practice Deeper

Social media sites are filled with inspirational pictures of yogis striking advanced poses. You can find before-and-after pictures that document progress in these poses, as well as countless articles suggesting how to take your own yoga practice further. But going further in your physical practice doesn't necessarily mean twisting into a full bind or balancing in a graceful inversion.

Going further in yoga may be thought of as going deeper instead. The progress may come from staying still. It may come from connecting to a familiar pose in a new way. Some of the most challenging aspects of yoga involve listening to your body, respecting what it needs on any given day, and accepting physical limitations that may never change.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with being proud of progress that can be seen from the outside. Gaining the strength and flexibility for more advanced yoga poses is something to be celebrated. However, it isn't the only goal, or the only progress, to celebrate in your physical practice.

When working toward going deeper, you can make substantial progress in even the most basic of yoga poses. The way I like to think of deepening my yoga practice is to work toward increasing the number of sensations that I can be aware of in any given pose.

Let's consider cobra pose as an example. 

When you first start practicing yoga, you may be aware of only the most basic aspects of this pose. You know that you are lifting your shoulders and chest off the mat.

When taking a vinyasa flow class, you may also soon realize that the pose is taken with an inhale. That's two things to think about: curling your chest and shoulders off the mat, and breathing in.

If you want to take your practice further, you could work toward straightening your arms or toward moving into upward facing dog instead. But there is so much more you can still achieve by going deeper in a basic cobra pose with bent elbows.

To start, consider your hand placement. Bring your hands in line with your low ribcage, pointing your fingers toward the front of your mat and pressing down firmly (three things). When you lift, imagine curling your shoulders back and out to spread your chest and collarbones wide (four).

As you become more comfortable, think about dropping your shoulders away from your ears to let your shoulder blades slide down your back (five). You can lift your palms a fraction of an inch off your mat to find the position where your upper back muscles are engaged, so you are not relying on your arms to lift you up (six).

You can also begin to think about finding length in your neck (seven) and choosing a gaze point (drishti) that holds your head in a comfortable position (eight). Moving down your body, you may take your attention to your low back. Listening for any discomfort or pinching sensations, which would be a sign to separate your legs hip-width distance or lower your upper body closer to your mat (nine).

Another important way to support your back in cobra pose, is to keep your core engaged. This includes pulling in your abs (uddiyana bandha - ten), as well as lifting through your pelvic floor (mula bandha - eleven). For beginning or intermediate students, it may be easier to engage these abdominal and pelvic locks on an exhale. So you may want to experiment with how your breath influences your core (twelve).

Whether your legs are separate or together in cobra pose, you want to keep the muscles active and engaged. I find that a very slight inward rotation of my thighs gives more support to my lower back and pelvis, while also keeping my knees in line and pointing down toward the mat (thirteen).

Of course, your legs don't end at your ankles. Pressing the tops of your feet into the mat helps you engage your legs and support your low back (fourteen). You want to take care to keep your feet parallel as well (fifteen). It's all too easy to let your toes turn in, and that small movement can cause problems for your low back.

That's fifteen different things to think about, in a pose that is typically held for just one to five breaths. (!) It's very difficult to think about all of these little details at the same time, especially when you're first starting out. But if you focus on just a few details with each practice, you begin to develop the strength and muscle memory that will let you focus on other areas without losing the progress you have already made.

This same process can be used in any yoga pose. All of these tiny refinements affect the stability of your practice and help you build a fuller awareness of your body.

From the outside, practicing more deeply may not look very different, especially to the untrained eye, but it will feel very different to you. It will continue to provide additional physical and mental benefits. It will keep you coming back to your mat with a greater sense of confidence and an ability to find more ease in your efforts.