HATHA YOGA
Yoga is a practical psychology. The increasingly widespread use of Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga in contemporary psychological practice supports this view. The words Hatha Yoga signify the dynamic union of body and mind, of the individual with the whole, of the positive and negative poles, in order to activate concentration skills and restore a sense of personal coherence.
The practice of asanas and pranayamas mobilizes the body with the dual purpose of activating the biological functions of the organism and enhancing the capacity for self-reflection.
We activate or relax certain neural and endocrine centers depending on the psychological state and the overall purposes of the therapy, with each session structured according to these immediate and long-term needs.
Through Hatha Yoga, we bring the body into psychotherapy. Practicing in a state of focused attention allows the parasympathetic nervous system to take center stage in the functioning of the autonomic nervous system.
The brain pulses to the rhythm of alpha waves, the right hemisphere connecting with the left, integrating emotional impulse with cognitive reflection. Now able to broaden our perspective on our experiences, we interpret and assimilate them in a more harmonious and constructive way.
Often, a Hatha Yoga session precedes and prepares the psychotherapeutic dialogue session. The practices taught during the sessions are prescribed to be practiced during the periods between appointments with the therapist, so that the person can gradually take control of their own process of physical and mental change.
MEDITATION
You can't teach meditation any more than you can teach sleep, says my Integral Yoga teacher, Ajit Sarkar, in Pondicherry; but we can learn what we need to do to allow the meditative state to arise—this state in which the force of gravity and the force of acceleration become equivalent, permitting lightness of body and mind.
Called the yoga of emotions by Daniel Odier, who brought it from Kashmir, the slow-moving meditative practice has its source in verse 83 of the Vijñanabhairava, which sings of meditation through the body:
"...sitting in a moving vehicle
or moving one's own body with extreme slowness,
one quiets the mind and arrives at a state of profound awareness."
(translation by Dr. Mark Dyczkowczki)
Slow movement provides a progressive awareness of the state of your joints, muscles, and emotions, of the texture of your skin, and of the air that surrounds it. For 20 minutes, immersed in intense music, with eyes closed if possible, seated or with feet firmly planted on the ground, we explore through free movements of the spine, arms, and head; expanding and relaxing with deep inhalation and exhalation.
From listening to the musical harmonies and rhythms to perceiving the vibration of inaudible sound, from slow and gentle movement to still lightness, opening the body, loosening the joints, allowing emotions held in the unconscious to surface.
The body and mind lighten simultaneously; silence and calm gradually weave a gentle union between the internal and external. The activation of the skin by the sound waves changes the body's energetic state and the amplitude of brain waves, naturally creating the conditions for a deep and spontaneous meditation. With its emphasis on slowness and freedom, this practice immerses us in the timeless, inner space of Bill Viola's videos, of Tai Chi, of Masaki Iwana's white butoh; it retunes us with the vibration of our own fundamental note.
At the center of the material universe, an imperceptible movement; at the center of the physical body, an inaudible vibration, the Spanda.
Listening to this sound, perceiving this movement, let us allow thought to rest, let the meditative state settle in.