Visualizing the Movement
“At each level of the practice, there is something of the mind, of body and of prana (energy). Some people try to do the exercises by moving the body alone. The principle is that the movement of the body is nothing and the movement of the mind is everything. The mind governs the movement of the body. It is the mind that moves; then the body follows. You watch that movement of the body which is from the movement of the mind. So every physical exercise is, first, a mental exercise. Here is an example of the kind of awareness you can cultivate during your actual practice:
‘Close the eyes and relax your forehead. Relax your facial muscles. Relax the shoulders. Prepare to lift the hand and send the order only to the point where movement is felt all the way down in the fingertips. The fingers are ready to rise but do not rise. Observe! Now relax all the way from the shoulders to the fingertips. Keep your eyes closed. Send an order to the arm to move. Feel the order going down. Feel tension building from the shoulders to the fingertips. Let your hand rise ever so slightly. Put the hand back again and relax. Relax all the way from the brain to the fingertips. Now observe the order to move going down from the brain to the shoulders, to the fingertips, and lift your hand ever so slightly. Lift it up. Watch it moving. Very slowly straighten your hand, watch it straightening. Feel every tissue in the hand. Now feel every tissue relaxing slowly and the hand going down, back again. Let all the muscles relax again. Open your eyes.’
You can see what can be learned by observing the movement. When you are practicing hatha, do it as a thought process. The body will much more easily obey you. Whenever you are practicing hatha accomplish it first in your mind as a thought process. It is with a thought that a movement begins, and it is then that your anatomy moves. Master it as a thought process and then you will know exactly what you are supposed to do with your body.”
Contact: Lynn Fraser [email protected]