Asana - Part 2

Some Tips
• Visualize yourself in the posture before moving into it. Some of our resistance is just a conditioned mental idea that we cannot do the posture. Change the mental idea.
• Never force it. Allow the breath to move you gradually deeper into the posture.
• Focus on the breath to bring lightness, ease, and fluidity into the movement. This is not about contorting your body into some frozen posture, there is always movement in the stillness.
• Be patient with yourself, notice that the more even your breath, the slower the breath, the easier the movement.
• Let the thoughts go by, notice them as just thoughts, and then let them go.
• Notice how persistent the mind can be.
• Feel the breath as an extension of the bandhas.
• What happens to your spine if you connect breath and bandhas as you move into a posture? And if you don’t?
• As you flex the front of your thigh (quadriceps), notice the extended stretch on the opposite side (hamstrings).
Fearasana
One of the greatest obstacles is fear. Go into the resistance, allow
the body to open. S U R R E N D E R.
from : ashtanga yoga manual