Editorial notes: This post was found in ‘Draft’ mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 26/11/2015
I had never experienced any form of yoga before a week. Now I have a week’s experience of a daily habit of a Pawanmuktasana series that focuses on joints. Practically detailed, I have conducted 30min daily, which is insufficient for the series to be experienced slowly; I have made choices on each day regarding how much time to invest in each set of movements, and which sets.
Reviewing the entire experience is not easy; there is no clear avenue insisting upon precedent description. I can comment on ease, sensations, emotions, changes noted with practice, lessons learned, and imagined theories – at the very least.
The movements are predominantly easy. This was one reason for my selecting this series for my introduction to yoga. There are other reasons. Some movements included difficulty, especially those that required holding a leg off the ground in any way. But there is an element of familiarity – and lack thereof – that may be responsible for any lack of ease. The motions themselves are predicated on ease; on what is easy. The pose butterfly however I found innately difficult, partly due to balance, and an involuntary habit of tensing regularly.
The sensations of the movements become easier to grasp as objects of focus with increased familiarity. Some generalizations may be made. As objects of focus, many of these movements (i.e. their associated focal points, e.g. join rotation) were not familiar experiences for me. There was a strong element of novelty in my intention to observe them, and in the result. Another result, was the sensation of pleasure (in the chest) that was associated with some movements, in varying degrees and not always symmetrically.
In addition to the sensation of pleasure, there was a clear reduction in negative emotions with each and every practice. Most obviously sense of anxiety as measured by its expression in the chest and in the pattern of thoughts.
Even after a single week, there are a number of changes noted with practice. There were obvious and expected improvements in conducting the motions, and also as mentioned with the ease of grasping focal object (e.g. breath, limb movement). Also, as less thought and discovery was needed for a movement, I could shift attention to the boundaries of those movements as defined by comfort, which made it easier to move without strain. This paralleled a general trend of less attention to planning and thinking, and more intended observations. Thus I could more readily observe how I felt emotionally along with a motion.
A few lessons were learned, practical and intentional.
