Written by Aviva Tulasi and Sam Sather
Apply mindfulness techniques to cultivate relaxation, awareness and insights to our mind, body and heart with a group yoga class at Dogwood Studio. Our Candlelight Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra (every Wednesday at 6:30 pm ET) and Friday Night Yin Yoga (once a month at 6:30 pm ET) offers more time in silence to cultivate calm and repattern reactiveness to our thoughts, emotions and body in a safe space. Sign up using our Class Sign Up calendar.
Explore the intersection of yin/yang meridians, emotions, wellness, and YOUR yoga practice in our February Lunchtime Learning Series. The next workshop, Heart and Small Intestine: Restoring Your Vital Rhythm is February 14th at 11:30 am ET. Sign Up Online.
When you look into the mirror, you will see your face radiating back at you. You might not be able to see Qi (Chi, life force) flowing through meridians (rivers of energy flow), however you can experience the effect of your energy. You can notice slight changes in facial expressions when you are tired, angry, connected or balanced. Your internal construct impacts your external expression.
Even without direct perception, your experience lets you know there is something more than what you can see. Just like it is possible to know that someone in your neighborhood has a fire going without actually seeing the fire. Your senses provide evidence that the subtle body (energy body) is present. As you look at yourself, you can notice Qi. You might notice a temperature change or a tingling sensation.
Although in a different level of consciousness, the energy contained in the subtle body is connected to the physical body. The subtle body (energy body) exists alongside the physical body.
Meridians exist along fascia lines but are distinct entities. A good analogy is water flowing in a river along a specific path. Water will flow along the same path unless there is a blockage in the river bed. When there is blockage, the water flow gets disturbed. Depending on the type of blockage, the water can become stagnant or start flowing in a new direction. Even when the path gets disturbed, the river itself never gets damaged. As soon as the blockage gets removed, water returns to its original path. Additionally, water in a river goes beyond the edges of the river, seeping into the ground around and below, and evaporating above. In this model, the water is the Qi, the river is a meridian and the river bed is a fascia line.
If you take the palms of your hands together and rub them back and forth you can feel the texture of the fingertips. You can feel the density of your hands. When you press your hands into each other, a series of communication signals are sent within your body. Pressure sensors in your hands relay a message to your brain letting you know where your hands are in space and that the movement is safe. Rubbing the hands together, you can hear the sound produced and feel how friction leads to heat. If you put the palms of your hands over your eyes, sometimes you notice flickers of lights. The nervous system is communicating information from your hands to your eyes and the brain is interpreting each experience but you don’t often notice where the brain gets activated nor can you feel the circulation of energy from your hands into your eyes. Physically moving the hands leaves an imprint on the nervous system, how you feel, and your energy.
It takes time to discover the inside of your body! It is one gateway to the subtle (energy) body.
Noticing what happens in the body helps you to notice the underlying subtle body. It takes time and patience. But if you welcome all the sensations present in your practice you can start to notice what changes on the surface and how it impacts your Qi. When you slow down you can step inside what you are feeling. You might notice that you feel at ease or you have no sense of time while doing yoga, getting a massage or in acupuncture. This experience is the effect of balancing your Qi.
How we hold ourselves in space can impact how the fascia forms and what meridians are open and which ones blocked. We can also have an overabundance of Qi that needs freeing, like when a dam has blocked the water in a river. Some yoga practices, like Yin Yoga, spend more time exploring the sensations in the body and how they are connected to our feelings and thoughts. Yin yoga also targets pressurizing along some of the superficial meridians that run along the different layers of fascia. Stretching along the fascia lines creates a healthy stress or tug on the connective tissues that house the meridians, encourages moistening the fascia and balances the smooth flow of Qi.
Even if you don’t notice it or feel it, every time you step on the mat and move your body, you support balancing your inner and outer experience. Qi is given an opportunity to flow more freely through the meridians balancing the energy in our body and improving the health of our organs so we can experience the vitality of life.
Email info@dogwoodstudioyoga.com with questions. We are here to help!
Aviva Tulasi is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) and studio coordinator at Dogwood Studios. Aviva applies the teachings of classical yoga (movement, focused breathing & meditation) to nourish the nervous system. Aviva’s classes empower students to explore their thought habits in order to promote greater wellbeing both on and off the mat.
SAM Sather, founder of Dogwood Studios, is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT) and an Insight Yoga Institute (IYI) endorsed teacher. She individualizes the yoga practice with appropriate modifications for participants’ unique bodies and medical histories with a focus on finding calm and improving health. She offers several live, online and in person yoga classes as well as private sessions so you can focus on your needs one-on-one.
