Yoga can be considered  to be a two-step process, in which the first step is the focus of the mind, and the second is the release of energy that emerges as a result of that focus. In Hatha Yoga, the focus begins with what we do with the breath and the body. The release of energy feels intensely good, physically and emotionally, because the energy we’re releasing only knows bliss. So, as we feel better physically and emotionally, we know the practice is working, and that it is Yoga, and as we don’t, it’s not! “No pain, no gain” goes right out the window, where it belongs. Hatha Yoga is particularly ingenious in that it uses the materials we have here on Earth, the breath and the body, to bring us back into alignment with who Yoga believes we really are: this glorious, blissful. eternal stream of energy. So, if we have a spine and a set of lungs, we’re all set!

    Often, when we reintroduce energy to a place in the body (or the mind) that has been deprived of energy, there can be an experience like pain, as when the “pins and needles” strike the foot that’s been asleep, as blood and energy reawaken it. We know the difference between that sensation and one of dropping a brick on the foot, and that discrimination will guide us through the practice, and determine the proper comfort level. Challenge discomfort, but not with cruelty, “honor limitations”, as it’s popular to say, but don’t worship limitations.

    It is important and powerful information to know that this energy always feels good. It is, in fact, eternal bliss, and it is the majority of our experience. How’s that? Eternity is longer than a human life span, no matter how you slice it, and Yoga maintains that this eternal energy is who we really are, the Human being only who we think we are.

    This energy has no experience of any kind of bad feeling, other than what we experience, as we are in fact this energy as it explores this rich environment, the Earth. So, we can trust it as a compass to tell us “if it feels good, it’s Yoga, it’s who you really are, if it feels bad, turn around and try again”. Does it seem to make sense that what feels good is good, and what feels bad is bad? To apply the practice, go to “Sitting”,  below...