Time to then allow intention to billow out into movement, the pose filling the mind as the wind gently fills a sail. We can then notice how much energy or force we are channelling into the pose, what tensions and habits we can let go and release as they arise in the body/mind, and what qualities we are bringing to our movements. We can then notice “who is with us on the mat”.

Time, as gift, to move gently toward the fullness of the pose; it is as though we have inhaled the pose, brought it toward us and now we inhabit it in its fullness, the pause, the absorption of the energy that the Asana brings. We need not hold the pose, we can be held by it, or as though we hold ourselves, the whole self, as something precious, cupped in the palm of awareness. 

Then time to ebb from the pose, to exhale through movement, experiencing the changes of energy and emotion as we physically begin to release the asana . Is the movement into the pose, the same as the movement out of a pose? What arises at these times, who has joined us? 

And then time to return to stillness, to release the pose from the body, the mind and to let go of all that has arisen and know in this stillness that it is complete, to rest in the silence at the end of the breath and return to the self. 

Next time, you are practicing do become aware of all the above.

Stay Curious,
Alexandra Alves