The word is out that my teaching has begun to fuse the charkas - comprising the seven main energetic parts of the body-with traditional yoga postures or asanas. Through a lot of experimentation, I've found away to integrate the chakras and asanas. It makes such perfect sense to me that I can't believe I'm the only one teaching this way. I thought I would share with you here my approach to teaching yoga and why I think it has so much to offer.

Many years ago, I became familiar with the chakras from a kundalini yoga teacher. Informed by my left-brain training in mathematics, I was dubious about the whole notion. Chakras simply could not be proven.

Somewhere along the way, I opened my narrow thinking to allow that perhaps there may be some energy vortices (acupuncture points) somewhere on or in the body that are accessible. Somewhere else along the way (in physics class) I learned of vortex energy and that it occurs from things flowing along curved lines. Take, for example, whirlpools or eddies created as a river bends and twists on its way to the ocean and the spine with its cerebral-spinal fluid (CSF). Then it becomes much clearer that such energy paths are more than just fanciful new-age notions. In fact, they were talked about thousands of years ago and so are a very old age notion.

As the chakra system became more sensible to me in the mid-1980s, I started patterning alignment cues that I learned from all my teachers into the various chakra areas of the body. Much of my initial work on the chakras and alignment was unconscious and decidedly undocumented, but as it began to take on a more conscious manifestation, particularly over the last several years, I began to think more systematically about the chakra-alignment relationship.

Today, the alignment that I teach in my classes and workshops essentially consists of two movements at each of the main chakra centers on the body. Broadly, these movements oppose each other and require first that we discover the movement that we have been habitually doing over the years. Then we work to correct that movement to bring balance to that particular chakra.

I haven't enough space here to talk about each of the seven chakras and their related movements. For now, I'd simply like to talk about the relationship between our body patterns and stuck energy. Keep in mind that doing yoga will help to release these old patterns and unblock stuck energy.

The way we've habitually patterned our bodies to move over the years has created the energy blockages or openness at particular chakra areas. For example, someone who habitually moves with a tucked pelvis has created a blocked first chakra, and will often manifest issues associated with the first chakra: fears, phobias, excessive concerns about security and stability. Until we are able to balance our body and release the old patterns and stuck energy, we may chronically continue facing the same concerns. Of course, we can also make changes in the emotional body through essential work with a therapist or just a sensitive shoulder to cry on. These efforts, in turn, may cause our body to shift.

Simply by looking at your posture when you are upset, depressed, tired, or fatigued, you can observe how the body and emotions are related. The body doesn't lie; it invariably expresses what the emotional body is feeling. A slumped spine and rounded shoulders may indicate fatigue or depression. This is a sign that the body is trying to protect the heart. The raised chin held sufficiently high to hold the head upright so as not to stare at the floor is really the body trying to open the throat to unleash stuck energy.

By far and away, the part of the body where I see the need for most attention is at the solar plexus-or the 3rd chakra. The whole idea of moving from the periphery of the body toward the core really can be seen at the solar plexus. Blocked energy here affects our ability to draw toward the core at this chakra without impeding our breath. Once we are able to find this, the asana seems to come out of nowhere. This underscores the idea in the sutras that the pose be steady and comfortable. For example, open your back ribs and invite the breath there while at the same time, opening the front ribs with a toned belly. That is the alignment of the 3rd chakra: circumferential expansion of the ribcage. The energies of third chakra represent our self-image, self -empowerment, determination, and will power.

Suffice it to say that those of you who take my classes are familiar with my approach discussed here. For those of you interested in learning more, within a month or two, I will have two new videos out: one on aligning your chakras and the other on seven chakra sun salutes (one for each). I hope that you will find my new approach to yoga as helpful as I have over the years.

Namaste,
JJ

Resources: with profound thanks to JJ Gormley of www.jjgormley.com.