Latest / AWAKEN with Dylan Ayaloo: Inner Work, Healing, Yoga & Meditation / [EP7] Flirt with your edge

Transcript

[EP7] Flirt with your edge · AWAKEN with Dylan Ayaloo: Inner Work, Healing, Yoga & Meditation

• 0:00
  So Susan's question is, yoga specifically, she's saying, I've noticed I'm not getting to my edge or dosage in parts of my body in some postures, i.e. not bending enough in my legs.
• 0:10
  During war is what's your take on going deeper into the posture and getting to your edge versus not overdoing it.
• 0:17
  It's all about tension, compression and dosage, etc.
• 0:21
  And those of you who've been around me, in a yoga practice, you'll hear me say something about flirt with your edge.
• 0:27
  I'm talking about you in your body and postures what I mean by this is that
• 0:33
  every posture has a certain kind of limit you know an imaginary line so to speak and that could be
• 0:42
  your edge as far as flexibility so stretching strength look it's much more apparent because
• 0:50
  when we cannot go past the strength of the muscle group the muscle will just give up
• 0:56
  In yoga, it's rare that we hit that.
• 0:58
  Sometimes, because yoga is a full body workout, muscles are being developed.
• 1:03
  And we're always working on strength and flexibility together at the same time.
• 1:08
  The beauty of yoga is that it's holistic in the sense that it's your mind, it's your emotions,
• 1:13
  it's your connection to something greater than the body and the mind as well.
• 1:17
  So what I mean by flirt with your edge or work at your edge is, if you imagine you're
• 1:22
  taking some steps, one foot in front of the other, and there's a line, like an edge, a limit. Let's
• 1:29
  use that analogy for your body as you're stretching. Generally with strength work, you'll hit a limit
• 1:34
  and you'll know it, but with stretching, flexibility work, for some people who are more
• 1:41
  fascia-dominant, and now I'm getting a little bit too technical maybe, let's say you're more bendy.
• 1:50
  right so to keep it simple you get quite bend in your body then the flexibility work is really easy
• 1:55
  for you right so you might have flexibility in your joints in your connective tissue
• 2:00
  and the the flexibility work is easy so you will tend to stretch and overstretch into your
• 2:06
  connective tissue and joints for other people strength work is really easy so you've got more
• 2:11
  strength but less flexibility some people have more flexibility and less strength some people
• 2:16
  Some people have a bit of both.
• 2:19
  So then it's like balancing all of those.
• 2:22
  Generally, when we're talking about the edge, we'll be referring to flexibility work.
• 2:26
  Getting to your edge requires that you start to learn or train sensitivity or listening to your body.
• 2:36
  This is why I have one of the nine principles of asana, feel your body.
• 2:40
  When you start to feel into your body, pay attention to the sensations.
• 2:43
  The body is always speaking in sensations.
• 2:46
  you're sitting down, you will have some sensations speaking to you.
• 2:51
  There's your body giving you signals and feedback.
• 2:54
  Maybe if your back is a bit niggly, it's saying, okay, that doesn't work.
• 2:58
  It'll tell you what's not working, right?
• 3:00
  What's something needs to change in some areas.
• 3:04
  If we are not listening to it, we cannot get the feedback.
• 3:08
  And part of the feedback mechanism is to do with working at your edge.
• 3:12
  I would suggest before you start to work to your edge, as you're working with your edge, you want to first start to train a listening, a feeling into your body.
• 3:22
  A certain level of awareness is what I'm talking about.
• 3:26
  So that when your body is sending you information by way of sensation, you have trained the ability to pay attention and to receive that information, to receive that feedback from your body.
• 3:41
  without this I would say it's quite dangerous doing practice with a certain level of intensity
• 3:47
  you'll hear me going on about this in our practice because there is a certain physical
• 3:52
  intensity to the practice it doesn't mean it's dangerous for some of us we are so intense in
• 3:58
  our minds that we need a certain level of intensity in our body before we start to wake
• 4:02
  up and pay attention oh there's some sensation here what's actually going on and what's my body
• 4:06
  starting to tell me. First, developing the listening in your body. And as you start to
• 4:11
  develop the listening in your body, you can start to gauge, okay, where am I in relation to my edge
• 4:17
  in the posture? And when I say edge, I'm talking more about flexibility and sometimes strength.
• 4:24
  Getting to your edge means you are practicing in a way that is safe before the body goes past
• 4:33
  this tipping point, which can result in injury, you're already receiving the information from
• 4:40
  your body.
• 4:40
  But it's saying, okay, stop.
• 4:42
  Or that's enough for today.
• 4:43
  Or that's enough right now in this posture.
• 4:46
  With yoga, at least the yoga I teach, work with your edge or flirt with your edge means
• 4:50
  get to your edge.
• 4:53
  And in yoga, stay.
• 4:57
  Don't push.
• 4:58
  Don't force past your edge.
• 5:02
  it's different if you're doing competitive sport if you're at the finish line of a hundred meter
• 5:07
  race then you're going for the world record or the olympic record that is the moment to push a
• 5:12
  little more and push past the finish line but that's not what we are doing in the yoga practice
• 5:17
  it's not competitive sport so the same mindset that you have in competitive sport does not work
• 5:24
  in yoga in yoga you're learning to step to your edge work with your edge learning to respect
• 5:31
  where the edge is. And if you step up to your edge, breathe, right? Turn up your breathing
• 5:37
  when you step up to your edge. What happens is that the edge will expand a little bit,
• 5:43
  unless you really are at your edge and you can't expand around. That's it for that day.
• 5:48
  A lot of times when you stay there at your edge, not push past, things will expand a little bit
• 5:52
  more. You get a little bit more flexibility or a little bit more strength. Something happens,
• 5:57
  something opens up in the posture.
• 5:59
  And then you can step up to your new edge.
• 6:01
  As you're working with your new edge,
• 6:03
  guess what happens, right?
• 6:04
  You're staying there,
• 6:05
  breathing and feeling into your body.
• 6:07
  A lot of times,
• 6:08
  the edge expands a little bit more.
• 6:11
  But sometimes it just stops there for that day,
• 6:14
  in that moment, in that posture.
• 6:16
  And that's perfect.
• 6:18
  If you do that every single time
• 6:20
  you come on to Matt,
• 6:21
  every single posture
• 6:22
  through the whole sequence,
• 6:24
  right, it requires you to
• 6:27
  little bit. This is where intensity can also be brought in by way of holding and breathing.
• 6:34
  When I say holding, I'm not talking about holding the breath, but holding the posture
• 6:38
  at your edge, but turning up, opening up the breath. When you step up to your edge,
• 6:44
  things start to expand. That's how we grow in our practice. So much of what happens in
• 6:50
  the yoga practice happens in our life as well. The mat is a mirror for our lives and
• 6:57
  for your life, this expansion, this growth that we're experiencing on the yoga mat can be applied
• 7:04
  to other areas in our life as well. A lot of time in the emotional aspects of our life as well,
• 7:12
  rather than pushing past, which is what we are used to and we've trained ourselves to do.
• 7:18
  If you step up to your edge and stay there and breathe and feel and basically be patient,
• 7:27
  you don't need to do anymore because you've done all you need to do.
• 7:30
  Things start to grow and expand a little bit more.
• 7:34
  Your age expands.
• 7:35
  And that expansion is growth, evolution, transformation.
• 7:40
  And a lot of times in that expansion lies the healing that you're seeking as well.
• 7:46
  Or sometimes you receive, even though you're seeking it, you receive it.
• 7:50
  And these are some of the gifts of the yoga practice.
• 7:53
  The other part of working at your age is when you're holding a certain posture,
• 7:58
  or one, worry two, let's say if you're worried two posture,
• 8:01
  sometimes working at your edge is actually holding, right?
• 8:04
  And your muscles, like this is building strength, right?
• 8:06
  Your muscles are shaking and quaking, right?
• 8:09
  And you're trembling because it's can't hold it anymore.
• 8:13
  And that's also the edge, right?
• 8:16
  Like it's growing in strength.
• 8:18
  So it's not always about flexibility.
• 8:21
  It's also about strength.
• 8:23
  The yoga practice, at least our practice, is this balance of strength and flexibility together.
• 8:31
  That's what we're always working on.