Holding Space Within Form to Facilitate Flow

All yoga practice places emphasis on breathing as a means of connecting our inner state of being to the outer realm of worldly experience. Conscious breathing brings awareness of where we are operating from and allows us to refine the balance of the nervous system to support the activity we are engaging in. We can up-level the sympathetic response for activity or down regulate it into parasympathetic mode when we require a more relaxed, calm state of being. Behind the automated act of breathing in and breathing out, yoga seeks to excavate the subtle nature of this sustaining power. Respiration is a physiological system which takes place without conscious control and yet can uniquely be manipulated to bring about an intentional state of psychological and/or physical being. This journey therefore transports us into the fascinating world of Prana.

The sanskrit word vayu means wind. Wind is synonomous with air, breath and movement. Prana can be divided into 'pra' - meaning to go forth and 'an' meaning movement and can be regarded as the power behind all forms of movement and activity. The Upanishads (vedic truth texts) tell us that there is only one Prana, but in order to supervise the activity of the body and mind complex it divides itself into 5 main functions - the pancha prana vayus. Each one of these 5 winds can be linked to an activity or function and has a particular feeling quality and direction associated with it. Prana exists as a primal source of support for healthy functioning and can be directly connected to the autonomic nervous system offering a less mystical and more accessiible way to understand and utilise these powers.

(There are also 5 sub pranas said to control actions such as blinking, hiccups, sneezing and yawning.)

THE PANCHA PRANA VAYUS AND THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

1. Prana Vayu - sympathetic nervous system: this is not simply our flight or flight system, that aspect is an over-stimulation of this part of the autonomic nervous system. It fundamentally supports our capacity to be interested, enthusiastic, excited or curious and to become fully engaged in life experiences. Its movement is upward from the chest to the head and it relates to the in-breath - a force of inspiration or taking in the energy we need to be animated, vital and vivified.

2. Apana Vayu - para-sympathetic nervous system: typically understood as rest and digest (sometimes breed is added), a calm state which enables relaxation but also brings us back to centered awareness and restores balance. Its a deregulation of the sympathetic state and displays itself as a downward force centered in the pelvis, lower extremities, legs and feet - effectively helps us to stabilse and bringing about the sense of safety, belonging and having the support we need.

3. Samana Vayu - enteric nervous system: related to digestion of food through its circular movement around the centre of the torso which stiumlates digestion through assimilation, absorption and discarding of nutrients from the body but is also entwined with the instinctive knowing held in the gut. It supports our capacity for discernment with its power to retain what is useful and beneficial and separate and discard what isn't. It has a regulating force active between prana and apana. To activate we need to wring ourselves out from time to time as though removing dirty water from a wash cloth - this differs quite distinctly from mere rotation which often occurs when we twist one part of the body without awareness of the need to turn another part in the opposite way.

4. Vyana Vayu - peripheral nervous system: includes our proprioceptive awareness (position of the body and its movement in space), interoception (awareness of internal sensation and more subtle feeling states), as well as neuroception (sub-concious perception enabling detection of cues from environment and signalling requiring action) and the management of pain. Vyana means expanding or increasing and sensation is the mode of experience. Our nerve endings of which we have roughly 250 million pervade the entire body; organs, muscles, skin and especially fascia - the web of interconnected tissue which through tension integrity (tensegrity) acts as a scaffold for the body and creates space within which form and movement can express itself. It is body wide and has an outward expansive movement. Interestingly vyana vayu enables us to have a sense of solidness, an awareness of our boundaries both physical and auric and therefore provide to us the very idea of our individual self through our nature, intention, the space we occupy and even the space between us and other. It creates our sense of embodiment through the different feeling states we experience via sensation. The senses are closely connected with vyana vayu.

5. Udana vayu - enteric nervous system: supports cognitive processing, communication and expression and is centered around the heart, upper chest and head. One of the most important and often overlooked roles of udana is to bring balance between the head's knowledge and the heart's knowing to broker a truce between the two where conflicts often arise. It supports the capacity for head and heart to listen to each other before expression emerges into the world. Udana vayu also helps us to neutralise negative experiences and is best understood through the story of Neelakanta or Shiva who saves the world from the poison that emerges during the churning of the milky ocean - a Hindu creation myth. He swallows the poison but does not digest it, holding it in his throat so it doesn't reach his heart, here it is neutralised in the way soothing words do. The neutralisation allows the posion to dissolve in such a way that Shiva does not spit it back out into the world where it would do harm. Jalandhara bandha is a chin lock described as throwing a net over or cloud catching. A net and a cloud are not solid layers so the capture is one of gathering together powers to dilute and dissolve and not to swallow and suppress or regurgitate. When harsh words, unfairness, anger or blame come our way we can think of udana as being the force which allows us to negate the consequences.

Awareness of the pancha prana vayus can help us find centre in the various movements of life and the space that arises within created forms which allow the flow of unseen power to perform its specific function. We empower ourselves by harnessing the force of the various pranas in everything we do, on and off the mat, as well as supporting our own health and wellbeing and developing greater awareness of how we function in connection to self and other and the impact our life force energy has upon the world.

This post was inspired by Doug Keller's 'The Therapeutic Wisdom of Yoga' course I recently attended.