Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back (41 page)

Congratulations! Physically speaking, you've traveled the full length of your spine. You have a good understanding of the nature of your spine and how all its parts work together. Well, maybe you don't think the parts of your spine “work together”
yet,
but they will as you create tone and fluidity within your back body. Your spine, and especially your lower back, will thank you for all the time you invest in your journey into wellness.

T
HROUGH
E
ASTERN
E
YES: THE
E
NERGETIC
V
IEW

Now you'll explore the middle back, upper back, and neck from an energetic perspective, which really means discussing the four upper chakras, from your heart to the crown of your head (
illustration 21
). They are:

•  Anahata chakra: The fourth chakra is your heart center, located in your upper chest. Commentaries on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali refer to the heart chakra as the “seat of intelligence”
¹⁸
and the “seat of pure knowledge.”
¹⁹

•  Vishuddha chakra: The throat is the home of the fifth chakra, which is also considered to be the seat of pure sound in the body and the “great doorway to liberation.”
²⁰

•  Ajna chakra: The brow, or the area known as the “third eye,” is where the sixth chakra resides. It is believed to be the seat of meditation in the body; in it, “the mind reaches a state of undifferentiated cosmic awareness.”
²¹

•  Sahasrara chakra
:
The seventh and final chakra is called the “crown chakra” because it is found at the very apex of the body.
Sahasrara
means “thousand-spoked,” and it is often depicted as a thousand-petaled lotus that sits at the crown of the head.
²²
It is a powerful place of freedom from ego; deep, cosmic self-actualization; and “the seat of the self-luminous soul.”
²³

The fourth and fifth chakras are the most germane to our work in the middle back, upper back, and neck, so we'll explore them more now.

Recall and visualize Kundalini, your coiled spiritual energy, and imagine it snaking its way up the energetic channels (nadis) in your spine, starting from your lower sacrum. So far, we have imagined how Kundalini energizes the Muladhara (root) chakra, the Svadhisthana (sacral) chakra, and the Manipura (navel) chakra. We have envisioned it untying the Brahma granthi, the energetic knot at your navel, and igniting the powerful fire of transformation—agni—in your solar plexus. Now, as you open and tone your middle and upper back, visualize Kundalini continuing its upward journey into the spaciousness of your chest.

Illustration 21. The Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna, and Sahasrara Chakras

Its next stop is the Anahata chakra, situated right in the middle of your chest. I introduced you to the
Anahata chakra
as the place where the energies of your lower body (apana vayu) and your upper body (prana vayu) unite. Now we'll go deeper into understanding Anahata's role in your body, both physically and energetically.

Anahata Chakra: Your Heart Center

Anahata chakra
is Sanskrit for “wheel of unstruck sound.”
²⁴
In yogic philosophy, the Anahata chakra is where the silent, cosmic vibration of
OM
, the seed of all sounds, can be heard as one draws inward into a state of meditation.
²⁵
It's also the place where intelligence, of both the mind and the heart, reside and merge.
²⁶

The Anahata chakra aids the functions of the lungs and heart by feeding them with prana, life force. The Ayurvedic marma points on the chest, called
Hrid marmani,
or heart points, help regulate cardiac function and heart rate, improve coronary circulation, and help to maintain optimal function of the lungs.
²⁷

When I visualize Kundalini energy rising up out of the Manipura chakra into the Anahata chakra, I imagine it as if the energy were bursting out of fire into cool, fresh air. This should be even easier to visualize when I tell you that the Anahata chakra is the home of the element of air in your body, the place of akasha (radiance, luminous inner space) and prakasha (luminosity, brightness).
²⁸

The Anahata chakra is also called “the seat of balance” in the body. It sits in the center of the body, with three chakras below it and three above it; it circulates air and energy through the body in all directions to balance the flow of prana; and in Indian theology it harmonizes the energy of Shiva, the “male” energetic principle of consciousness, with Shakti, the “female” energetic principle of action.
²⁹

I introduced the concept of the three energetic knots called granthis in
chapter 5
. You may remember that
granthi
is translated as a “knot,” “hardening,” or “complaint,” and that Brahma granthi is the knot in the Manipura (navel) chakra.

Another knot is the Vishnu granthi, which is located in the Anahata chakra. Although I don't feel thrilled when I think about a knot in my heart, I've always liked that Vishnu granthi is so named. In Hindu mythology, Vishnu is the manifestation of universal energy charged with preserving the cosmos, and your heart is the center of your own preservation, both physically and energetically. Vishnu granthi is the knot that hardens as our emotions and emotional attachments develop, and you may gain great inner peace if you untangle it. The pranayama practice
Bellows Breath
opens the granthis—and all the chest and upper back openers in this chapter may help to keep the Vishnu granthi from reknotting itself.

Vishuddha Chakra: Your Inner Voice

As you practice some of the poses that help your neck to release, you'll also open the energetic pathways leading into the throat, allowing the Vishuddha (throat) chakra to become open and active. The Vishuddha chakra, which means “wheel of purity,” is the seat of self-expression and communication in the body.
³⁰
If you've ever gotten “all choked up” with emotion, you know what the Vishuddha chakra is all about. When you speak the truth and you know that your self-expression is authentic, sincere, and pure—spoken with a clear, strong voice—this is also the Vishuddha chakra. In yogic philosophy, all spoken language comes from the throat chakra, giving voice to the emotions in the heart. When your throat chakra is open, your voice penetrates “to the heart of the listener,” as one Indian author and teacher puts it. “This pure sound affects the listener by changing the space of his mind and being.”
³¹

In certain yogic traditions, the Vishuddha chakra is considered to be a “
stupa,
”
³²
or summit, within the body. The two chakras above Vishuddha—the Ajna (third eye) chakra and the Sahasrara (crown) chakra—are considered to be in the realm of “ether,” so Vishuddha is the place in the body where the four classical elements of earth, water, fire, and air (represented by the chakras below it), meet and are synthesized:

•  The earthiness of the Muladhara (root) chakra

•  The fluidity of the Svadhisthana (sacral) chakra

•  The fieriness of the Manipura (solar) chakra

•  The airiness of the Anahata (heart) chakra

Drawing together with the ethereal qualities of the top two chakras, these elements are all refined into their purest essences in the throat chakra, dissolving into pure energetic akasha, or radiance.
³³

U
NITING
E
AST AND
W
EST: THE
H
OLISTIC
V
IEW

Before we begin our final sequence of new yoga poses, I'd like to take you through a meditation on your upper body and the ways in which it, like your pelvic bowl, is a vessel of energy and power in your body.

The Sanskrit word
kumbha
means “a water pot, a pitcher, a chalice.”
³⁴
In yoga practice, the word
kumbhaka,
which is derived from
kumbha,
refers to breath retention during pranayama, either when you hold your breath in at the top of an inhalation (
antara kumbhaka,
or internal retention), or when you suspend your breath at the end of an exhalation (
bahya kumbhaka,
or external retention). Patricia Walden, my yoga teacher, often refers to the human chest as a kumbha—“a sacred vessel” for holding prana (life force). For the next few minutes, I'd like you to imagine your chest in this way, as a sacred vessel for gathering and holding prana.

Sit comfortably, either on the floor or on a bolster. If your lower back is uncomfortable, sit with your back against a wall with a small pillow behind your lower back, or sit up on a chair. Drop your sit bones down into the support of your seat, while you energetically lift your torso up with a deep inhalation. Maintain the lift of your trunk as you exhale. Close your eyes and bring your attention to the back of your body.

Without arching your lower back, lift your sacral joints, back hip bones, and spinal muscles upward. Visualize them long and even on both sides of your spine. Visualize the gentle, natural curvature of your whole spine; the inward curve of your lumbar spine, the transition between inward and outward curves at your middle back, the subtle outward curve of your upper back, and the soft inward curve of your neck. Balance your head on your neck by drawing your ears in line with your shoulders while you gently tuck your chin. With each inhalation, visualize breath flowing up through your spinal muscles, supplying them with fresh oxygen and blood so they are strong and fluid.

Now you'll refine your position using what we learned about the musculature of your upper back and chest. First, draw the muscles of your upper back toward your spine—without gripping or overhardening. Visualize
your lats, traps, rhomboids, and erector spinae muscles all drawing toward the center of your back. If your upper back is achy, this action should bring it some comfort. You should feel your shoulders draw back slightly and your upper chest should broaden.

Second, create the “depression” movement in your shoulder blades that I described
previously
: Draw them down from your neck toward your back waist while remaining mindful not to overarch your lower back. Hug your shoulder blades with your traps and feel the support of “helping hands” on your back. Feel that you've created a space in your chest, like the cup of a sacred chalice, to hold prana, life force.

When your back is comfortable, shift the focus of your mind from your physical body into your energetic body. Visualize your breath flowing up through the central energetic channel in your spine, the Sushumna, and through the dancing, curving channels of energy, Ida and Pingala, which weave their way up the Sushumna, meeting and crossing at each chakra. Just as you visualized energy flowing up through your spinal muscles, now visualize prana flowing up through these channels, from the Muladhara (root) chakra all the way up into the Sahasrara (crown) chakra, supplying each chakra with fresh prana so they are all open and fluid.

Now, unite your physical and energetic bodies together. Visualize your spinal muscles surrounding the Sushumna offering it physical support, while the Sushumna feeds your body energetically. Visualize Ida and Pingala dancing around and through your spinal muscles as well as around the Sushumna, embracing the muscles with nourishing energy. Visualize your physical and energetic spines completely united, physically toned, energetically spacious (akasha) and luminous (prakasha).

Come into Ocean Breath, gently constricting the back of your throat so your breath sounds like the rhythm of the ocean as it laps up onto the shore and slowly, gently flows back into its depths. Create an even, balanced rhythm to your inhalation and exhalation.

When you're ready, hold your breath for a few seconds at the top of an inhalation in the “internal retention” (antara kumbhaka) action I described earlier. Tuck your chin slightly, as if to bow your mind to your heart, and revisualize your body—especially your chest—as a kumbha, a sacred vessel for holding prana. Visualize your vibrant, plentiful prana gently diffusing itself from the kumbha of your chest into every cell of your body. Before your mind or your body becomes tense, release your holding with a long
Ocean Breath exhalation—see if the length of your exhalation can be longer than your inhalation. At the end of your exhalation, suspend your breath for a few seconds in the action I described as “external retention,” or bahya kumbhaka. Repeat Ocean Breath with internal and external retention for a few rounds, as long as your mind and body remain comfortable.