There is a division in the center of our back, where the spine moves simultaneously in two opposite directions: from the waist down towards the legs and the feet, which are pulled by gravity, and from the waist upwards, through the top of the head, lifting us up freely.
The pull of gravity under our feet makes it possible for us to extend the upper part of the spine, and this extension allows us also to release between the vertebrae. Gravity is like a magnet attracting us to the earth, but this attraction is not limited to pulling us down, it also allows us to stretch in the opposite direction towards the sky.
This is a natural process, ever-present not only in human beings but in all upright living things, in trees, in growing flowers and in plants. The roots of a tree are pulled deeply down towards the center of the earth while the trunk grows vertically towards the sky, elongating and spreading through the branches in the space around it. The deeper the roots penetrate into the ground, traveling below the surface of the earth, the taller and stronger grows the tree.
Above the surface of the earth the tree, mostly through its leaves, receives air, sun and rain water enabling it to develop its sap. Below the surface of the earth, by absorbing water and minerals through its rrots, the tree receives nourishment and strength.
This central point of the tree, where it touches the earth's surface, corresponds in our body to the waist at the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra, where the human spine moves in both directions.
This inexplicable cosmic interconnection of dynamic movements, following the law of gravity, is the same that moves the planets and holds the different worlds together.
Gravity attracts a planet and it is this very attraction which creates the lightness that gives it the ability to rotate in its spiral "revolution".
Each of the yoga poses is accompanied by breathing and it is during the process of exhalation that the spine can stretch and elongate without effort. We learn to elongate and extend, rather than to pull and push. Elongation and extension can only occur when the pulling and pushing has come to an end; this is the revolution.
For this revolution to occur, the muscles must not be activated through tension or effort but only through the much more powerful wave of extension, which is produced by gravity and breathing. We make use of the force of "anti-force", which gives us a new flow of energy - a sort of anti-gravity reflex, like the rebounding spring of a ball bouncing on the ground.
The resulting wave is extraordinarily powerful and helps us to find the right approach: an unexpected opening follows, an opening from within us, giving life to the spine, as though the body had to reverse and awaken into another dimension.
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To relax is not to collapse, but simply to undo tension. This tension has been accumulated in the body and in the mind by years of forceful education. Tension is the result of will, effort and prejudice.
We have been trained, during the first part of our lives, to struggle to achieve. Now we have to work in the opposite direction, by letting go, giving place to a different action (if we can call it action), an "un-doing action". This will stop the habitual process of doing which has become mechanical.
The body in itself is healthy, but it has been ruined by all sorts of negative, destructive, guilt feelings. If one can avoid going in this negative direction, a positive attitude will take over and the body will then be able to start its recuperative function, its natural way of existing. There is nothing to be done. It is not a state of passivity but, on the contrary, of alert watchfulness. It is perhaps the most "active" of our attitudes, going "with" and not "against" our body and feelings.
There is beauty in the acceptance of what is.