20.10.2010
Letting go of facial muscles is an art, as these are the muscles which are the most connected with our mental movements. By dropping that, we are able to go beyond. With awareness we will get rid of those pathways that have been created in the face. That is where all relaxation starts and that is what we check it in the middle of the process and we continue to check it every time we feel disturbed. Those pathways have to be eroded with awareness. If your throat is tight and tensed, you know that it is all your attachment with the world. All your attachment have its mark in certain areas. All the things – whether it be the ideas that you are attached to, the objects, maybe your house – all that which you hold on to and you are afraid of losing have its mark in the throat. The energy which that attachment creates causes movements and they are visible in the eyes. So in fact in the eyes it is showing you what the present state is.
The throat area on the other hand is a part of the body which is connected with all the past. It is connected to everything that you want or not want, all your memories. Whatever you are holding to. You cry, you let it go, and at that moment it becomes passive. You let it go consciously, you also make passive all your world of attachment. The throat is also connected to the capacity of expression and emotions. That is another function of this area. It is communication.
Wherever we have attachment it makes us want to get something or avoid it and it does that using the mind power. Whenever the mind manifests, it manifests on the deeper level – in the emotions; and on the more gross level – in the frontal brain which then pushes us to make the action.
Indeed the whole area going right up to the mouth is like a store house of all that disturbs us. In Shavasana we need to get rid of it, make it less potent. A lot of the time it may be necessary to open the mouth in order to reach to all those areas deep inside the throat. When you reach those areas which are on the upper and the lower palate, you can see the traces of those attachment in the mouth. Then once you are ready, you give up all the tightness’s in the face, you watch and observe each part of the body and let it go, this is the process.
Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre
Yoga master teacher Sharat Arora
Article derived from the Intensive Yoga Course
at the Himalayan Iyengar Yoga Centre in Goa, October 2010
