Week Two - Apana Vayu, The Direction of Down and Out

Hello everyone,

Thank you to all who made it to yoga last Sunday for our first class of the summer term and the beginning of an exploration of the yogic vayus - the five directions of energy in the body, or the five sacred winds. 

For anyone who missed last week, we worked with the energy direction of prana vayu, which is the flow of 'inward and upward'. To visualise this energy you could think about a lifted feeling, even a light-heartedness, exactly like when someone says the words: "and now, for the dessert..." (and your ears and heart suddenly perk up!). Prana vayu could also be thought of as a feeling of inspiration, an idea, a motivation, an impulse of generosity. More practically speaking, prana vayu can be felt as a muscular pelvic floor and abdominal lift, a lock, if you will, known in yoga as mula and uddiyana bandha - which is the magical method through which a person can levitate into crow pose (kakasana) and hold a sirsasana headstand...or sit up safely from a chair.

This Sunday, we will seek to balance last week's energy of prana vayu (inward and upward) by exploring its partner vayu which is apana vayu - the energetic direction of down and out. Release. Root. Empty. Reset.

I think a lot of people, maybe women in particular, come to yoga with a hope to re-align their apana vayu. To find a form of group exercise where rest, introspection, release, and calm, are still given reverence. Apana vayu means letting go. Surrendering. Crying. Laughing uncontrollably. Yes, farting as well. The direction of apana vayu prana (down and out energy) flows most unrestricted when we are deeply asleep. When there is a full energetic reset. Female bodies may perhaps recognise the call of apana vayu more intimately than others, because it is so undeniable when menstruation happens - the urge to cry, rest, release, start again. Every single month, for some, like clockwork. In a cycle. Winter is when the world blows in the direction of apana vayu.

Of course, this apana vayu is the opposite direction to last week's wind: prana vayu. And this is where I want to get really excited and speak about duality and the universal law of balance. There is a verse in the Krishna Yajurveda Upanishads (these are ancient sanskrit texts written between 400 BCE and 200 CE!!) that speaks about the duality of all things in reference to the vayus which we are exploring during this yoga term. The passage uses a metaphor of a bird whose leg is tied to a stone, and who is trying to fly away. The image is interpreted to mean that all physical things are bound by a push and pull energy of prana vayu (which is the bird flapping its wings to go upward) and apana vayu (which is the weight of the stone holding the bird to earth). This is the passage:

60(b)-61(a). He is knower of Yoga who knows that Prana always draws itself from Apana and Apana draws itself from Prana, like a bird (drawing itself from and yet not freeing itself) from the string (to which it is tied).

Translated by K. Narayanasvami Aiyar and belonging to Krishna-Yajur-Veda.

The image of the captured bird is a sad one, but it gives a felt sense of these two vayus working together. We also have to remember that the veda scriptures were written within the vedanta philosophy, where life and the physical form was seen as something to be transcending for a more pure spiritual experience. Hatha yoga, which I practice, actually comes from a tantric philosophy, which is a younger philosophy (but still very old!) that gives greater reverence to the physical life experience as being the spiritual experience itself. Tantra is an embodied spirituality. There is no goal to transcend anything, only to experience it fully in the moment - good and bad, knowing that all things exist within this push and pull of energy. Rather than imagining a bird trapped, the duality of prana and apana vayu could be felt and known as the simple act of breathing. Within an inhale there is balance, as while air moves in and up, the body moves down and out to accommodate it. And within the exhale there is balance, as while air moves out and releases, the body lifts up and inward again to reset. The biomechanics of breathing perfectly exemplify the body's inherent understanding of push and pull. Which is good, seeing as we call breathwork pranayama inyoga, which means to guide our lifeforce and rediscover balance. Or in other words, to breathe consciously and feel better.

Lots of food for thought there! If you've made it this far, thank you. I can't wait to explore a grounding practice in Thrive this Sunday at 6:30pm. I hope to see you there.

When you truly want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it

From the Alchemist, by Paulo Coehlo 

le grá,

Macha