My all time favorite yoga pose is Sphinx pose, shown in the photo that accompanies this post. It is wonderfully uplifting yet grounding at the same time, a perfect complement to a Yin/Yang approach to yoga explorations. It connects you profoundly with the earth as you open up your heart to the sky above and the breath within.
Yoga in this country has become very Yang. Active, obvious, movement-driven, sometimes hot, even sweaty. This is all well and good and certainly has its place, though we are learning more and more the powers of rest and simply not doing. Yin. The quiet half. Passive, cool, mysterious, earthy. In Sphinx pose, you are doing both. Doing and not doing. You are holding the pose, connecting to the earth, the sky, your own energies, your breathing and focusing on the here and the now, not the past, not the future, just what is. What is now. What can be more soothing and calming to the stomach and hence the mind, what can be more serene than to just let those butterflies flutter away? Butterflies are free to fly, fly away, high away, bye, bye. Oh, who invited Elton John?! Well, someone did save my life one night. But I digress…………..
We are learning more and more about how a healthy gut is a great indicator of overall health. If something is amiss in the midst of your body, something is probably amiss nearby as well. Upset stomach? Maybe you drank too much last night, so your liver is definitely adversely impacted. Traditional Chinese Medicine asserts that our organs are all interconnected, sharing dynamic energies. Certainly Western medicine recognizes this as well, we Westerners are simply a little bit more out of touch with our bodies, the body’s innerworkings, its connection to the mind and soul. Most folks, for instance, know that we have a spleen, but not much more than that. What does it do? Why can we live without it and not other organs? (sometimes that answer is obvious!) Yoga gives us a chance to better learn the body’s anatomy and its innerworkings, giving us the tools for self-reliance in healing and maintaining, especially as we age.
For example, the Stomach and Spleen are paired up in Meridian Theory, and this makes sense as they are very close neighbors in the body. The stomach is to the left under the diaphragm and ribs, the spleen just above and behind it. The spleen is the Yin half of this dynamic duo and the stomach is the Yang, the more active of the two. The stomach is busy at work, receiving, digesting, assimilating and distributing. The spleen is a bit more passive, the largest organ in the lymphatic system and serves as a reservoir, storing blood and helps to fight infection. These two are similar in physical energies in that they both help rid the body of toxins and waste and when imbalanced, worry and anxiety often ensue. Surely you’ve worried your way to constipation or its opposite a few times in your lifetime.
The Stomach Meridian begins, appropriately, at the nose, travels down through the diaphragm, into the stomach and spleen, down to the tops of the legs near the hip joints and travels all the way down the front of the leg, ending at the second toe. The Spleen Meridian also travels via a pathway through the leg, beginning at the big toe, coming up the inside of the leg (next to the Liver and near the Kidney Meridians), goes into the groin, then the stomach and spleen, through the diaphragm under the ribs, into the chest and heart and ends at the root of the tongue. We’ve come full circle, from nose to tongue! Has your mouth ever watered at the smell of your favorite foods? There’s physical proof of the more subtle connections in the body.
I think the most profound effect that yoga has had on my digestion is that it calms me, soothes me, helps me breathe and helps me function overall more optimally. The toning effects on the muscles and the loosening of the joints are almost icing on the cake (though they do play a role in optimizing Qi (chi) flow. As I continue my yogic journey, as I age, yeah, I may sag a little more than I used to but hey, I am all the more wise about the functionalities of my body. As I calm, as I reflect, as I slow down in life, my body enjoys a breather, functioning more optimally. I wish the whole world did Yoga. We’d be a healthier and happier world. Someday maybe!