Purpose of Yoga Poses

The purpose of yoga poses is not to do the pose. It’s to observe our body through the pose.

All of us have lost connection to parts of our body because of the limited variety of movements in daily life. A yoga pose places our body in a position to bring greater awareness to a specific area. As we breathe and observe our body in the pose, we start to rebuild the connection. By taking our body through a variety of yoga poses, we can reconnect with more and more of the body. With greater awareness, we can notice imbalances in the body and correct them before they develop into aches and pains.

To observe the body, just getting into a position where you feel a slight sensation in the body is enough. But I understand, you may want to push your limits. That is fine. You can push yourself physically as much as you like while being able to stay relaxed in the mind. When the strain from muscular exertion or pain from intense stretch overloads your mind, the mind won’t have capacity left to observe. Then you are no longer practicing yoga. You will still get stronger like doing other forms of physical exercises. But you won’t discover and make refinements deeper into the body.

So you don’t need to look perfect in a yoga pose from the beginning. Some tight, some inactive muscles will prevent your body from the “perfect” alignment. Don’t push to do the pose that you start tensing up the mind and lose awareness. Just come to a position where you feel a slight challenge. It’s okay if it looks not great. Use your mind to observe which muscles are holding you back or lacking engagement. Once you can solve these puzzles, you will be able to move deeper into the pose with ease. Being in a deeper position of the pose will allow you to observe deeper layers of the body.

The “perfect” posture will come as a result of resolving all the subtle imbalances. Exerting your will to force the body to look perfect while there are still underlying imbalances will exacerbate the existing imbalances and increase the chance of injury.

Keeping your mind constantly present to observe the body is the real practice. Losing sight of this goal will impede your progress.