Practice Point #51 - Alignment

I received a question from Ruby from India. Their question is...

How does one know one is aligned in the asana?

Before COVID when we could attend yoga classes the teacher would check your alignment and physically adjust you so you would get a clear understanding on alignment in the body. This is helpful for the home practitioner because you then have the memory of the adjustment and can try and repeat this in your practice.

Checking our alignment in our home practice can be do done in many ways.

You can use a mirror but I do not recommend this method. It can reduce confidence and it takes away from learning to look inwards.

As a beginner, we need to use our eyes to look at our physical body to see where it is in relation to the rest of the body. This is how we begin.

But as our practice evolves, as our confidence develops we can use the tool of looking inwards.

Sensing more deeply and feeling if the body is in alignment.

What is important is that we don’t get caught up in being in perfect alignment. Every asana is a journey and some postures will come more easily than others. Depending on your body shape and the length of your bones etc, the alignment is different for everyone.

If you can take a class online from time to time where a teacher can see you and give you feedback this is helpful too.

It is a combination of things that will support you to find alignment in your home practice.

If you would like to submit a question about home practice and receive the answer in these weekly Practice Points, you can below. Question-related to specific injuries will not be answered.