The Psoas: Muscle of The Soul
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Danielle Prohom Olson 84
I was delighted when I first came across Liz Koch’s amazing work because it confirmed much of what I’d been intuiting on my own. I had begun to open and close my yoga practise with hip opening poses with the specific intention of releasing tension in my psoas and hip flexors. I’d breathe and imagine tension flowing out of constricted muscles to be released as energy into the torso.
It worked, I’d feel my body soften yet somehow grow stronger.
Reading Liz Koch I instantly realized what I was doing – by learning to relax my psoas I was literally energizing my deepest core by reconnecting with the powerful energy of the earth. According to Koch, the psoas is far more than a core stabilizing muscle; it is an organ of perception composed of bio-intelligent tissue and “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.”
Well, I just had to learn more. Here is just a sprinkling of the research that Liz Koch and others have uncovered regarding the importance of the psoas to our health, vitality and emotional well-being.
The Psoas muscle (pronounced so-as) is the deepest muscle of the human body affecting our structural balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, strength, range of motion, joint mobility, and organ functioning.
Growing out of both sides of the spine, the psoas spans laterally from the 12th thoracic vertebrae (T12) to each of the 5 lumbar
vertebrae. From there it flows down through the abdominal core, the pelvis, to attach to the top of the femur (thigh) bone.
The Psoas is the only ‘muscle’ to connect the spine to the legs. It is responsible for holding us upright, and allows us to lift our legs in order to walk. A healthily functioning psoas stabilizes the spine and provides support through the trunk, forming a shelf for the vital organs of the abdominal core.
The psoas is connected to the diaphragm through connective tissue or fascia which affects both our breath and fear reflex. This is because the psoas is directly linked to the reptilian brain, the most ancient interior part of the brain stem and spinal cord. As Koch writes “Long before the spoken word or the organizing capacity of the cortex developed, the reptilian brain, known for its survival instincts,
maintained our essential core functioning.”
Koch believes that our fast paced modern lifestyle (which runs on the adrenaline of our sympathetic nervous system) chronically triggers and tightens the psoas – making it literally ready to run or fight. The psoas helps you to spring into action – or curl you up into a protective ball.
If we constantly contract the psoas to due to stress or tension , the muscle eventually begins to shorten leading to a host of painful conditions including low back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc problems, spondylosis, scoliosis, hip degeneration, knee pain, menstruation pain, infertility, and digestive problems.
A tight psoas not only creates structural problems, it constricts the organs, puts pressure on nerves, interferes with the movement of fluids, and impairs diaphragmatic breathing.
In fact, “The psoas is so intimately involved in such basic physical and emotional reactions, that a chronically tightened psoas continually signals your body that you’re in danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting the immune system.”
And according to Koch, this situation is exacerbated by many things in our modern lifestyle, from car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs to shoes that distort our posture, curtail our natural movements and further constrict our psoas.
Koch believes the first step in cultivating a healthy psoas is to release unnecessary tension. But “to work with the psoas is not to try to
control the muscle, but to cultivate the awareness necessary for sensing its messages. This involves making a conscious choice to become somatically aware.”
A relaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression. Instead of the contracted psoas, ready to run or fight, the relaxed and released psoas is ready instead to lengthen and open, to dance. In many yoga poses (like tree) the thighs can’t fully rotate outward unless the psoas releases. A released psoas allows the front of the thighs to lengthen and the leg to move independently from the pelvis, enhancing and deepening the lift of the entire torso and heart.
Koch believes that by cultivating a healthy psoas, we can rekindle our body’s vital energies by learning to reconnect with the life force of the universe. Within the Taoist tradition the psoas is spoken of as the seat or muscle of the soul, and surrounds the lower “Dan tien” a major energy center of body. A flexible and strong psoas grounds us and allows subtle energies to flow through the bones, muscles
and joints.
Koch writes “The psoas, by conducting energy, grounds us to the earth, just as a grounding wire prevents shocks and eliminates static on a radio. Freed and grounded, the spine can awaken”…“ As gravitational flows transfer weight through bones, tissue, and muscle, into the earth, the earth rebounds, flowing back up the legs and spine, energizing, coordinating and animating posture, movement and expression. It is an uninterrupted conversation between self, earth, and cosmos.”
So, it might be worth it, next time you practice, to tune in and pay attention to what your bio-intelligent psoas has to say.
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Danielle Prohom Olson 84
I was delighted when I first came across Liz Koch’s amazing work because it confirmed much of what I’d been intuiting on my own. I had begun to open and close my yoga practise with hip opening poses with the specific intention of releasing tension in my psoas and hip flexors. I’d breathe and imagine tension flowing out of constricted muscles to be released as energy into the torso.
It worked, I’d feel my body soften yet somehow grow stronger.
Reading Liz Koch I instantly realized what I was doing – by learning to relax my psoas I was literally energizing my deepest core by reconnecting with the powerful energy of the earth. According to Koch, the psoas is far more than a core stabilizing muscle; it is an organ of perception composed of bio-intelligent tissue and “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.”
Well, I just had to learn more. Here is just a sprinkling of the research that Liz Koch and others have uncovered regarding the importance of the psoas to our health, vitality and emotional well-being.
The Psoas muscle (pronounced so-as) is the deepest muscle of the human body affecting our structural balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, strength, range of motion, joint mobility, and organ functioning.
Growing out of both sides of the spine, the psoas spans laterally from the 12th thoracic vertebrae (T12) to each of the 5 lumbar
vertebrae. From there it flows down through the abdominal core, the pelvis, to attach to the top of the femur (thigh) bone.
The Psoas is the only ‘muscle’ to connect the spine to the legs. It is responsible for holding us upright, and allows us to lift our legs in order to walk. A healthily functioning psoas stabilizes the spine and provides support through the trunk, forming a shelf for the vital organs of the abdominal core.
The psoas is connected to the diaphragm through connective tissue or fascia which affects both our breath and fear reflex. This is because the psoas is directly linked to the reptilian brain, the most ancient interior part of the brain stem and spinal cord. As Koch writes “Long before the spoken word or the organizing capacity of the cortex developed, the reptilian brain, known for its survival instincts,
maintained our essential core functioning.”
Koch believes that our fast paced modern lifestyle (which runs on the adrenaline of our sympathetic nervous system) chronically triggers and tightens the psoas – making it literally ready to run or fight. The psoas helps you to spring into action – or curl you up into a protective ball.
If we constantly contract the psoas to due to stress or tension , the muscle eventually begins to shorten leading to a host of painful conditions including low back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc problems, spondylosis, scoliosis, hip degeneration, knee pain, menstruation pain, infertility, and digestive problems.
A tight psoas not only creates structural problems, it constricts the organs, puts pressure on nerves, interferes with the movement of fluids, and impairs diaphragmatic breathing.
In fact, “The psoas is so intimately involved in such basic physical and emotional reactions, that a chronically tightened psoas continually signals your body that you’re in danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting the immune system.”
And according to Koch, this situation is exacerbated by many things in our modern lifestyle, from car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs to shoes that distort our posture, curtail our natural movements and further constrict our psoas.
Koch believes the first step in cultivating a healthy psoas is to release unnecessary tension. But “to work with the psoas is not to try to
control the muscle, but to cultivate the awareness necessary for sensing its messages. This involves making a conscious choice to become somatically aware.”
A relaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression. Instead of the contracted psoas, ready to run or fight, the relaxed and released psoas is ready instead to lengthen and open, to dance. In many yoga poses (like tree) the thighs can’t fully rotate outward unless the psoas releases. A released psoas allows the front of the thighs to lengthen and the leg to move independently from the pelvis, enhancing and deepening the lift of the entire torso and heart.
Koch believes that by cultivating a healthy psoas, we can rekindle our body’s vital energies by learning to reconnect with the life force of the universe. Within the Taoist tradition the psoas is spoken of as the seat or muscle of the soul, and surrounds the lower “Dan tien” a major energy center of body. A flexible and strong psoas grounds us and allows subtle energies to flow through the bones, muscles
and joints.
Koch writes “The psoas, by conducting energy, grounds us to the earth, just as a grounding wire prevents shocks and eliminates static on a radio. Freed and grounded, the spine can awaken”…“ As gravitational flows transfer weight through bones, tissue, and muscle, into the earth, the earth rebounds, flowing back up the legs and spine, energizing, coordinating and animating posture, movement and expression. It is an uninterrupted conversation between self, earth, and cosmos.”
So, it might be worth it, next time you practice, to tune in and pay attention to what your bio-intelligent psoas has to say.
Technologies of Qi: Yin Yoga & Connective Tissue
Posted on September 3, 2012 by Danielle Prohom Olson13
Connective tissue
“ A new paradigm is evolving in the West, one that broadens the scope of information and energy transportation mechanisms far beyond simple chemical and electrical models.” Berni Clark, author of The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga.
We are uncovering a new frontier within our bodies – one with previously unimaginable implications for our health and well-being. What
was once disregarded by medical science as inconsequential “goo” – our connective tissue – turns out to be our largest (and most
neglected) organ!
As our understanding of the body as a matrix of electromagnetic energies deepens, we’ve come to see that the fascia or connective tissue (structuring, sheathing and interconnecting our circulatory system, nervous system, muscular-skeletal system, digestive track, organs and cells) is actually an energetic communication system.
liquid crystals composing collagen
The collagen that makes up most of the connective tissue in your body is liquid crystalline in nature. Liquid crystals -known to be semi-conductors – are able to conduct energy in the way the wiring system in your house conducts electricity. They are also able to send, receive, store and amplify energy signals – like your high-speed internet connection.
Because fascia interconnects every system in the body – it provides a basis for information and energy transfer beyond purely chemical origins. In other words, while we’ve traditionally thought of communication in the body as mechanical (chemical molecule fits into receptor like a key into a lock), we now realize we can open the lock faster with energy (like remote control devices).
meridian chart
These discoveries have caused James L. Oschman, in his book Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance, to suggest that fascia is an intelligent organ of communication that is “conducting electromagnetic signals not only in the body, but from the cosmic energy field of the universe into the body and from the body into the field.” And in an idea eerily reminiscent of the healing wisdom of ancient Taoist China – Oschman suggests that a healthy fully ‘integrated’ body may be a body that is entirely free of restrictions to the flow of energy signals.
Ancient Taoism held as a central tenet that the body was composed of vast network of energy pathways which they called meridians. And if one was to maintain a healthy body, these meridians had to be free of restrictions to the flow of Qi – the life force energy that permeates the cosmos.
And it seems the Taoists knew all about connective tissue, which they classified as Yin. They believed when we are active and energetic, Qi energy flows through our muscles, the Yang layer of the body. When we are still, Qi moves through the more resistant connective tissues and skeletal system, the Yin layer of the body. Balancing the energetic aspects of yang with the still practice of Yin was essential in maintaining the free flow of Qi through the body’s meridians.
Paul Grilley
Today Yin Yoga utilizes this Taoist philosophy in the creation of a modern practice which uses long slow holds in postures as as opposed to more fluid vigorous Yang practice. Yin yoga seeks to open and release the tightest places in our bodies – connective tissue, joints
ligaments and tendons – which have become tight and restricted through injuries, repetitive stress, poor postural habits and even emotional trauma.
And according to Yin Yoga leaders such as Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers, this loss of mobility within the connective tissue restricts the flow of Qi energy through the meridians as well. Yin yoga by working the connective tissue helps cleanse energy meridians and stimulate the flow of Qi.
Western science has long been skeptical of Eastern energy or meridian maps. Looking for channels and conducting tubes, they found little evidence of energy lines. But their investigations did not include the supposedly inert connective tissue. And ironically as Yin Yoga teacher Bernie Clark suggests “they may have discarded the very tissues that formed the channels they were seeking.”
It was Dr.Robert Becker, back in the 60′s who first demonstrated that connective tissue provides pathways for the energy flow. He established that when pressure is applied to connective tissue, joints, bones (as in Yin yoga poses or externally applied stretch and pressure during bodywork and massage) they polarize into positive and negative electrical poles and generate piezo-electricity. This current of electromagnetic energy then travels along the most conductive channels available in the body, channels that Becker suggested corresponded with the meridians of Eastern healing wisdom.
Today researchers like Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama in Japan, and Helene Langevin of the University of Vermont are documenting further evidence that the fascia network corresponds to the network of acupuncture points and energy pathways as described by the ancient healers. Dr. Motoyama was able to demonstrate a correlation between the electrical conductivity and the location of meridians. Motoyama has found chains of Hyaluronic Acids in the connective tissue of the body. Hyaluronic acid has the amazing property of being able to fix and polarize water in large quantities. When water is polarized it is able to conduct electrical impulses and therefore information. Motoyama theorizes that Qi flows throughout the pathways created by chains of hyaluronic acids.
electromagnetic fields of the body
Grilley contends this research reaffirms that the meridians run through the connective tissue of the body, and he writes, if “researchers are right—if the network of connective tissue does correspond with the meridians of acupuncture and the nadis of oga—strengthening and stretching connective tissue may be critical for your long-term health.”
No kidding. That’s a big understatement when you consider that electromagnetic frequencies are vastly more efficient in imparting information than chemical signals. MRI imaging has shown that when meridian or energy points in the body are stimulated, neural circuits in the brain are activated faster than what neural conduction can explain.
That’s why, as our technology allows us to peer ever more deeply into the body we are discovering a new land. One that brings us full circle with ancient philosophy by envisioning the body -not just a mechanical system of separate parts-but as an energetic system that is interconnected to all that is.
So that’s why I consider Yin Yoga to consider to be a Technology of Qi. We are not only balancing yin and yang -we are cleansing our energetic circuitry. This encourages the free movement of information and perhaps even invites in what the Taoists considered the flow of life force energy itself.
Posted on September 3, 2012 by Danielle Prohom Olson13
Connective tissue
“ A new paradigm is evolving in the West, one that broadens the scope of information and energy transportation mechanisms far beyond simple chemical and electrical models.” Berni Clark, author of The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga.
We are uncovering a new frontier within our bodies – one with previously unimaginable implications for our health and well-being. What
was once disregarded by medical science as inconsequential “goo” – our connective tissue – turns out to be our largest (and most
neglected) organ!
As our understanding of the body as a matrix of electromagnetic energies deepens, we’ve come to see that the fascia or connective tissue (structuring, sheathing and interconnecting our circulatory system, nervous system, muscular-skeletal system, digestive track, organs and cells) is actually an energetic communication system.
liquid crystals composing collagen
The collagen that makes up most of the connective tissue in your body is liquid crystalline in nature. Liquid crystals -known to be semi-conductors – are able to conduct energy in the way the wiring system in your house conducts electricity. They are also able to send, receive, store and amplify energy signals – like your high-speed internet connection.
Because fascia interconnects every system in the body – it provides a basis for information and energy transfer beyond purely chemical origins. In other words, while we’ve traditionally thought of communication in the body as mechanical (chemical molecule fits into receptor like a key into a lock), we now realize we can open the lock faster with energy (like remote control devices).
meridian chart
These discoveries have caused James L. Oschman, in his book Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance, to suggest that fascia is an intelligent organ of communication that is “conducting electromagnetic signals not only in the body, but from the cosmic energy field of the universe into the body and from the body into the field.” And in an idea eerily reminiscent of the healing wisdom of ancient Taoist China – Oschman suggests that a healthy fully ‘integrated’ body may be a body that is entirely free of restrictions to the flow of energy signals.
Ancient Taoism held as a central tenet that the body was composed of vast network of energy pathways which they called meridians. And if one was to maintain a healthy body, these meridians had to be free of restrictions to the flow of Qi – the life force energy that permeates the cosmos.
And it seems the Taoists knew all about connective tissue, which they classified as Yin. They believed when we are active and energetic, Qi energy flows through our muscles, the Yang layer of the body. When we are still, Qi moves through the more resistant connective tissues and skeletal system, the Yin layer of the body. Balancing the energetic aspects of yang with the still practice of Yin was essential in maintaining the free flow of Qi through the body’s meridians.
Paul Grilley
Today Yin Yoga utilizes this Taoist philosophy in the creation of a modern practice which uses long slow holds in postures as as opposed to more fluid vigorous Yang practice. Yin yoga seeks to open and release the tightest places in our bodies – connective tissue, joints
ligaments and tendons – which have become tight and restricted through injuries, repetitive stress, poor postural habits and even emotional trauma.
And according to Yin Yoga leaders such as Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers, this loss of mobility within the connective tissue restricts the flow of Qi energy through the meridians as well. Yin yoga by working the connective tissue helps cleanse energy meridians and stimulate the flow of Qi.
Western science has long been skeptical of Eastern energy or meridian maps. Looking for channels and conducting tubes, they found little evidence of energy lines. But their investigations did not include the supposedly inert connective tissue. And ironically as Yin Yoga teacher Bernie Clark suggests “they may have discarded the very tissues that formed the channels they were seeking.”
It was Dr.Robert Becker, back in the 60′s who first demonstrated that connective tissue provides pathways for the energy flow. He established that when pressure is applied to connective tissue, joints, bones (as in Yin yoga poses or externally applied stretch and pressure during bodywork and massage) they polarize into positive and negative electrical poles and generate piezo-electricity. This current of electromagnetic energy then travels along the most conductive channels available in the body, channels that Becker suggested corresponded with the meridians of Eastern healing wisdom.
Today researchers like Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama in Japan, and Helene Langevin of the University of Vermont are documenting further evidence that the fascia network corresponds to the network of acupuncture points and energy pathways as described by the ancient healers. Dr. Motoyama was able to demonstrate a correlation between the electrical conductivity and the location of meridians. Motoyama has found chains of Hyaluronic Acids in the connective tissue of the body. Hyaluronic acid has the amazing property of being able to fix and polarize water in large quantities. When water is polarized it is able to conduct electrical impulses and therefore information. Motoyama theorizes that Qi flows throughout the pathways created by chains of hyaluronic acids.
electromagnetic fields of the body
Grilley contends this research reaffirms that the meridians run through the connective tissue of the body, and he writes, if “researchers are right—if the network of connective tissue does correspond with the meridians of acupuncture and the nadis of oga—strengthening and stretching connective tissue may be critical for your long-term health.”
No kidding. That’s a big understatement when you consider that electromagnetic frequencies are vastly more efficient in imparting information than chemical signals. MRI imaging has shown that when meridian or energy points in the body are stimulated, neural circuits in the brain are activated faster than what neural conduction can explain.
That’s why, as our technology allows us to peer ever more deeply into the body we are discovering a new land. One that brings us full circle with ancient philosophy by envisioning the body -not just a mechanical system of separate parts-but as an energetic system that is interconnected to all that is.
So that’s why I consider Yin Yoga to consider to be a Technology of Qi. We are not only balancing yin and yang -we are cleansing our energetic circuitry. This encourages the free movement of information and perhaps even invites in what the Taoists considered the flow of life force energy itself.
The Sacred Spine: Our Axis Between Heaven and Earth
Posted on October 16, 2012 by Danielle Prohom Olson8
“If we look around us for a moment, we will find people everywhere with back problems; we live a one-sided life when we neglect the body and the spine.” Judith Harris, “Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection”
Probably the most common injury/issue I deal with as a yoga teacher is low back pain. While there are plenty of good physiological
reasons for this state of affairs (i.e. sitting all day at computers) I’m coming to believe that psychological factors play the bigger role. In fact, after reading Judith Harris’s book Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection, I’m coming to think that our current epidemic of ‘bad
backs’ boils down to a spiritual disorder.
Harris is a Jungian analyst and a yoga teacher who sees the bodies ‘symptoms’ as metaphors for our inner state. Our posture, whether we are slouched in defeat or tall in victory is largely unconscious, yet it reveals much about who we are. Harris writes “In body language, we can think of the potential to experience life as resting in the spinal column, itself the backbone of life”.
The spine is the first structure that forms inside the womb. From here, everything, body, limbs etc. take root. The spine literally supports us from behind, yet in our progress oriented “getting ahead” world, we relentlessly move forward, relying solely on the front of our bodies. One of western culture’s most common postural problems is our tendency to thrust our heads (our minds?) ahead the rest of the body, throwing the spine out of alignment.
Harris’s work explores an idea laid down by the one of the great forefathers of modern psychology, Carl Jung. For Jung “behind’ symbolized the region of the unseen, the unconscious. And Harris sees low back pain as symptomatic of our unconscious disconnection to our spine and backbone (and everything it represents). This has left us unstable “without roots, to where we have come from, to the moment, to where we are headed in the future.”
Harris reminds us that in Hatha yoga the spine was seen as the center of our sacred anatomy. It was considered the microcosm of the Axis Mundi, the pillar that supports the world. This pillar was seen as the axis between Heaven and Earth, and was paradoxically in constant motion while being motionless at the center. Harris writes “This implies one of the most important goals of yoga; to bring the body and mind into stillness in order to experience the inner world.”
The spine was also likened to a mountain. Tadasana is the name of the basic standing pose in yoga and brings together the Sanskrit word for mountain and the word asana meaning posture or pose. “In Tadasana, we stand like a mountain with a huge firm base beneath our feet, at the same time, in the upper body we are striving upward to achieve a feeling of expansiveness, while constantly maintaining a position of utter stillness.”
The spine actually divides, at the waist, just above the sacrum, to make this elongation possible. In Hatha yoga this lengthening and
stretching of the spine was critical to spiritual development, opening the body to the free flow of life force energy (prana) stimulating power centers (chakras) and pathways (nadi’s) and ultimately allowing spiritual energy (kundalini) to rise up from the tip of our tailbone to the apex of the brain.
The sacrum is a curved bone which consists of five fused vertebrae, it is the foundation of our spine, it roots and supports the entire spinal column.
When we stand in proper alignment, the force of gravity passes down through the center of head to backs of knees and ankles making the sacrum the literal center of gravity in the body. And according to Harris this makes the sacrum the” focal point of our relationship
to the ground, the body and to our human reality.“
The sacrum, as center of gravity, is the fulcrum of opposing energies. ”Gravity will draw feet into the floor, giving us the anchor that we need to live in the world” yet it is “counteracted by the tendency of living things to expand and grow upward toward the sun.” So while we take root there must also be a counteractive force (in fact no muscular movement is possible without contraction) that moves us upward toward the heavens and spirit.
Hatha yoga calls the sacrum a sacred or holy bone, because it is the center of the divine body. Because it literally connects the lower half of our body to the upper half, it is seen as a place of transformation, where the union of upper and lower, of above and below, of the
divine and the human occurs.
That’s why I find it fascinating that most of our lower back issues are rooted in this ‘sacred’ area. Telling also, is the fact that for the vast
majority of back pain cases, a specific physiological cause or source will never be identified. Have we, as Harris asserts, become so ‘frontally’ directed towards getting ahead, that our back, the sacrum -our root and center – has fallen into the dark, the unconscious? Have we forgotten the necessity of balancing heaven and earth, of finding both the sacred and corporeal within ourselves?
I find it revealing that my own lower back problems vanished when I committed to becoming a yoga teacher. This decision marked my
step back from an overly rational way of seeing, from materialistic concerns, to believe in well, something – anything. I’ve always thought my back pain faded because I re-educated my body through training in proper alignment, but now I’ve begun to wonder if it wasn’t my commitment to a more spiritually oriented life that ‘cured’ me.
The word sacrum comes originally from the Latin word sacer, meaning holy or sacred. So to conclude, I ask those suffering with low back pain to ‘drop down’ into this sacred area, your center of gravity, while simultaneously reaching up with the crown of your head, towards the sun and the heavens. Consciously come into alignment with the axis mundi, the center of the cosmos and the center of yourself.
You’ll be glad you did. Because as Harris writes “ The strength that comes from being rooted is inexpressible in words. Whether standing sitting or lying down we feel the immense support of something holding us from below, which in the end is absolutely irreplaceable.” So I invite you to physically root – and take flight – in full consciousness of what your spine, your support, your backbone represents – your root in the material world and your connection to the divine.
Posted on October 16, 2012 by Danielle Prohom Olson8
“If we look around us for a moment, we will find people everywhere with back problems; we live a one-sided life when we neglect the body and the spine.” Judith Harris, “Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection”
Probably the most common injury/issue I deal with as a yoga teacher is low back pain. While there are plenty of good physiological
reasons for this state of affairs (i.e. sitting all day at computers) I’m coming to believe that psychological factors play the bigger role. In fact, after reading Judith Harris’s book Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection, I’m coming to think that our current epidemic of ‘bad
backs’ boils down to a spiritual disorder.
Harris is a Jungian analyst and a yoga teacher who sees the bodies ‘symptoms’ as metaphors for our inner state. Our posture, whether we are slouched in defeat or tall in victory is largely unconscious, yet it reveals much about who we are. Harris writes “In body language, we can think of the potential to experience life as resting in the spinal column, itself the backbone of life”.
The spine is the first structure that forms inside the womb. From here, everything, body, limbs etc. take root. The spine literally supports us from behind, yet in our progress oriented “getting ahead” world, we relentlessly move forward, relying solely on the front of our bodies. One of western culture’s most common postural problems is our tendency to thrust our heads (our minds?) ahead the rest of the body, throwing the spine out of alignment.
Harris’s work explores an idea laid down by the one of the great forefathers of modern psychology, Carl Jung. For Jung “behind’ symbolized the region of the unseen, the unconscious. And Harris sees low back pain as symptomatic of our unconscious disconnection to our spine and backbone (and everything it represents). This has left us unstable “without roots, to where we have come from, to the moment, to where we are headed in the future.”
Harris reminds us that in Hatha yoga the spine was seen as the center of our sacred anatomy. It was considered the microcosm of the Axis Mundi, the pillar that supports the world. This pillar was seen as the axis between Heaven and Earth, and was paradoxically in constant motion while being motionless at the center. Harris writes “This implies one of the most important goals of yoga; to bring the body and mind into stillness in order to experience the inner world.”
The spine was also likened to a mountain. Tadasana is the name of the basic standing pose in yoga and brings together the Sanskrit word for mountain and the word asana meaning posture or pose. “In Tadasana, we stand like a mountain with a huge firm base beneath our feet, at the same time, in the upper body we are striving upward to achieve a feeling of expansiveness, while constantly maintaining a position of utter stillness.”
The spine actually divides, at the waist, just above the sacrum, to make this elongation possible. In Hatha yoga this lengthening and
stretching of the spine was critical to spiritual development, opening the body to the free flow of life force energy (prana) stimulating power centers (chakras) and pathways (nadi’s) and ultimately allowing spiritual energy (kundalini) to rise up from the tip of our tailbone to the apex of the brain.
The sacrum is a curved bone which consists of five fused vertebrae, it is the foundation of our spine, it roots and supports the entire spinal column.
When we stand in proper alignment, the force of gravity passes down through the center of head to backs of knees and ankles making the sacrum the literal center of gravity in the body. And according to Harris this makes the sacrum the” focal point of our relationship
to the ground, the body and to our human reality.“
The sacrum, as center of gravity, is the fulcrum of opposing energies. ”Gravity will draw feet into the floor, giving us the anchor that we need to live in the world” yet it is “counteracted by the tendency of living things to expand and grow upward toward the sun.” So while we take root there must also be a counteractive force (in fact no muscular movement is possible without contraction) that moves us upward toward the heavens and spirit.
Hatha yoga calls the sacrum a sacred or holy bone, because it is the center of the divine body. Because it literally connects the lower half of our body to the upper half, it is seen as a place of transformation, where the union of upper and lower, of above and below, of the
divine and the human occurs.
That’s why I find it fascinating that most of our lower back issues are rooted in this ‘sacred’ area. Telling also, is the fact that for the vast
majority of back pain cases, a specific physiological cause or source will never be identified. Have we, as Harris asserts, become so ‘frontally’ directed towards getting ahead, that our back, the sacrum -our root and center – has fallen into the dark, the unconscious? Have we forgotten the necessity of balancing heaven and earth, of finding both the sacred and corporeal within ourselves?
I find it revealing that my own lower back problems vanished when I committed to becoming a yoga teacher. This decision marked my
step back from an overly rational way of seeing, from materialistic concerns, to believe in well, something – anything. I’ve always thought my back pain faded because I re-educated my body through training in proper alignment, but now I’ve begun to wonder if it wasn’t my commitment to a more spiritually oriented life that ‘cured’ me.
The word sacrum comes originally from the Latin word sacer, meaning holy or sacred. So to conclude, I ask those suffering with low back pain to ‘drop down’ into this sacred area, your center of gravity, while simultaneously reaching up with the crown of your head, towards the sun and the heavens. Consciously come into alignment with the axis mundi, the center of the cosmos and the center of yourself.
You’ll be glad you did. Because as Harris writes “ The strength that comes from being rooted is inexpressible in words. Whether standing sitting or lying down we feel the immense support of something holding us from below, which in the end is absolutely irreplaceable.” So I invite you to physically root – and take flight – in full consciousness of what your spine, your support, your backbone represents – your root in the material world and your connection to the divine.
