I love the human body. I truly do. I love how the body reminds us of what is real and alive in us. I love its soft animal nature and how it provides a sense of connection, embodied bliss and present moment awareness.
Or in the words of poet Mary Oliver ‘You do not have to be good. You just have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.’
Obviously the body is not just a vehicle for bliss, it is also where we experience pain and discomfort, both physical and emotional.
For me, this is simply another reason to appreciate it.
The body is continually reminding us to slow down, breathe, and listen. To become more present with ourselves and each other and to allow whatever is honestly happening.
Right now – stop – close your eyes and tune in. Take a few rounds of slow and conscious breath and notice what you notice. It can be this simple and easy to slow down our thinking and come home to our body and the aliveness of the moment.
It is also very easy in this digital age to become hypnotized by the continual distractions that surround us. To stay lost in the trance of thought while the immediacy and present moment awareness of our body is always calling to us – sometimes quietly, sometimes more forcefully.
Recent research in neurobiology provides fascinating information on the role of the body in brain health. We now know that body awareness is essential for integrating the two hemispheres of the brain.
Each hemisphere provides certain vital functions and it is the right hemisphere that connects us to our body awareness and to our emotions. It is also the right hemisphere that is relational and that can empathize with ourselves and others. See www.EmpathyBrain.com
Attunement to the sensations of the body is a simple and direct path to support the brain to function more effectively. The practice of Yoga, and Partner Yoga in particular, is a pleasurable and effective way to bring balance to our brain and body.
Partner Yoga has a balancing effect not only on the hemispheres of the brain but on many of the polarities we experience including self and other, masculine and feminine, and perhaps most importantly, our human and our spiritual Natures.
Connecting with others without words, softens the mind, opens our heart and reminds us to enjoy the sweetness and kindness of our soft animal bodies.
Something magical happens simply sitting, sacrum to sacrum with another. Our nervous system and emotional body receives the message that we are safe and held. Our physical body relaxes and our subtle body awakens.
We directly feel the truth that all spiritual teachings point to – that we are all connected, an integral part of the field of energy that surrounds and embraces us.
The body is a profound mirror of our Soul, the vehicle within which we experience our humanity. Partner Yoga is a precious and joyful way to honor our bodies while building a bridge between our humanity and divinity.
-Elysabeth Williamson
Founder Principle-Based Partner Yoga
Sacrum Connection Practice
Sacrum Connection is the foundation of Partner Yoga practice and is a powerful way to experience both physical and subtle energies. It is accessible to almost every body through the use of benches and props.
This practice is best understood as a powerful connection between sacrum, rather than a back-to-back sitting pose. Creating and maintaining our own alignment through a strong sacral connection is the focus of this posture, rather than leaning on our partner.
1. Begin in a back-to-back seated position with your partner. Lean forward and shift your pelvis back until you contact your partner’s pelvic bones. Slowly sit upright and align your torso on top of your pelvic bones by drawing the buttock muscles behind you and rolling the thigh muscles inward.
2. To experience deeper connection, aim for your partner’s sit bones. Engaging Uddiyana bandha (drawing lower belly up and in) strengthens the sacral connection. This last adjustment is a subtle and easily be overdone. If you do not feel a solid sacral connection, simply move through these steps again.
3. Draw your wrists into the hip sockets and squeeze the shoulder blades and elbows together. Feel the lift of your sternum as you do this. Maintain the lift through your torso as you relax your hands back onto your knees.
4. Bring your awareness to the connection between this sacred bone. Direct your breath into this connection. Unhinge the jaw and slightly tuck the chin to create length through the neck and the central axis of the body. If you notice your partner begin to lean on you, gently tap your partner’s hips with your fingers to remind them to keep sternum lifted.
5. Relax deeply fully receive the support of both your partner and the ground. Notice how your partner’s presence brings you more deeply into your own being. Play with moving your awareness back and forth between being deeply into your own form and merging with your partner’s.
Note: It is through relaxing the physical body that we experience the subtle body. Sense the distinction between awareness of yourself and awareness of your partner. Sense the subtle pranic energy that is generated between you. Let go of all preconceived ideas concerning yourself and your partner and instead rest in the experience of essential sameness.