The breath is everything.

Let’s discuss the word आसन āsana for a moment. We hear it a lot in yoga classes, every single position ends in it - Utthita Trikoṇāsana, Adho Mukha Śvānāsana, Padmāsana etc.

So what does it mean? Well if we take a look at Wikipedia we get the following:

An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English.

Ask a group of modern yogi’s what āsana means and you may get something pretty similar to the above - or perhaps just ‘āsana is a pose’.

We know what ‘pose’ means though:

Assume a particular position in order to be photographed, painted, or drawn.

So that is a bit like asking the yogi to assume a particular seat in order to take their photo and smile with camera drishti ;-)

Posture, yes I can get on board with that… we are after all creating a certain position with our bodies.

But this is better; let's look at the root meaning of the two syllables; as, a verb meaning ‘to sit’, and ana meaning ‘breath’. Meaning that our posture is a position where we sit with our own breath. Beautiful right? So if we come back to this simple and beautiful translation we can stay firmly present with one centred awareness that the breath is everything.

Say that again: 'The breath is everything', not a bind, not fancy vinyasa... just the breath.

As I move around a Mysore room, assisting over here, creating a bit more length over there, I am looking at spines and listening to breath. Often a small adjustment from my side, to create length or space is met with an 'Ah, that feels better'... and yes... it should!

So listen to your breath yogi's. Don't hold it. Sit with it, feel it, taste it, watch it flow. Get really, really curious about it and have fun!

Definition originally sourced from ‘One Simple Thing’ by Eddie Stern.