Breath

Sandra Sabatini

Informations

• Publié par: Pinter & Martin Limited
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 0001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781905177875
• Langue: English

Extrait

breath
the essence of yoga
breath
the essence of yoga
a guide to inner stillness
sandra sabatini
jan heron editor
chloë fremantle illustrator
Pinter & Martin Ltd
6 Effra Parade,
London SW2 1PS
www.pinterandmartin.com
First published by Thorsons 2000
This edition published by Pinter & Martin Ltd. 2007
Reprinted 2010
© Sandra Sabatini 2000, renewed 2007
Sandra Sabatini and Jan Heron assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-905177-09-7
Printed in Great Britain by Good News Digital Books
Illustrations by Chloë Fremantle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
a dedication
to vanda
Thanks to all my students and friends.
Sandra Sabatini was born in Australia to Italian parents, grew up in Africa, and returned to Italy in her 20s. She started studying yoga in her early 30s, and in 1985 became a pupil of Vanda Scaravelli, author of Awakening the Spine .
Scaravelli died in 1999 at the age of 91. She and Sandra have trained many teachers and students all over the world in a gentle but radical yoga that emphasises working with the breath, gravity and the spine.
contents

preface
introduction
how to begin
one: preparing the ground
two: breathing: insights
three: classic breathing
four: images
five: tiny yoga
six: sun salutation
seven: at the end: rest
preface

Learning is fascinating. The process may start with a vague, confused need for a change. Or there will be a sudden opening for novelties – new approaches, new ways – in the usual pattern of life.
When I joined my first yoga lesson in 1975, I just felt immense gratitude for being introduced to such a vast field of ancient wisdom.
Later my body became interested in the numerous and challenging positions. Every day it was trained to perform different postures – the practice was rigorously divided into morning and evening sessions. Breathing was carried out according to strict rules and rigid timings. But at that stage it was reassuring to have a teacher and to be told exactly what to do.

Then the birth of Chiara and three years later of Michele brought a very different insight to my daily practice. During labour I observed an unknown intelligence at work. The more passive, soft and elastic I became, the more powerfully this physical cleverness acted.
Whenever I was able to be alert but not involved, this natural wisdom freely came into play.
Just a glimpse and the experience took me to a different state where listening and observing became essential.
All of a sudden, my body refused to bend forward and arch backwards: it did not want to be told what to do.
I wished only to be re-connected to that gentle, weightless brightness I had observed at work during the birth of my children – a primal energy that took me by the hand.
What I had learned up to that moment felt useless – my whole being was covered by a crust of impositions. I was in a cage, imprisoned.
But how could I possibly reverse the process? How could I start to unlearn?
I needed a very special guide, a guide with a very light touch.
The first time I went to see Vanda Scaravelli, I tried to communicate my strong passion for yoga and the utter confusion I had inside me. When the tears were over, she sent me home to rest and sleep. Two days later she invited me back to her home for a lesson.
I was so eager to please her, so nervous, so out of touch with myself that I was unable to respond to her teaching.
What she was offering me was so beautiful that I did not know how to accept it. She invited me to open up – like a flower – from the centre. Flowers, plants and animals never hurry and yet they grow into the most wonderful variety of forms.
To learn to let go seemed like an impossible task. Vanda’s respectful approach was soothing and yet she demanded total attention.

Her hands could focus for hours on the same spot until it became alive. Her words travelled straight into me; her touch gradually dispersed the crust of tensions and impositions.
And what I learned was that the breath is the key that can open thousands of doors – an infinitesimal but incredibly powerful laser capable of removing layers of encrustation.
To experience this is very often like being on the crest of an oceanic wave, a simultaneous feeling of resistance and delight.
But if fascination prevails, then opening and unravelling follows. Learning no longer comes from wanting to reach a goal or fulfil an aim, but from a gradual unfolding, an effortless blossoming.
The attention moves within to sharpen the inner eyes and the inner ears. Any subtle response is amplified. The freedom, the intelligence of the cells can float up to the surface of consciousness and there it takes you by the hand. As you learn to move with it, with the flow of it and not against it, there is immense beauty.
As the body is allowed to find its alignment between earth and sky, the practice becomes a richly rewarding voyage inwards where gifts are always offered with great generosity.
Learning is not confined to the daily practice – it leaps out into life. There is constant delight in participating and in being one with what is: a fusion with the object that dissolves any question and any doubt.
awareness of the breath and why it is so important
as water purifies our skin, so the breath is capable of cleaning our whole being.
but there is a difference between a calm, conscious breath that gives lightness to the body and clarity to the mind and a short, mechanical one that cripples the body and dulls the mind.
if you listen for a few minutes to the sound made by your breath on its way out of the nostrils, and then on its way back in, you will hear that it sounds uneven, hectic and rough.
this irregular, fragmented sound is an indication of how ill at ease we are with ourselves.
weeks, months, probably years of mechanical and constricted breath has the effect of laying a thick blanket on the mind and body.
there is a feeling of deep uneasiness inside.
the body sends warning signals in the shape of headaches and insomnia. we may become nervous and restless as the uneasiness increases.
concentration becomes difficult.
we start looking around for instant relief ... for something, anything that will quieten down the inner suffering and the physical discomfort.
we have lost touch with the breath.
we have moved so far away from ourselves that we have completely forgotten our closest friend.
learning to observe the breath

the transition from hectic, uneven breathing to a smooth, round, rhythmic one happens gradually and slowly but once the healing process begins, it takes you by the hand naturally and leads the way.
you may find that at the beginning of conscious breathing you experience great muscular resistance.
your ribcage feels tight, your neck is short and tense.
it may feel as if there is insufficient space in which to breathe, because this space is currently full of accumulated tension.
you may have to face another kind of resistance as well – a sort of heaviness, a sense of reluctance to meet the breath.
as a consequence, a great deal of anger and anxiety may surface.
and when you first attempt to observe the breath, your first impulse may be to try and change the pattern of breathing and give it a better shape.
but the breath refuses to be controlled.
it’s like trying to control a volcano, a thunderstorm or an earthquake.

you will soon discover that there is only one way to gradually reduce the amount of poison that has been piling up over the years.
slowly, and with great kindness and gentleness, focus attention on the breath and let the impurities be carried away by the exhalation.
very slowly these impurities will be reduced and then the body can truly be nourished by the incoming breath.
the lungs open like blossoms to receive it and vitality begins to stream freely again.
it may feel as if nothing very much has happened after practising awareness of the breath.
but be sure that a series of minute rearrangements have taken place at a very deep level and that their echoes, like a ripple, will go on resounding inside you for hours, for days.
and all the time and attention you spend on observation and awareness and obtaining emptiness in the body allows the cells to absorb the full beauty and nourishment of the new breath.
breathing becomes a magic event, delicate and exquisite.
you will find that this increasing observation of your breath opens a door to the unexpected.
this simple instrument will lead to infinite discoveries.
when you are in a difficult situation, if you are in pain, or when everything seems to fail, you can reconnect to your breath and find relief.
as you learn to be in its company all the time, you wonder how you could have forgotten about it for so long.
sandra sabatini, florence
how to begin

the images and insights in this book were distilled from transcripts of sandra sabatini’s classes, recorded in 1998.
their purpose is to guide and encourage the continuous process of opening, softening and lengthening that is central to sandra’s approach to yoga.
it’s not about achieving a position but understanding how to travel there with the breath.
if you have never practised any kind of yoga or breathing work before, this section will help you begin.

all you have to do

to benefit from the suggestions in this book
is breathe
and be aware
of how you are breathing
breathe through the nostrils
easily, naturally
notice how the breath comes in and goes out
notice what happens at the end of an exhalation
notice what happens at the end of an inhalation
notice, listen, observe
by putting your attention on the brea