Jamie Allison Yoga | Live Deeply

What is Yoga?
by Jamie Allison

“Yoga is Virtuosity in Living. “ I quote my philosophy teacher Dr. Douglas Brooks, who quotes his teacher Dr. Gopala Aiyer Sundaramoorthy. So much is contained in this nugget of brilliance. I have been contemplating these words since I first heard them. I have turned them over in my head and my heart seeking the fullness of their meaning.

Thus far, in a nut shell “Virtuosity in Living” is to live deeply. To live deeply is to become more skillful at every aspect of living. To become more skillful, open to what each moment offers and ask how you can participate and what you can offer back. Plumb the depth of your experiences so you can continue to learn from the past while aspiring for a life affirming vision of the future. Keep good company. Cultivate awareness. Awareness gives rise to meaning. Meaning evokes gratitude and remembrance. Read more below

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Who Should Practice Yoga?
by Jamie Allison

When people hear what I do for a living, they often say, “Oh I couldn’t possibly do yoga. I’m way too stiff.” “I just don’t bend that way.” “Do you need to be a vegetarian?” “I could never get into those positions.” “Do I have to become a Hindu? Because I’m Catholic.”

My criteria for doing yoga are really quite simple. Ask yourself:
- Do you have a willingness to touch and access your
unlimited potential?
- Do you have a willingness to grow and learn?
- Do you have an open mind and an open heart?
If you answered yes to these questions, yoga could be for you.
About Anusara Yoga
“Anusara” means to be in the flow of Divine Grace, to follow your heart. This is a powerful, healing system of yoga. It is based on the premise that we are all divine, good and worthy. Joy is our birthright. The science of the bio-mechanical alignment principles allows us to open and heal our physical bodies. When we are balanced in our bodies, our inner beauty is more accessible and we are better able to celebrate ourselves. Yoga is a practice of self-honoring. It is remembering that the divinity that dwells within is a part of the greater web of divinity to which we are all connected. The yoga practice is a way of honoring all of life and serving all of life.

The Universal Principles of Alignment, of Anusara Yoga, return us to health and well being in our physical body. From there the journey back to our place in the Universe begins. We remember our connectedness to all of creation. By nurturing ourselves we are able to serve all. Step into the flow of Grace through the practice of Anusara Yoga. Limitations dissolve when we align our heart and mind with the Supreme. Every breath is an opportunity for growth and change, every breath a divine gift. Patience, practice, and persistence lead to freedom.

This is your journey. Your experience is as unique as you are. You don’t need to tie yourself into knots to access the pure truth of yourself. You begin to create a balance within and without the first time you take a conscious breath. We all yearn for balance and the sweetness therein.

Who should practice yoga? Anyone who wants to discover the pure essence of themselves. It begins with that first conscious breath. The commitment to the practice is a commitment to you. What could be more important?

"Anusara yoga integrates the science of bio-mechanical alignment, the art of inner body awareness and the celebration of the heart."  - John Friend

Yoga, whatever style one chooses for oneself, should speak to the heart and soul. It is intrinsic to human nature to seek deeper meaning in life. But the soul’s instincts seem to have been buried by the business and busy-ness of the twenty first century. It is the heart and soul that feel the emptiness of the external world and cry out for something more.

Ritual is one way of cultivating awareness and meaning. Something as simple as the morning cup of coffee or tea, the lighting of a candle with intention can offer a sense of ritual. Can these small rituals sustain us? Are we even aware that we are seeking an anchor in the metaphorical storm of twenty first century life?

It is easy to be pulled away from the things we need so desperately. What if we were offered a practice, something that can effect body, heart and mind, heal you on all levels and be of benefit to every aspect of your life? Would you stay with that “ritual”, that method?

Anusara Yoga offers just such a method. This elegant style of yoga, founded by John Friend, is grounded in the deep order and reason of the Universe. The five Universal Principles of Anusara Yoga offer a skillful template for living and creating meaning. These Principles invite us to pause and open to what life is offering. We then choose if and how we are going to engage life, refine it and make authentic offerings.

Also distinctive to Anusara Yoga are the three A’s. These are Attitude, Alignment and Action. The Attitude we bring to anything directly determines our experience. How we Align, the skills and wisdom we bring to any task or endeavor, is reflected in the end product. The end product is that which we create and offer with fullness of heart through Action. The three A’s can remind us to cultivate awareness, meaning and a sense of gratitude in everything we do.

What if you entered into your everyday tasks with an attitude of curiosity? This attitude would open your eyes and your heart to the wonder of life. This wonder could translate into greater mindfulness. Greater mindfulness would make everything you do more meaningful. When a day or a lifetime is filled with meaning, emptiness vanishes and deep sense of purpose, contentment, gratitude and clarity washes over us. We step into our lives as empowered beings. We can truly offer from the heart and make a positive difference.

We are so much greater than we give ourselves permission to be. We are the song the Universe is waiting to hear, the story waiting to be told. We are the fruits of Her labor. How can we be encouraged to remember this?

While this may seem like a formidable endeavor, the formula is as easy as breathing. Each round of breath is comprised of expansion and contraction. This pulsation of the Universal is the creative force. It is life itself. Remembering this pulsation is the template for skillful living.

The Anusara Yoga Universal Principles of Alignment reflect this pulsation and give us the tools to live skillfully. We are encouraged to bring forth the truth, the essence of who we are in our hearts. It is our sacred duty to tell the great story of who we are. We are who the Universal is seeking at every turn. Her yearning to know Herself, is our yearning to know ourselves. Even if we are not aware that we are searching, our hearts know. Our unsatisfied longings know.

Begin on a foundation that is filled with Grace, simply by opening to Her because She is already there. This is an expansive action. Let go of self-limiting ideas. Remind yourself that you are a child of the Universal. Remind yourself again and again of your worthiness and the potential that exists inside of you. Open to the whole spectrum of this life. It is sacred, it is rare, it is yours to do with, as you like.

How would your life be different if your foundation was based upon someone telling you that all the wonder of the stars and heavens exists inside of you? You are a magnificent being. There will never be any one like you ever again. This is the concept behind Opening to Grace, Anusara Yoga’s first Universal Principle of Alignment. We only have to allow ourselves to open to the wonder of life. To entertain, for just a moment a positive thought.

As challenging as that first step is, the next will require more effort. Effort creates a contractive experience. This represents Anusara Yoga’s Second Principle, Muscle Energy. Now is when you act, if you choose. There is an urgency to how you offer your efforts. The Universal is waiting to hear Her song through you, Her story as you. She offers the gift of life to you. What are you offering back? Are you willing to participate and co-create?

If you have come this far, then you refine. Recognizing and remembering that life is the gift from the Universal, you ask more questions. You ask what is being offered to you and you alone. Not everything is offered to everyone. Each one of us has proclivities, talents, longings, assets, and liabilities and desires that are intrinsic to our make up. Yet, we can relate to each other’s talents; applaud them or push them away as we like. This refined opening is done in the context of who we are as an individual. It is an opening to what is being offered to us and us alone, an expansive action. This refined expansion placed in the context of our individuality is Anusara Yoga’s third Principle, Inner Spiral.

With this opening to our individual possibilities and potential we can again ask the question, “What are we going to do about it?”

We balance the opening we just created with a contacting action. This is Anusara Yoga’s fourth Principle, Outer Spiral. A contraction is made to shape the opening with out diminishing it. We want to maintain a relationship between the expansive potential of what is being offered to us and what we are going to do about it. This becomes a beautifully refined, delicate play of embracing paradoxes, of dancing with the Divine.

This is where things get rich, full of texture, color, and layers. This is your relationship with the Universal. This can be a tale of wonder or not, you are free to choose.

The fifth and final principle is Active Organic Extension. This expansive principle is the offering you make from your heart.

The Universal Principles of Alignment of Anusara Yoga are a roadmap to the heart. They are life itself. These principles, if we choose to use them remind us to be aware and co-create with the Divine.

The grand template summarized*
Open to Grace:
Pause and open to the whole spectrum of this magnificent world; all possibilities, all options, all feelings, all emotions, all ways of being, thinking and doing. Realize that all of this only keeps expanding with each moment, just as your capacity to grow expands with each moment.
In the body, Open to Grace is how we place our foundation, how we touch the earth for optimal results. Anusara Yoga reminds us that the foundation is not just below us but behind us as well. We expand into the back body and feel the unseen support that is always there. We soften and allow ourselves to settle. This Principle is expansive.

Muscle Energy:
Draw in and embrace the wonder of it all. Then ask, “what do I want and what am I willing to do about it?” It is one thing to observe the magnitude of options and another to act, to co-participate with those options that are being offered. Muscle energy can represent self-love and self-care.
In the body Muscle Energy is an embrace of the muscles on all four sides of the bones of the arms, legs and hips. It is a supportive, sustaining and nurturing energy that flows into the dominant focal point. It holds the bones of the body in alignment. This Principle is contractive.

Inner Spiral:
Your willingness to act reveals what matters to you. Knowing what matters to you allows you to open to and receive what the Universal is offering to you and you alone. Again you must participate in this opening to receive. The offering is there, but your heart’s desire is what makes you act.
In the body, Inner Spiral turns the tops of thighs in, moves them back and away from midline creating a life affirming expansion in the pelvis and a lumbar arch. This is one step of a two-step process to optimally align the hips and low back. This Principle creates expansion.

Outer Spiral:
Your desire to know your Self as the gifts the Universal is offering to you is the driving force behind your diving into the Ocean of possibilities She is offering to you.
The on going relationship between what the Universal is offering to us as individuals and what we are willing to do about it is the paradox of this embodied, human life. This relationship has the potential to unfold and unpack itself for as long as we are willing to participate.
In the body, Outer Spiral is initiated by the toning of the pelvic floor. This toning scoops the tailbone down and in. It is designed to complement Inner Spiral and further enhances the opportunity for optimal alignment. This Principle creates contraction.

Active Organic Extension:
The offerings we make from our heart are based on the gifts we receive from the Universal. These offerings are shaped by a desire to create and express who we are. She offers us the raw material of the Self. The seed idea, the foundation of Her story she longs to hear through us, as us. What we do with this raw material is up to us. We are totally free to choose.
In the body Active Organic Extension moves out of the dominant focal point. It opens joint space, allows for optimal energy flow and leads to freedom in body, heart and mind. This Principle is expansive.

Yoga can remind us that we have been given the opportunity to do everything with awareness and fullness of heart. Can we be so mindful that the mundane is elevated to the sublime; just by the way we are participating? Can we remember to worship the day as the sacred gift that it is and offer gratitude? Participating with this template takes mindful effort, but seems like a small offering in exchange for every breath and every beat of your heart.

These Principles are not an arduous task to be memorized but a beautiful template to embody with every breath, a way of being that can be owned at a deep visceral level. Let these principles come alive for you. Let them be your guide to your heart and help you shape your life and your story. Only you can offer you back to the Universal. She desires to know about you because she is you and she needs you to tell Her story, sing Her song so She will not be forgotten. Let these Principles show you how to Live Deeply!

*Please note; this is not intended to be a full description of the Universal Principles of Anusara Yoga. This is a brief synopsis of how they manifest in the body and how I have come to interpret them energetically through years of personal practice and investigation.