Learning about adding Orienting to Practice

There’s something truly amazing about mindfulness, it can take you out of your head and into the moment so effortlessly. The strange thing is though, while it’s something so basic and simple most people don’t know how to do it. We are living in such a fast paced world we forget to slow down and be aware. 

In class a few weeks ago we were learning about orienting, a way to go deeper into each pose, a sort of mindfulness. I enjoyed the class because we each got a chance to teach and be taught by each other. It was extremely helpful to me because cues are one thing I am struggling on. I self taught myself yoga, there were no cues for me, it was just how to create the pose and get to the next, back then there wasn’t a so many resources readily available for teaching yoga online. Now going through all my yoga training I am learning from the ground up, why each pose is important, how to best create flowing sequences, and adding in cues so I may help others get in and out of poses. What they may be feeling within each pose, but this recent class had me realize that once again not many people teach mindfulness, or at least not at a deeper level. 

If you’ve ever done yoga you know that you are moving in and out of poses while breathing and then settling in stillness to hold a pose. Most go about it in a flowing manner which is what we want, but it can be done with such little thought that we miss a very big opportunity to actaully go deeper into our bodies during the pose. 

Orienting, is bringing awareness of our surroundings into the practice , textures, colors, temperature, even feeling the material that we are sitting on, or even wearing. 

We each taught a single pose, whether we were sitting in a chair, or on the floor, or simply doing a forward fold, all the while the cues were asking us to go deeper into what we were feeling, any sensations at all. How do your toes and feet feel against the texture of your yoga mat? Move your fingers to feel the temperature of the air in the room. We were invited to feel the pressure of our hands, our feet, noticing our breath and how it feels in our body. 

Using small almost micromovements we were bringing orienting into our teaching with mindful attention to all these details, it helped further calm not just my mind but my body. I already do yoga each day so I felt like I am very aware of what I’m doing but these small movements, these mindful cues and questions, relaxed me even further. Poses were more deeply felt, muscles were relaxed even more, and my mind was more clear when we finished. 

I’m looking forward to learning more about orienting so I may teach it better myself. I see it’s benefits incorporating it into any yoga class but those specifically for those aimed for Mental Health. It really does help reconnect the mind to body, in a very slow relaxing way. There are no demands, it’s all asking, inviting you to notice. What someone else feels may not be what you, so the cues are simply asking you to observe and notice what it is YOU are feeling. This is very important I cannot say that enough. Being told what to feel can be very overwhelming and even triggering, so the invitations to simply observe gives each person the time to take in their own thoughts and feelings. It can be very empowering , and it will be fun to start adding this into my practice as well as furthering my ability to teach it.

Try and bring a bit of awareness into your day, be mindful of what is around you. Use your five senses and take in your surroundings , see how much more relaxed you are after a few moments of practicing while you breath. I hope you can see the added benefits of orienting yourself with your surroundings!  

If this has peaked your interest, I am learning this in my Somatic Yoga for Mental Health Teaching Training, which you can learn about more here. We are covering so many helpful things and I look forward to sharing more with you as I continue my learning journey.