Feeling It in my Bones

Most of you know by now that I am taking an advanced studies yoga class. It is a 200 hour program that will take us from September to close to forever to complete since we only have class 3 hours of class a week! This past Thursday we had a very interesting class with Ann Dyer, a teacher who amongst other talents loves the yoga of sound. Her introduction to yoga and sound class usually takes 3 hours. Unfortunately she only had 1.5 hours with us to share her wisdom.

We started out with a simple and well known chant called Shanti Mantra that goes like this…

Om saha na vavatu
Saha nau bhunktu
Saha viryam karavava hai
Tejas vidnau vahai tamastu
Ma vidvisha va hai
Om shanti shanti shanti

Sanskrit, like many other languages, can be translated many ways and it all depends on who is doing the translation. The English translation that we were given in class is:

May we be protected together,
may we be nourished together,
may we work together with great vigor,
may our study be enlightening,
may no obstacle arise between us.

Our next exercise was to learn how to feel sound in our bodies, especially in our bones. We learned different vowel sounds that resonate in our bodies and where each vowel can be felt the strongest. We would chant a vowel sound and then gently touch different places of our body… the sternum, collar bones, shoulder blades, chin, forehead, belly, hips, sacrum, pubic bone, and ribs looking for the vibration.

Through this exploration I learned something about my body that was really no surprise at all once discovered. As I was looking for sound vibration along my clavicles, I noticed that I could only feel vibration on the right side. My left side didn’t vibrate. Ann said that often we don’t feel vibrations in the areas of our body that are giving up trouble. This was so true. My left shoulder and left side of my upper chest has always been tighter than my right. During poses like downward facing dog, I often feel stress at the front corner of my armpit. I’m not sure exactly which muscles are unhappy there.

Ann’s suggestion was that we incorporate chanting into our daily yoga practice to help us reach our “troubled” areas. So yesterday morning, I spent about 10 minutes “a-ing” into my left shoulder and collar bone. And today I can feel a faint sensation.

Over the next few days, my plan is to continue 'a-ing' into my shoulders, but I will also "oouu" into my hips. (how do we spell this vowels?) to see if there is the same vibration increase and hopefully more openness in the joint/muscles.