Ben Ralston

What happens when you do Yoga: part 1: Asana

10 amazing benefits of a regular yoga practice.

Asanas are the physical position, or postures, of yoga. Asana is a Sanskrit word.
Sanskrit is known as the language of the Gods. It is ancient, subtle, and complex.
The word asana means seat, or position: literally, the relationship that your body has to the earth. Sanskrit being Sanskrit, there is also an implied meaning: steadiness, and comfort.
So asana is a position that is held steady and comfortable.

Petra in King Cobra; Poorna Bhujangasana
What happens when you practice these positions in the right way (holding them steady, and relaxing into them) is that you (1) breathe deeply. Since any time you remain steady and relax deeply, your breathing will also deepen as a natural consequence.
As your body lets go of unnecessary tension (which is absolutely inevitable with practice, because it’s simply not possible to hold an asana whilst also holding on to stress) there is a deep (2) ‘letting go’. Emotional stress that was locked away in the muscles and tissues of the body, especially the fascia, dissolves. This is why people sometimes cry or feel emotional during yoga practice; usually however the ‘letting go’ is on a more subconscious level.

As the body breathes more and more deeply, the lungs expand and contract more fully, gently and rhythmically (3) massaging the internal organs and glands. They are toned; toxins are released; and all the systems in the body – the endocrine system (hormones); nervous system (stress + relaxation); circulatory system (energy) digestive system, and metabolism – are balanced.
As well as this internal massage, the yoga postures are also well known for the wonderful (4) external massage that they give: stretching. The muscular skeletal system is rebalanced completely; the main reason why yoga is known to be quite simply the best remedy for a bad back. Problems with alignment are corrected automatically, as the body remembers it’s proper relationship with all it’s various parts.
Another reason why yoga helps to fix a bad back, apart from the stretching aspect of the exercises, is that it (5) strengthens the body, especially the core of the body. The core muscle groups are the ones that hold the body internally, maintaining good posture and balance. Look at an experienced yoga asana practitioner, and you’ll see physical poise, balance, and lightness of limb. Yoga is known as ‘skill in action’, and certainly physical mastery is one of the results.

Inverted postures (such as shoulderstand and headstand) reverse the effect of gravity on the blood flow in the body, bringing (6) much needed nutrition and energy to parts of the body that may lack them, rejuvenating the upper regions – heart, throat, and brain.
The heart is especially benefited by these inverted postures due to the effect known as ‘Starling’s Law’, which states that the more the heart muscle stretches, the more it in turn contracts. The large volume of blood entering the heart (carried freely by gravity from the legs, pelvis, and abdomen) stretches it greatly so that it then contracts strongly, and is given wonderful exercise; without any stress on the nervous system and knees, which other more aerobic cardiovascular exercise is guilty of.
Heart disease, formerly thought to be irreversible, has been demonstrated to be not only reversible but also cure-able with the help of yoga.
I mentioned hormones above. Most people don’t realize how important the endocrine system (system of glands which produce hormones to regulate many of the functions of our organism) is: it is responsible for our moods. That’s why we sometimes put unpredictable behavior down to someone being ‘hormonal’!
In short, when you practice yoga, the endocrine system is balanced, toned, and stimulated, so that (7) the correct levels of specific hormones are produced: to dissipate stress, and induce relaxation.
I don’t mind telling you that before I became a yoga teacher many years ago, I was a party animal, living a fairly hedonistic lifestyle in London.
One of the things that ‘hooked’ me to yoga was that I realized the wonderful feelings and experiences I had using recreational drugs then, could be reproduced without the drugs.
To be specific: I attended a wonderful yoga class, and left the class one Autumnal evening feeling as if I had taken MDMA (ecstasy). My vision was sharp; my body felt as light as a feather; my thoughts were ‘crystal clear’; and my mood was one of calm, ecstatic, joy bubbling up and over me… in short, exactly the same experience I had had ‘partying’. As I walked home that evening through the streets of London, the streetlamps seemed as beautiful as the trees. The air I breathed was like nectar, and each person hurrying past was a being towards whom I felt infinite compassion. In one word: I was pure love. The next day there was no ‘come-down’; I knew I could tap into that feeling anytime I wanted, because the source of it was not something external – a drug – but something inside of me. My love affair with yoga continued on from there… and one of the reasons I teach it is that I want to share that incredible internal experience with others.
Yoga also brings our attention to any issues that we have – physical and emotional. It’s very hard to do a full yoga class and not notice tension in the body, or anger in the heart. The nature of these postures is that they (8) bring problems, weaknesses, and stress to our attention. By way of example: if you have a weakness in your knee, which may well go unnoticed until you run for the bus and damage the joint, practicing yoga will undoubtedly bring the problem to your attention. You will then have to adapt your practice to accommodate the injury, and soon you will find that the problem is gone, as the postures soothe, stretch, and strengthen the ligaments, muscles, tendons, and tissues around the problem.

Locust / Shalabhasana; don’t try this at home!
Finally, practicing the physical aspects of yoga brings clarity, focus, and balance to the mind. Asana practice is really meditation too. It brings us mindfully into the present moment, with ease and grace, so that (9) magic happnens: our body and mind integrate again. While most people think of themselves as a mind and a body; or perhaps a mind in a body; the truth is that the mind and body are one. There really is no separation between the two: they are like two sides of the same coin.
The reality is that human beings are pure consciousness, pure vibrational energy. The body is a dense manifestation of that consciousness. The mind is a subtle manifestation of that consciousness. Both are essentially pure consciousness. So what happens when we practice asana is that in some kind of magical way, perhaps as a result of the cumulative effect of all the above points together, we suddenly feel ourselves more integrated; more comfortable ‘in our own skin’.


There are in fact way more than 9 benefits. I picked the number 9 out of a hat (not literally) before I started, and worked around it. There are actually so many benefits to a regular yoga practice that I could write on and on about it for the rest of my life… but I don’t have time for that, and neither do you. But you get the picture. The only other thing I feel I should mention before I leave you is ENERGY: I mentioned consciousness before, and pure vibrational energy… well, that’s what you are. Sometimes, that energy gets kind of ‘twisted’, or blocked, and then we feel… well, not so good. Yoga practice gets the energy flowing properly. The consequence of that is not only that we feel better, but that our evolution is accelerated. That’s right, we become more evolved. Our consciousness is raised. You can put this a number of different ways: for example, you can say that the higher chakras are awakened, or balanced; you could say that the kundalini is awakened (for my own experience of chakraas and kundalini see here); or you could simply say that the vibration is raised. Either way, the effect is unmistakable. I’ll talk more about the energetic effects of yoga practice in part 2: pranayama.

ENERGY: my personal experience of Kundalini Energy


 Awaken the snake: a tale of Kundalini and orgasm.
I originally wrote this article in response to the question: “How can I learn to feel my chakras?” from a student.
In answering that question, I found myself writing about Kundali.
Kundalini is a vast reservoir of natural energy that lies dormant in most people, until ‘activated’. This activation is a process: it happens quite naturally and slowly as we evolve. But the process of evolution can be accelerated through disciplined spiritual practice. When the kundalini ‘awakens’, our consciousness changes: we become much more aware.
This article presents my own personal experience of this awakening…

 The human body has a subtle aspect to it that we can call the energy body. It’s as though the physical body wears an invisible glove, and that invisible glove is not only around the physical body, but also inter-penetrates it. The energy body consists of many thousands of ‘Nadis’ (the Chinese call them ‘meridians’). According to the Vedas, (ancient yogic scriptures) there are 72,000 of these nadis, or energy pathways, in the body.
The Chakras are simply the places in the body where these energy meridians merge with each other (the word chakra means wheel, or junction). There are many charkas, but seven important ones:
1.              the root chakra (at the perineum)
2.              the second chakra (between the hips)
3.              the solar plexus chakra
4.              the heart chakra (in the middle of the chest – not at the physical heart)
5.              the throat chakra (at the base of the throat)
6.              the third eye (the space between the eyebrows)
7.              and the crown chakra (at the top of the head).
One of the ‘aims’ of Hatha yoga is to awaken the dormant Kundalini energy (which is said to lie curled up sleeping at the base of the spine like a snake) and to raise it up through the chakras. As it goes higher and higher, various abilities are awakened; evolution is accelerated; and finally enlightenment is achieved when the kundalini goes up through the crown chakra. The rising of the kundalini is a completely natural process: it will happen to all of us, at some point in our development.
In our modern society, our awareness tends to be very ‘gross’ – meaning very dull and material-based. In ancient times people were much more oriented towards feeling rather than thinking (for example), so they were more aware of this subtle aspect of themselves. Nowadays, we are not… hence the question “how can I feel my chakras?”
To answer the question:
There is a very important pre-requisite to feeling the flow of energy, let alone feeling the chakras: you have to be totally relaxed.
Tension and stress block energy. You simply cannot feel it if you are physically or mentally tense.
Many beginners to yoga have simply not yet mastered relaxation enough to be able to focus on the more subtle aspects of energy and chakras.
However, once we get to the point where we are able to fully relax, and to feel more, we become gradually aware of this subtle aspect of ourselves, and can come to know our own energy body. We begin to feel the flow of energy! Usually it feels like a cool breeze, or a warm tingling sensation, or perhaps a vibration. It feels at the same time physical and non-physical, and that is how you know that it really is ‘energy’.
Once you feel it, you can focus your attention on it, and it gradually becomes more a part of your awareness. In my case, it took many years to achieve this (but I know that occasionally people are quicker).
As you become slowly more and more aware of the energy, you sense that it flows in a ways, and that in some parts of your body that flow is stronger. Usually the places where you feel it most strongly are the chakras.
The chakra feels like a ‘vortex’; like a whirlpool of energy. You should be aware that everyone feels them in slightly different places – so don’t ‘look’ for them. It is better to find them organically (without effort).
So, to summarise: learn to relax fully; learn to ‘feel’ more and more subtly; finally, focus your attention on the feeling of energy, and learn to follow it’s flow.
In addition:
•                diet is highly important: you are what you eat. If you eat dense heavy food – meat, processed food, too much cooked food – then it will be very hard to access the more subtle vibrational body. If you want to experience a higher vibration, it is good to eat more fresh, raw, organic foods. A certain level of purity within the physical body is necessary before the subtle energy can be felt.
•                the body has to be in good condition, and the more you practice energetic exercises like yoga, tai chi, chi kung, and so on, the more the physical body comes into ‘alignment’ with the energy body.
•                breathing exercises stimulate the flow of energy (the yoga breathing exercises are called Pranayama – which literally means “control of the energy”). Of course, you should first make sure that you know how to breathe properly. 
Warning: it is well known that trying too hard to ‘speed up’ this process can be harmful. I have heard of people who really lost their minds by coming into contact too early with Kundalini energy. It is extremely powerful, and if you are not ready, it can make you feel as if you are completely out of control. In my case, here’s what happened:
First, some background information:
I studied yoga for about 5 years, going quite deeply into the physical aspects (exercises and breathing). I also began to meditate, and had immediate transcendental experiences of ‘stopping the mind’. I then took a very intensive yoga Teacher Training course. Two years later, I took the advanced Teacher Training course (even more intense!), and soon afterwards began to experience (very strongly!!) the rising of the Kundalini energy, which lasted for about 72 hours…
I was in the Bahamas, where I was living and working in an Ashram, having just completed my advanced teachers’ training. One afternoon, I began to experience what can only be described as ‘rushes’ of energy going up my spine – exactly the same feeling as an intense rising orgasm, causing a kind of ‘ripple effect’ through my body. At first it was very pleasurable, and pretty amusing! Apart from the physical pleasure, I was also very satisfied because I felt that this experience symbolized progress in my spiritual practice. But after a few hours I began to feel restless. After a sleepless night, I was getting uncomfortable and feeling mentally exhausted and disturbed; and after two days I really wanted it to stop!!
I was lucky – I found that by focusing my intention, I was able to gradually slow down the rising Kundalini. I felt that I wasn’t ready for the experience I was having, so I delayed it. The reason I was able to do that is because I was very experienced, and in the ideal supportive and understanding environment of an ashram. Many people have not been so lucky – there are ‘kundalini clinics’ which have been established purely with the aim of treating people who have lost control of their lives, after prematurely raising the Kundalini. So be careful!
That was in 2003. Since then I feel the occasional ripple! I feel the kundalini rising, but much slower. I know that it’s better that way: it’s always better to go too slow, than too fast. Take things one step at a time, don’t rush. The journey is just as important as the destination, and our progress must be balanced, otherwise there will always be a ‘kickback’.
Relax deeply, and all will go as it should. Relaxation is the foundation upon which everything good is built.
As a very wise man once told me:
“just relax, and enjoy!”