Awareness actually determines whether we are practising yoga or not...

... if we mindlessly repeat what we have learnt to do in a class without awareness, we are likely to exaggerate all the imbalances and holding patterns that made us want to go to a yoga class in the first place. I personally would not call this yoga – it is a form of physical exercise that might feel nice, but without awareness it doesn't actually offer us liberation from whatever is limiting us - we end up banging away repeating the thing we have learnt to do, presuming that it will get us where we want to go, completely ignoring the fact that pushing or pulling ourselves into that particular shape has created more conflict and stress in the system.

Yoga is supposed to move us towards integration and wholeness - connecting the mind, the body and the breath with the support we derive from the Earth. In order to achieve this we need to be prepared to notice where we are disconnected - where there is either conflict or dullness - so that we can experiment with making enough space for change to occur, and then we can work with finding whole-body relationships that resolve the issue at source. This is impossible without awareness.

The introduction to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika states "Praise be to Shiva, that gave us the science of Yoga". From what I understand, Shiva represents transformation through the destruction of all that is known - being prepared to sweep away the old to make room for the new. And to me 'science' is the knowledge you gain from scientific experiment. So if you practice yoga, I would say it involves personally performing experiments designed to challenge the basic ideas you are applying in your practice, and then OBSERVE THE OUTCOME of your efforts... Even if your experimentation leads to the assumptions you started with, you refine both the experiment and your direct understanding of the nature of what you are doing.

Now this is something that I believe a yoga teacher should be doing all the time. Then the teacher becomes an original source, with the authority of direct experience. And if the intention is to 'enlighten' people, as in to help them become lighter, clearer and free of the conflict that arises from misunderstanding, the teacher should invite their students to apply themselves to what is being taught with a similar level of inquiry. This brings yoga practice back to what it has always been - a physical science based on your own direct experience that liberates you from misunderstanding...

This is why my teaching is centred primarily on bringing people into awareness of what is going on for them right now, and then offering solutions that actually work. This is much more of a challenge than just making shapes of course, but there is a simplicity in intent - to clarify what the conditions are that lead to an integrated body, and then to practice moving with integration into postures. I don't actually mind if people can do the postures or not, I am far more interested in people maintaining integrity in the approach, because becoming whole IS the practice of yoga ... although it can be quite magnificent to see how people move once they have found some integration!!

Yoga is a very powerful tool for transformation, but without awareness it is too easy to exaggerate the very imbalance we are trying to address. With awareness, yoga can transform beyond recognition, into a life innocent of old physical and emotional injuries and habits.

On a personal note. By practising awareness in my physical practice, I have found my responses to the world around me has shifted. I have regularly experienced the incredible releases and changes of structural alignment that occur whenever I keep the intent of truly applying the most common sense principles.

• When I practice with an inquiring mind, I learn and I understand things from direct experience, which of course allows me to trust in the information and inspiration that comes to me.

Most of the information that turns up of course you can find in any book of any humanistic or spirituall advice. Her e are a couple of things that came to me very near the beginning of my yoga journey, it was mostly to do with noticing the relationship between action and outcome (kharma) –

• When I practice with compassion and acceptance of what is, I can work in the present moment with creativity and clarity, which of course allows things to change as they need to.
• If I practice with steady enthusiasm whilst adhering to principle of working to remove conflict, I experience the freedom that comes with each step deeper into integration – the body feels free to play and dance and move in so many ways, simply in celebration of being a litlle more whole.

There are so many other ways that just remaining aware with as little judgment as possible has directly shown me principles of life in action. Not because I learnt them and applied them, but because I just started with the inquiring mind – all other principles are continually revealing themeselves again and again in different ways, just because the inquiring mind is asking a few simple questions .. " What am I doing this for? Is it actually working? " Then the yoga practice truly begins, because immediately there is space for change.

Om nama shivaya - Consciousness and action put together can transform life .