jananda core yoga

Yoga is an ancient system of exercise, the physical arm of yoga meditation. According to the most ancient yoga texts, yoga asanas—the postures that comprise yoga practice—are meant to give you a feeling of lightness and general wellbeing, improving flexibility, circulation, muscle tone and mental clarity. The purpose of physical practice is to prepare your body for the rigors of sitting still and meditating.

jananda core yoga is a unique approach to yoga that adapts yoga movement and postures to the special needs of people living with cancer.

Hi, I'm Jana Titus, and jananda core yoga grew from my efforts to maintain a regular yoga practice during the two and a half years I was in treatment for Stage 4 Hodgkin's Disease. Although I had been practicing yoga for years, I wasn't able to continue practice while in treatment—I had too little energy and too much pain. Gradually, I began the process of adapting yoga asanas so I could practice even when I was tired and in pain. And gradually, a very special approach to practice evolved and took form—becoming, in time, jananda core yoga.

jananda core yoga gives you a way to exercise when you’re dealing with post-surgical pain and stiffness; that allows you to maintain muscle strength and flexibility while dealing with treatment and its side effects; that provides a way to release tension and stress through movement. Ultimately, jananda core yoga is an exercise system designed to generate energy, rather than demand it.

The jananda core yoga system of exercise is simple and basic.

jananda core yoga brings meditative focus into movement to deepen the positive effects of exercise. The emphasis of practice is on your mental focus and awareness—not on how hard you exercise, or how long, or how perfectly you "do" the yoga poses. Even on those days when you feel too tired to move, this is a way to exercise that will help you feel better and more energetic.

Every movement is centered in an image of your core: your center of gravity, your spinal column, the balance of your head on your spine. Practice becomes an experience of mind/body balance, a postural alignment that promotes physical ease and has a profoundly calming effect on your mind,

Every movement is made in coordination with your breath. By consciously directing your breath through the image of your core, the inflow and outflow of your breath support and facilitate movement. Remember, oxygen is our fundamental life support. Tension, fatigue and pain all tend to constrict breathing, which deprives your whole body of needed oxygen—and energy. By uniting breathing and movement, you can feel your breath deepen, and energy being released through your entire system.

Before we go any further it's important to understand what exactly is meant by your "core."

The core of your being is both skeletal and neural. Skeletally, your core is your pelvis and spinal column. Your neural core is your spinal chord and brain. There are two centers of gravity that balance and align your core: one in the center of your abdomen, which balances your torso on your legs, and one in the center of your head, which balances your skull on your spine. You visualize your core from the center of gravity in your abdomen through the entire length of your spinal column into the center of gravity in the middle of your brain.

Practice begins with visualization. Remember, the image you build is visceral; you build it in your body and each part of the image relates viscerally to the physical reality of your core.

• Visualize your center of gravity—a sphere the size of a baseball—located in the center of your abdomen; connect to it by drawing your abdominal muscles around it, holding it steady, and pressing it back against your sacrum.
• Visualize your spine as growing upwards out of your center of gravity through the center of your body, through and around your spine, like a plant growing upwards from its roots, through to the very center of your brain, the center of gravity in your head.
• Direct your breath through the image, inhaling upwards from your center of gravity through your spine toward your head; exhale your release breath back down through your spine toward your center of gravity.

This probably sounds complicated to you, but it really isn't. What I'd like to do here is guide you through one of the basic exercises of jananda core yoga. Don't worry—there's no right or wrong way to do this. The movement itself, supported by breath, created from your center core, is profoundly beneficial, acting like a message of your spinal column and chord. In fact, if you do nothing else in the day, this movement will make a huge difference in how you feel. I call it moving meditation because it's so simple and basic that you can practice it sitting down, just like you meditate. (It has the added attraction of being a really great way to strengthen your abdominal muscles.)

moving meditation—strengthening core muscles

See your center of gravity: Just for fun, let's make it a round, thick knotted rope. Hold the knot with your abdominal muscles. Feel the connection.

Draw an image of your spine by pulling the rope—from the knot upwards—through and around your spine. See the thickness of the rope, and feel its strength. Feel the response of your body as you pull the rope upwards, all the while holding onto your center of gravity. Feel how your diaphragm releases and your ribs widen; feel your chest open and your breath deepen; feel your throat open and your jaw release . . . these are organic responses to being centered and in balance.

Bring body and mind into balance by drawing the rope up through the back of your throat and into the center of your brain—above the roof of your mouth, behind your eyes, between your ears. Last, tie another knot in the center of your brain. Let your head balance on the knot. Feel how the balance of your head on your spine affects your whole body. You are now connected to your core through an image that reflects it . . . you are in mind/body balance.

Direct your breath through the image by inhaling upwards from your center of gravity (the rope knot) through and around your spinal column (the rope) toward the center of your brain (the rope knot). Exhale and release your breath down your spine to your center.

Movement starts by directing your breath through the image. As you draw your breath upwards on the inhale, allow your spine to arch upwards; as you release your breath downwards on your exhale, allow the spine to follow the flow and curl over.

Stay with this flow, allowing a greater and greater arch up and curl forward in the stretch and extension of your spinal chord, the ease of your breath.

Next time, after arching upwards on the inhale, begin a side-to-side swaying movement. The movement may begin very small—a pull to the left, a pull back to the right—but breathe into it and let it grow on the flow of your breath.

Now, start to combine the spinal arch with the swaying. Literally, go with the flow. Your body will tell you what it wants to do. Do you start to make a circle? Go with it! Do you feel the urge to move your arms? Let them stretch! Stretch your legs, rotate your ankles and wrists, stretch your fingers even!! Feel your spine get longer and ropier as you flex and extend in movement. Feel your breath deepen . . . move!!! Enjoy!!!!

What you've just done may not even seem like exercise—it's too easy and inexact—but it most definitely is exercise. You've worked the core muscles that support your spinal column and you've strengthened your abdominal muscles . . . with your consciousness! Just stay with the image, stay with the breath . . . and hold your center of gravity. Movement becomes tensionless, but, in fact, you are performing a vital exercise for the core muscles that support your spinal column, and you are working your abdominal muscles by holding your center of gravity.

. . . And that is the fundamental exercise in jananda core yoga. As simple as it is, you’ve accomplished a lot. You’ve flexed and extended your spine, and worked your abdominal muscles. You’ve relaxed and deepened your breathing. Most importantly, simply by bringing meditative focus into the movement, you’ve exercised with consciousness rather than effort, developed strength with no tension, and brought your mind and body into balance at your very core.

Enjoy the movement! Enjoy the breath!

Repeat movement whenever you feel tired or tense.......