Alignment Beyond the Pose
Alignment is often seen as achieving the “right” shape in a pose, but a more meaningful question is how it actually feels in your body.
In this reflection, Abbey Spiro invites us to move beyond rigid rules and explore alignment as a balance of stability, mobility, and awareness.
Alignment occurs when there is stability in the presence of mobility, or in other words, a state that allows for both stability and mobility to co-exist.
As a yoga teacher, I’ve heard a lot of questions about alignment from students - in terms of “where does my body go in this pose?” or “what’s the “right” way to do this pose?”
And also, I’ve asked myself a lot of questions about alignment.
A rigid definition of alignment as “right” or “wrong”, as it pertains to asana (the poses we do in yoga), has never sat well with me. After all, our bodies are all different.
Yes, it’s obvious that we are all different shapes and sizes, but internally even our bones and muscles are put together differently from person to person. Not to mention different lived experiences that affect how our bodies move.
Even if our alignment in a pose looked the same from person to person, each of us would feel it differently. You may have felt this before - you followed someone else’s alignment instructions (even the teacher’s) and instead of feeling steady you feel a bit askew.
I recently heard a concept of alignment that immediately felt more accessible and more accurate for me. You might even say this new concept of alignment aligned with me.
The concept is this: Alignment occurs when there is stability in the presence of mobility, or in other words, a state that allows for both stability and mobility to co-exist.
Working from this concept, maybe alignment doesn’t have to be a set of someone else’s instructions that has to be followed.
Working from this concept, maybe proper alignment is whatever allows you to feel stable as you move through proud warrior and humble warrior.
Maybe it's the ability to feel the steadiness that is present throughout easy, deep breaths.
Maybe it's moving throughout your practice or your day remaining anchored to an intention, or maybe, alignment is achieved anytime we are moving from or acting with awareness.