A selection of my writings on fitness, yoga, and meditation. Click on the title to reveal the body text.
A selection of my writings on fitness, yoga, and meditation. Click on the title to reveal the body text.
Awareness is passive. You are aware of the sensation of the chair you’re sitting in. However, your attention is on this screen and the words of this text. Attention is active. You choose where to place it. In exercise, people can be more or less aware of their bodies. In a past meditation workshop, I asked the students to describe their experience of a meditation on bodily sensation. A man said that he imagined his arm and then he imagined sensing it. This was a big problem! He was interacting with his imagination rather than the body. There is nothing closer and more immediate to us than the sensations of the body. However, our modern, counter-natural lifestyle often puts us more in our minds than our bodies. Your arm is always there and it is always sending sensations to the brain, but are you paying attention to them? Consider the opposite end of the spectrum of attention in the body relative to the man lost in his imagination - the wild animal. The wild animal is always acutely aware of its environment and its body within it. It must be so in order to survive. You can see this in the way that an animal rapidly reacts in response to a sound or scent. For all of the power of the human mind, it is usually limited in the scope and strength of its awareness.
Meditation is the act of intentionally directing your attention toward some object, which results in the adaptation of awareness. I describe awareness as passive and attention as intentional, directed. We can cultivate attention through mental training, which is commonly called meditation. In physical training, you can seek cardiovascular capability through running, strength through weightlifting, and flexibility through yoga. Mental training is similar in that different methods create different adaptations of the mind and brain. The adaptation I want you to create is to increase attention in the body. In this pursuit, the object of meditation is your own body. Your goal is to become more aware of your sensations and thus be able to more skillfully direct the body's movement. Your performance of yoga will rapidly improve with the application of attention and resulting growth of bodily awareness. This is expressed organically as improved function of the cerebellum, the nervous system, and the muscular system.
In a 2015 interview with Tim Ferris, Arnold Schwarzenegger described his use of meditation in strength training.
I also figured out that I could use my workouts as a form of meditation because I concentrate so much on the muscle and I have my mind inside the bicep when I do my curls. I have my mind inside the pectoral muscles when I do my bench press. So I’m really inside and it’s like I gain a form of meditation because you have no chance of thinking or concentrating on anything else at that time, but just that training that you do. So there’s many ways of meditation and I benefit from all of those. Today I’m much calmer because of that and much more organized and much more tranquil because of that.
There are three efforts needed to achieve mastery of the mind in the body. The first effort is to cultivate more attention in the body and to be able to relax it at will. The second effort is to study anatomy so that you know what structures you are sensing and using. The third effort is to activate the muscle as fully as possible and in coordination with other muscles in exercise, whether it be yoga or another modality.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was created by the Indian yoga masters, Dr. Krishnamacharya and Mr. K. Pattabhi Jois in the early 20th century. In the early 1970s, Americans David Swenson and Nancy Gilgoff visited the city of Mysore, India and began their studies with Mr. Pattabhi Jois and his son Manju. They popularized the practice in the United States with their students, Doug and David Swenson, as well as many others. I practice in this style because the results are the calm awareness of a meditator and the body of a gymnast.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and Power (AKA Flow) Yoga are significantly different. The best way to explain the difference is that Ashtanga is like calisthenics and gymnastics whereas Power/Flow has more in common with American aerobics. The key differences between Power Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga are:
In Ashtanga, poses are held for 5 breaths. In Power Yoga, the student moves briefly into one pose and then moves into another with little to no time spent holding still.
In Ashtanga, poses are set in a simple sequence of performing a pose on one side and then on the other, then performing a vinyasa, then onto the next pose. In Power Yoga, many varied poses are set in one continuous sequence.
Ashtanga is a set curriculum of poses so there is no invention beyond making choices to abbreviate the practice due to time constraints or the ability of the student. In Power Yoga, the instructor may write their own sequences.
Ashtanga eventually asks for self-led practice (known as Mysore style) of a student whereas Power Yoga encourages attending instructor-led classes.
Traditional Ashtanga contains no warm-up exercises prior to Sun Salutation A. Power Yoga offers warm-up exercises.
I suggest approaching Ashtanga as a curriculum to be learned and practiced over a long period of time. If certain poses are physically impossible in the near term, then skip them for now (or forever) so that you can practice and enjoy what is accessible and what is challenging. Spend time in the poses and really sense them. Try to understand what the muscles and bones are asked to do. “An attentive mind can make an intelligent body. A lazy mind makes a dull body.”
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is best practiced in the morning, 3 days per week or less. Traditionalists insist on 6 days per week, but that advice quickly leads to injury due to the stress of repetitive movement patterns. I recommend other exercises, such as calisthenics, weight lifting, and cardiovascular exercise for the other 3 to 4 days of activity.
Yoga is a wonderful vehicle for developing attention in the body. Due to the domination of the visual sense in our daily lives, people often have little sensation in their bodies. Yoga practice can become a meditation on the organic body and the means to develop the qualities of strength, flexibility, and resilience. Therefore, I say the primary metric of success in yoga practice is the growth of awareness, not the achievement of some pose.
Ahimsa - A principle of yoga is expressed in Sanskrit meaning “Do not harm.” I place safety first. I will stop a class if I observe unsafe movements in order to clearly explain the how and why of safe movement. Do not force the body into a pose without understanding anatomy and without sensing the muscles. Ask a professional with whom you share trust and open communication. Beware of and flee from authoritarian gurus.
Yoga is not a panacea. Yoga will not miraculously cure all ailments. That is also to say, repetitive practice of asana will not necessarily correct problems in the body, but may worsen some joint problems. Oftentimes, an individualized program of corrective exercise is needed in order to address muscle imbalances, areas of weakness, and past injuries. Also, some traditional poses have been revised to better address the needs of the commonly sedentary lifestyle. Supplemented with corrective work, yoga is an excellent system of exercise for almost everyone.
The metronome that determines the tempo of the yoga practice is one’s own breath. This is the meaning of the word “vinyasa.” The breath and movement should be as regular as possible. Five breaths might be too short of a period in which to explore and enjoy the pose, so use more time if you wish. Each person’s rhythm is unique, so I encourage you to honor your own.
Held yoga poses are isometric exercises in which muscles are intentionally held in coordinated tension with one another with little to no movement in the joints. This is achieved through holding still in a yoga pose for a period of time in order to intentionally contract the muscles against the resistance of gravity and leverage. Conscious contractions to strengthen the neuromuscular system and integrate the mind and body.
I suggest that you lead (step back) with the left foot during the period of lunar waning (from Full Moon to New Moon) and with the right during period of lunar waxing. The purpose of this advice is the prevention of repetitive stress injuries from always leading with the right side. It is part of the Ashtanga Yoga tradition to abstain from practice on the days of the Full Moon and New Moon, but observation of this is optional.
Sun Salutation A is the first and most essential sequence in Ashtanga Yoga. Here are my detailed instructions for each asana.
Stand in a neutral position with the spine erect and aligned. Press down through the heels and gently activate the gluteal muscles. The abdominal muscles will sympathetically engage. The pelvis should be held in a neutral position, without tipping forward or backward. The rib cage, shoulders, and head will likewise be balanced over the pelvis.
The bandhas (Uddhiyana Bandha and Mula Bandha) are also engaged, which stabilizes the connection between the pelvis and the rib cage. As a result of using the bandhas, the breath will move mostly out of the abdomen and into the rib cage. Use Ujjayi Breath, which is regulated breathing through the nostrils. The periods of the inhalation and the exhalations are of the same duration.
The drishti (focus of the gaze) is neutral and toward the horizon. The palms face the sides of the hips.
Exhale while in Samasthitihi then, with the inhalation, raise your arms upward in a circular motion until the palms press against one another. In the movement, the shoulder blades and rib cage are restrained downward. This maintains a mindful connection between the rib cage and the pelvis. The gluteal muscles engage to push the hips forward to create a slight back bend. The head tilts upward and the eyes look at the thumbs. With the slight back bend, the neck is permitted to lengthen without excessive extension.
With the exhalation, fold forward and downward. The knees unlock and the bandhas keep length through the midsection. The arms sweep downward in a circular motion until the palms rest on the ground beside the feet (or on your legs), fingers facing toward the top of the mat. The drishti is past the nose. Press down through the legs to keep create a dynamic stretch through the back of the body, including the hamstrings and along the spine.
With the inhalation, rise half-way. The lift is created by pressing down through the legs and lengthening the abdomen. The gluteal will also work to support the torso in this position. The spine should be straight. It is perfectly acceptable to bend the knees in order to release tension across the back of the legs and pelvis to permit the spine to straighten. Keep the neck neutral; that is to say, don't look forward. It is very useful to have a mirror for reference in this pose. It doesn't matter whether the hands are on the floor beside the feet or on somewhere on the legs. The most important action is to straighten of the spine.
With the exhalation, move into Plank Pose or the top of a push up. In this initial position, the middle or index fingers face forward and the hands are slightly wider than the shoulders. The elbows point backwards, not out to the sides. The shoulders are actively pulled away from the ears so they do not compress the neck nor rotate inward, collapsing the chest. This action engages the many muscles that support the shoulder blades while reducing tension in the neck. Note: With experience and speed, you may move from Ardha Uttanasana to the bottom of Chaturanga with one exhalation. If you wish and need to practice more slowly, then move into Plank Pose with the exhalation and then pause to inhale, then lower with the exhalation.
The main benefit of Chaturanga is to strengthen the arms and chest, so practice careful alignment. This alignment includes keeping the shoulder restrained, the elbows facing back and held near the rib cage, and the forearms perpendicular to the ground. You will lower forward over the hands. Go no deeper than a 90-degree angle in the elbows. This is the safest limit for most people. I prefer than my students set their knees down for Chaturanga in the beginning stages of their practice. Lower the shoulders forward to just before the limit of your strength. Don't collapse or fall; always stay in control of the body. You should feel the contractions in the deltoids, triceps, and pectoral muscles.
The gaze is past the nose, so the neck is in a neutral alignment.
Many students seem to focus on Chaturanga while rushing through Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. The former is the negative phase (like lowering a barbell in a chest press) and the latter is the positive phase (like pushing the barbell upward) of the two asanas. In this comparison to a chest press, you may see that this pose is also important. The movement is to extend the arms, while keeping the elbows pointing backward, until the arms are slightly bent. Do not lock out the elbow so you will continue to work the triceps, deltoids, and stabilizing muscles around the elbow joint. The shoulders are pulled back and down as the chest is opened and pushed forward. The gluteal muscles engage strongly to release the back and assist with the back bend.
Take your time with the inhalation and the movement. Keep a slowly, steady movement of the body in sync with the breathing through this pose. It is often overlooked.
In regard to the feet, the bottom of the toes support the lower body in Chaturanga and the top of the feet and toes support the body in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. There are a few ways to transition from one to the other. The first is to flip one foot at a time while extending the arms. The "pro" way is to roll over the toes. If most of your body weight is in your hands in Chaturanga, then it is easier to roll over the toes. Notice than in the transition from Chaturanga through Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to Adho Mukha Svanasana, feet generally start and return to the same location. I see students moving their feet forward in Adho Mukha Svanasana and this is unnecessary.
The gaze is past the nose at a 45-to-60-degree angle above the horizon. Notice that you are not to look straight up. That would create extreme neck extension and, combined with the careless speed with which most treat this pose, it likely results in unnecessary stress to the discs between the cervical vertebrae.
From Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to Adho Mukha Svanasana, flip the feet from the top surface touching the floor to the toes being tucked. This movement can be accomplished by rolling over the toes or flipping one foot at a time. Once the toes are on the floor, exhale while using the abdominal muscles to pull the hips back and up until the body is in an A shape.
Adho Mukha Svanasana is a difficult and technical pose, at least in the way that I present it. However, the technique that I prescribe will strengthen the shoulders, improve performance of arm-based poses (like arm balances) and reduce the risk of injury to the shoulders, back, and hamstrings.
In regard to the hands and forearms, place the hands slightly wider than your shoulders and spread the fingers comfortably. The index or middle fingers should point straight forward. Take a look at the wrists and arrange the bones of the forearms in a neutral-as-possible alignment with the hand bones. That is to say, the wrists do not show any compression on one side or the other (medial and lateral). In order to accomplish this, you must turn the elbows downward so they point back behind you. This alignment will engage your serratus anterior muscles, located along the sides of rib cage. Keep the elbows unlocked and slightly bent so the arm and shoulder muscles continue to work. Notice that this is very different than locking out the elbows and supporting the body primarily with the bones.
In regard to the shoulders, the upper back should open up so that the shoulder blades move laterally away from one another and there is no concavity between the shoulder blades. This will further engage the serratus anterior muscles, the teres muscles, and decompress the muscles of the uppermost shoulders and neck.
For the legs and spine, do not be concerned with pushing the heels to the ground. This usually leads the practitioner to make unfavorable compromises in their lower back. Instead, lengthen and stretch the spine. Accomplish this through lengthening the abdomen, paying attention to the distance between the lower ribs and the pelvis. There should be a gentle, natural curve in the lumbar spine. Mistakes here would be rounding the lower back upwards or over-expanding the abdomen so there is a deep downward-facing curve in the lower back.
The feet are approximately six inches apart and the knees face forward, rather than the usual tendency to allow them to rotate medially. The neck is relaxed and the drishti is back toward the navel.
Hold this pose for 5 breath cycles.
After the final exhalation, bring the feet forward to the hands. This movement can be accomplished by simply stepping the feet forward or jumping the feet forward or by "floating." Floating is an advanced transitional technique that requires a great deal of strength and coordination, so I will describe it in the future.
After briefly arriving in Uttanasana, inhale into Ardha Uttanasana. Be mindful to stretch and straighten the spine.
Exhale folding into Uttanasana. Pay attention to releasing the back of the legs and the spine.
The movement from Uttanasana to Urdhva Hastasana is taught in various ways. The description that follows will yield the least strain on the spine while improving the coordination of the lower body.
In Uttanasana, press the legs down actively so their muscles contract. Lengthen the abdomen forward and upward using the abdominal muscles, which presses you up halfway. From this point, contract the gluteal muscles to push the hips forward and straighten the body. Continue to contract the gluteal muscles to create a slight back bend while taking care to maintain integrity in the upper abdomen by avoiding over-expansion. In summary, use the muscles in this sequence to arrive to a standing position: legs, abs, glutes. The movement is performed with an inhalation and with the raising of the arms overhead until the hands touch. The drishti is focused on the thumbs.
With an exhalation, the arms return to the sides and the gaze returns to the horizon as the head arrives at a neutral alignment.
I am concerned about what I am unable to recall. You see, our state of consciousness varies according to the effect of moods, wakefulness, and substances. It is easier to remember something while drinking coffee that you learned while drinking coffee. This is a simple example of state-dependent memory.
The implications of this phenomenon are significant. Have you had this experience? I am dreaming along in a certain narrative. I wake up because my body moves or my dog disturbs me. Then I immediately return to sleeping and recover the thread of the dream's narrative. Finally, I awake and get out of bed. Soon, the memory of the dream fades into the air like the smoke of incense - the form is gone but the mood, like a scent, lingers throughout the day.
While awake, you seem to remember most of the experiences you've had while awake. So in dreaming, can you remember all of the dream experiences you've ever had? Why are you unable to recall all experiences from all states? If you are the sum of your experiences, then who are you if you are unable to remember all of them? It is this final question that concerns me.
G.I. Gurdjieff expressed his doubt that the average person possessed a central individuality which encompassed all states. Instead, he proclaimed, that the mind flickers between several states of consciousness, each with their own motivation and memory. This is a problem because in one state you might begin a new diet and, moments later, you are indulging sugar cravings while in a different state. It is the ability to remember yourself between states that is lauded as the first significant achievement of his system.
The methods of psychotherapist Peter A. Levine included shifting the state of consciousness of their clients. One such method is hypnosis, in which the patient submits to a return of memory of trauma. The physiology and emotions return along with the memory. The heart rate increases, sweat is produced, and the emotions flood back with great intensity. In this state, the therapist guides the patient to come to a new relationship with the traumatic memory so that healing may be effected.
Please realize that every memory and its emotional charge continues to affect you subconsciously. It lives on in a parallel state that you are not currently occupying. It is difficult to deal with this emotion while outside of its domain. You cannot resolve the smell of your dirty dishes from your bedroom. You must enter the kitchen. This is the reason for introspection, also known as meditation and self-observation. It is by reflecting on my states and navigating them that I unify fragmentary states of consciousness. It is through self-observation that I craft self-remembering. This process is of central importance in a spiritual practice. If you strive to occupy positive states only, then your aversion to the negative states of anger, fear, and lust will not cease their manifestation. Even worse, they will express themselves all the same while you remain blind to them. The examples in the real world are easily found. The murderous cop. The hateful politician. The licentious guru.
It takes a strong will to look into the deep shadow and even into the bright light. State-dependent memory also applies to transcendent states. People experience this in meditation as well as psychoactive drugs. They acquire some insight, perceive some essential truth, but then lose the memory of it when they fall out of that state of consciousness. In a common example, I see students falling asleep during meditation practice. Beginner students are usually able to occupy only two general states - wakefulness and sleep. However, there are many variations of those two states, such as being hyper-aware of the senses and being awake while the body is asleep.
My central concern, again, is if I am the sum of your experiences, then who am I if I am unable to remember all of them? I must be a fragment of the totality of myself. My hope is that there is a multidimensional, integrated intelligence which has available all my states and their state-dependent memories. I believe this is what sages mean by “one’s true nature.” My spiritual practice is to seek to experience this intelligence... and remember it.
A professional race car driver knows how his automobile works. He understands the principles of the internal combustion engine, how the gearbox works, and the calibration of the car's steering. He is able to achieve a high level of performance by comprehending his machine, its components and their function. Shocking to me, I have encountered sports athletes who lack a corresponding comprehension of their bodies. And the average person tends to have even less knowledge. I say it is important for the average person, and much more so the athlete, to acquire a certain level of knowledge of anatomy. This is my presentation on anatomy and exercise science, which I hope will be useful for most people and especially practitioners of yoga.
Every human being has basically the same machine, albeit with some genetic variations. This machine is made of intercommunicating systems of bone, muscle, fascia, nerve. The bones provide a structure and levers. The muscle moves the bones by acting across joints. The fascia binds the muscles and distributes force around the body. The nervous system communicates sensory input and commands the action of the muscles. These systems connect at specific locations. They communicate and act upon one another in specific ways.
Fascia binds and connects one part to another. The muscle tendon is one manifestation of fascia. The coating of the muscle and the interior coatings of bundles of muscle fibers are other forms of fascia. The fascia shapes itself to stresses, whether from activity or inactivity in a certain posture. Repetitive activity, such as cycling, will tend to thicken the fascia around the hips and lower back. This helps manage the forces of these activities but it will also lead to restriction of movement and, perhaps, lower back pain.
It should be in the proper amount and in the proper configuration to provide the overall healthiest support and range of motion. It is necessary to manage and shape the web of fascia and this is possible through various techniques.
There are four ways to manage tension in the body (without pharmaceuticals or other substances).
Stretching
Self-Myofascial Release
Reciprocal Inhibition
Mental Control
To manage tension correctly, you must consider both the neurological and the mechanical aspects of the neuromuscular system. In the neurological aspect, there are sensors in a muscle and they have two types. These sensors can become poorly calibrated, meaning that they no longer sense and react to reality in an optimally functional way. There are ways to correctly calibrate them. One type is the muscle spindle, which senses the change in length of the muscle and the rate of that change. The second sensor is called the Golgi tendon organ, which senses contraction and the rate of contraction in the muscle.
Stretching acts mechanically on the fascia and neurologically on the muscle spindle. Consider fascia to be like clothing. If you are trying to run in tight leather pants, then a lot of your labor will be spent on the resistance of those pants. Of course, you would rather run in elastic leggings that would provide both some support and freedom of movement. Stretching loosens the fibers of your fascia and encourages them to reform in a healthier way. The nervous system, specifically the muscle spindle, learns the range of motion from the stretching. Perhaps the muscle spindle has been calibrated to allow the muscle to be at a certain length. This education has come from both activity and the experience of the restrictions imposed by the fascia. For example, riding a bicycle that is too small won't allow the leg to fully stretch out at the end of a stroke. You can slowly reeducate the muscle spindle to allow the muscle to relax to a healthier length. And you can train it through exercise, especially by creating peak contractions, to shorten in such a way to create maximum force.
Abbreviated as SMR, self-myofascial release is commonly known as foam rolling or trigger point therapy. Like stretching, it acts on both the mechanical and neurological aspects of muscles. Through rolling a cylinder or sphere across a muscle, the fibers of the fascia are softened and reformed. The most important action though is on the Golgi tendon organ (GTO). The GTO senses the amount of pressure or contraction in a muscle. If you are trying to run in tight leather pants, the GTO will learn that the muscle is contracting to a certain level and likely not to its fullest possibility. Moreover, it will sense that the muscle cannot fully relax . This creates both upper and lower limits on the contraction of the muscle, which greatly limits how much power the muscle can create. Even if you remove those pants, the muscle will still operate within the limits that have been trained into it.
By putting artificial pressure on the muscle with an object, you create a false sense of contraction that can retrain the GTO to accept more tension and to permit greater relaxation. My method of SMR is pushing a tennis ball into a given muscle. It works magic. I have found that SMR first and stretching second is the best sequence for creating change.
Knowing this property of the nervous system allows you to relax one muscle by causing another to work. For example, by working the quadriceps, the hamstrings will relax. By working the shin muscles, the calves will relax. See the explanation on "Appropriate Labor" for more information on this.
You can learn to control the amount of tension in a muscle with your mind. This requires mental training, also known as meditation, of a certain kind. As you can imagine, this is immensely helpful for both health and sports performance.
Muscles communicate with one another to create a motion. Anatomists use a few terms to describe how the muscles act in concert with one another and it is helpful to learn them. The muscle that is doing the main work of a movement is called the "prime mover" or the "agonist." The muscles that assist the movement are called "synergists." The muscle that creates the opposite of the movement is called the "antagonist." An antagonist can help by stabilizing and decelerating a movement. "Reciprocal inhibition" means that when the agonist is working, the antagonist is not. "Altered reciprocal inhibition" describes a situation in which the muscles are poorly coordinated.
Yoga is described as “a mind-body exercise.” What is the mind to do in yoga practice?
Remember the asana
Monitor and direct the activity of the muscles and joints
Monitor and regulate breathing
Observe the emotions
1. In remembering the asana, you recall all of the instructions for the asana. You attempt to align your body with the ideal posture of the asana. You notice where the body has limitations, either temporary and solvable or permanent, and still seek the primary benefit of the pose.
2. I find that bodily awareness is greatly lacking in many people. The exceptions are those who are highly athletic, but even then they may be accustomed to moving the body without attention. For example, I have seen professional ballet dancers without attention in their bodies and thus their performance feels mechanical. The cause for this lack of attention lies with the inadequate instruction of their previous teachers (both in childhood and adulthood), who ordered them around like animals instead of patiently educating them in human anatomy and body mechanics.
Fortunately, the body is easily accessed because it is solid and always available. My introductory meditation techniques focus on developing basic body awareness for this very reason. Yoga practice is an excellent opportunity to develop it by monitoring and directing the activity of the muscles and joints. Under the skin, we have an incredibly complex web of musculature and it is worth studying in detail. When you intellectually know the anatomy, then vague sensations will sharpen into clear signals from specific muscles and your ability to direct the muscles will improve significantly. The neuromuscular awareness and control obtained in yoga practice will become available in other activities and in daily life.
3. The word “vinyasa” is defined by Ashtanga Yoga Master David Swenson as the integration of the act of breathing and that of movement. The movement of breath is the metronome beat for the performance of asana. You should continuously sense and regulate breathing in such a way that feels nurturing to your body. The main term for this method of breathing is “Ujaiyi,” which specifies gently constricting the glottis so the breath is more audible and sensible. By concentrating on the breath, the mind is stilled, as it would be in seated meditation practice.
Note: If your yoga teacher ignores the rhythm of the breath and provides you with too little or too much time for full inhalations and exhalations then move on your own time. If your yoga teacher discourages this, then you are in fact dealing with a poor aerobics instructor and not a teacher of yoga. For example, one of my students is a professional singer. She possesses remarkable skill in regulating her breath, so she tends to move at almost half the speed of the average student. I often praised her to the other students and explained the points above.
4. What goes on in your heart during yoga practice? I often experience surges of emotion and floods of memories in yoga practice. This is natural and helpful. Subtle energies do exist and our emotional states leave strong impressions upon them. Yoga, when practiced a true mind-body exercise, cleans and regulates the subtle energies.
It is important to distinguish between daydreaming and self-observation of emotions. Some days, you might simply be distracted and unable to concentrate. In this situation, do the best that you can to concentrate on the experience at hand. It is better to continue to practice poorly than not at all. In a state of concentration, emotions will arise. Pay attention to them. If you find it helpful, you might stay in the pose in order to better taste the experience and allow the process of purification to unfold.
You do not have “to do” anything with the emotions. Generally, experiencing them fully will allow the subtle energetic system to integrate and heal the total system. If you experience very powerful negative emotions or painful memories, then you will likely wish to seek the assistance of a psychotherapist and begin/increase a meditation practice.
When you are able to align bone, muscle, emotion, and mind, this is the greatest asana practice.
“As I said, the essence of correct man’s work is in the working together of the three centers - moving, emotional and thinking. When all three work together and produce an action, this is the work of a man.”
— G.I. Gurdjieff in Views from the Real World