Why do we focus on alignment?
You’ve likely heard that yoga is not first and foremost about the physical poses (asana), or that yoga is much more than a physical practice. Maybe you’ve even heard this from the very same teacher who gives you detailed alignment cues for every pose during class. So what’s the deal? If yoga is more than a physical practice, why does it seem like there is so much focus on alignment–on where your foot goes, the angle of your pelvis, the position of your shoulders?
There are three main reasons we as yoga teachers focus on alignment of the physical body, none of which have to do with poses looking a certain way, or achieving the “fullest expression” of a pose:
Safety. This one is pretty obvious. Focusing on alignment can help make sure that you come into, hold, and come out of the pose safely, protecting joints and minimizing the risk of injury. Making sure, for example, the front knee is aimed over the second toe in Virabhadrasana (Warrior) 2 is a way to prevent that knee from collapsing inward and putting strain on the knee.
Presence: I don’t know about you, but if I am attending to what my feet, legs, hips, navel, tailbone, torso, shoulders, and arms are doing in Virabhadrasana (Warrior) 1, I am not worrying about that presentation I have to give next week or the email I sent this morning or whether I am a good mother. I can’t help but be present right here, right now, in my body. And that alone brings me relief. It creates distance between me and my habitual thought patterns–maybe enough distance to bring a change in perspective on aspects of my life off the mat.
Facilitating an experience: Yes, it takes work and focus to come into Virabhadrasana I or Trikonasana (Triangle), but once students have put in all of that effort to get there, my invitation to them is to surrender to the experience of the pose–to the feeling of rooting to rise, of expansion and spaciousness, or of energetic lift, or turning inward, or building heat. The alignment cues are the means to help us arrive in a pose, but the point of being in the pose is to experience ourselves in our bodies and to maybe learn something about ourselves from that experience. It’s to let the pose teach us!
To be sure, some teachers focus more on alignment than others, but rest assured the goal is never that the pose look a certain way, or that everyone achieves some textbook expression of a pose. Alignment cues, like the physical poses they support, are ingredients for helping students practice observing, being curious about, and connecting with themselves in new ways. And that’s the purpose of yoga.
