Yoga with Elizabeth Silas

The Spaces Between

Diane Ackerman writes about poetry and psychotherapy in

this

excerpt from an article in the

New York Times

. She is

also, I

believe, writing about

yoga

...

So much of life falls between the seams of the sayable

It's

ironic that poets use words to convey what lies beyond

words,

that poetry becomes most powerful where simple

language fails,

allowing one to bridge the conscious and

unconscious, and even

festoon that bridge with sensations

and subterranean desires. In

a poem by Emily Dickinson, all

that may occur in a single word,

phrase or even line break.

Metaphor thrives in the spaces

between words. Of course,

psychotherapy and lyrical poetry

address many of the

same issues, and they

both create a space

where one can

explore one's relationship with oneself and

others. Both

require rules, tremendous focus, entrancement

and

exaltation, the tension of spontaneity caged by restraint,

the risk of failure and shame, the drumbeat of ritual, the

willingness to be shaken to the core

. So, though

refreshingly

different from each other, the two overlap in

companionable

places." (

NYT

6/3/2002)

It is also the practices of yoga -- postures, breathing,

meditation

-- that provide an opportunity to observe what

"falls between the

seams of the sayable."

he flowing, vinyasa-based forms of hatha yoga

emphasize

what lies

between

. Rather than just pay attention

to the

individual postures, ignoring what happens in between,

the yogi who focuses on breathing evenly and moving in

concert

with the breath realizes that what is between the

postures

matters. Soon she realizes that what is between

the breaths

matters, and what is between the thoughts

matters, as well. It is

these liminal moments that offer

opportunities to become aware

of more subtle aspects of

our experience.