In yoga, it's essential to apply effort in a directed and meaningful way.
As a yoga student, if you're not seeing or feeling real tangible, measurable results, if you are not experiencing your body undergoing restoration and transformation, I can confidently say it is because you're not correctly targeting your efforts.
This is a problem I see a lot, not only in beginners but in experienced students and even yoga teachers, believing it's all in the journey.
The Quest for Clearly Visible Progress in Yoga Practice
I can assure you that nothing sharpens your abilities as a yoga teacher quite like owning a group of yoga studios in central London, where just covering rent and business rates requires over a quarter million pounds turnover. And that's before paying a team of 40 yoga teachers.
Attracting a new student is only the beginning; retaining them is the real challenge. If students don't see measurable results, if they don't experience their bodies undergoing restoration and transformation, they will leave. No amount of love, affection, or assurances about the value of the journey will keep them.
As a studio owner, I realized the necessity of enhancing yoga's effectiveness in order to retain students. It wasn’t easy. However, judging by the testimonials I've received, the method I now use is far more effective at helping students of all ages and abilities, restore and transform their bodies, improving performance in sports and daily life.
This achievement wasn't due to any magical superpower. It was the result of connecting with thousands of students, providing me with a wealth of data points to identify the most effective techniques. I also had access to the latest advancements in sports performance and anti-ageing, coupled with a personal desire to address my own mobility issues.
The Barrier to Break Through in Yoga
By far, the biggest issue yoga students grapple with is not their physical or emotional challenges; it's that their mind is scattered all over the place, unsure precisely where to target their efforts.
What they lack is a clear, unequivocal single point of focus.
However, this problem does exist in sports.
The Contrast Between Yoga and Sports Focus
Take tennis as an example: the primary goal is straightforward, which is to return the ball effectively so that the opponent can't respond. While mastering technique, form, and breath control are crucial for enhancing one's tennis skills, these are not the main focus during a match.
This signal-focused nature of sports leads to a meditative state known as 'flow.' This state represents the peak of awareness, balance and harmony, where mind, body, and spirit are seamlessly integrated.
But typically, in yoga, students don't have a signal unequivocal point of focus like there is in sports. Once a new student has learnt the basic framework of the postures, which is akin to a tennis player learning how to hold a racket, they get lost as to where to go next. So they end in a beginner's mindset, fixated on improving their alignment or in getting their body to go deeper into a posture, which is akin to a tennis player continually trying to improve their racket-holding technique.
The TriEnergy Focus Strategy
Once a student has learnt the basic framework of the postures, which takes no time at all, I introduce them to the TriEnergy Focus Strategy, emphasizing where to direct their focus.
It is a signal unequivocal point of focus.
Standing, seated, forward bends, back bends, twisting, balancing, inversions or prone poses, it doesn't matter what posture a student is doing; when they embody a TriEnergy Focus, they no longer feel stuck in a rut.
With a clear, single, unequivocal point of focus, it is incredible what the mind-body will achieve.
Your effort should be directed precisely at the central point.
The TriEnergy Focus Strategy concentrates your efforts on balancing three key emotional states, channelling them directly to the core of your posture: Power, Control, and Relaxation.
Power: In any yoga posture, regardless of body positioning, maintaining a sense of power is crucial. When the body is in a state of empowerment, it naturally embodies an open, expansive structure. It is basic primaeval programming. It ensures the joints and the spine are loose and open so the body can better coordinate movement, such as to initiate a quick getaway or defensive manoeuvres.
Control: This brings me to the feeling of being fully in control. When you evoke a sense of power, it's vital to have complete control over it; otherwise, the power turns destructive. In terms of body engagement, this destruction manifests as tension. Control involves taming your energy, directing it precisely where needed while ensuring the body doesn't produce tension.
Relaxation: This is the final aspect of the TriEnergy Focus Strategy. You must feel completely relaxed at all times. If not, a large amount of your energy is wasted in overcoming the resistance of body tension. If your neuromuscular system is constantly battling with tension, injuries or pain are inevitable, and the concept that yoga is a journey becomes a reality.
Understanding the Neuromuscular Response to Correct Targeted Effort in Yoga
So why does this work so well? I am sure you know the brain creates more neurological pathways about the things we focus on the most. So, if you concentrate most of your effort on attaining a specific body alignment or improving a stretch, you might not fully realize how much your neuromuscular system is resisting. This resistance often manifests as body tension as the body attempts to counteract these demands.
The body naturally resists when pushed beyond its comfort zone to achieve deeper stretches or forced into an ideal alignment. Training a dog in such an intense manner would be unkind, and the result would not be a lively, energetic, and joyful pet.
Rooted Yoga Ideologies
In styles like the hot 26+2, which I personally favour, this is a classic problem. In fact, in Bikram yoga, you are encouraged to ignore when the body is fighting back, with lines like “A tight body is a light body”. A tight body is, in fact, an inefficient body. Ask any boxer, MMA fighter or gymnast, and they tell you how much effort they put into being loose and relaxed, never tight.
Observing and eliminating tension requires focused attention; if not, you are, by definition, fighting against your neuromuscular system and will quickly burn yourself out or develop an injury.
Conversely, the more relaxed so-called healing styles don’t promote sufficient energy for the body to restore and transform. Energy is waves of potential. Healing requires targeted, controlled energy. Yes, you are unlikely to injure yourself in these more relaxed styles, but you are also unlikely to restore and transform yourself.
Rehabilitate and Evolve the Mind & Body in Yoga
If you are, which I am sure you are, seeking to restore and transform your mind-body so it can perform better in daily life, the TriEnergy Focus Strategy gets results every signal time, without fail. This Tri-Energy approach fosters an empowered relationship with the body where the body works with you, not against you. No matter if you are suffering from an injury, trauma, stress or, as in my case, arthritis hips and lower spins, all your time and effort will yield the results you’re looking for.
The body can achieve remarkable things with a clear single point of focus.
With this enhanced mind-body relationship, the body adapts and evolves; over time, alignment and enhanced body positioning naturally fall into place. This is because you and your body are working together, not against each other.
The same thing happens when learning to play the guitar. Once you fuse the basic techniques into muscle memory, you must stop thinking like a beginner, focusing purely on technique. You have to move on to playing music. Then, your technique naturally and effortlessly improves.
Having a single point of focus does not magically make everything easy; rather, it prevents you from aimlessly wandering in circles, thus avoiding the waste of time and energy. As with all things in life, achieving results demands hard work.
Wrapping Up
So to recap, when doing any yoga posture, focus your efforts on balancing Power, Control, and Relaxation. Think of them as three emotions. Targeting these three emotions right at the central spot, channelling them directly to the core of your posture. Remember, even in rounding inward posture like Rabbit pose you are to maintain a sense of expansive power. You are never squeezing inward.
Once the body has learned the fundamental structure of the poses, which takes no time at all, this focused tri-energy mindset becomes your practice. It's challenging, yet the results you'll experience are genuine and palpable.
Please try it, and in the comment section below, tell me how you got on.
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