How to give yoga exercises a center of movement

The spine forms the inner central axis of the body. We cannot see it, but we can still integrate and consciously use the spine in yoga exercises. Heinz Grill has linked the seven chakras to seven different centers in the spine – giving us seven ways to consciously influence and shape the yoga exercises, to center them.

He assigns the middle of the spine to the 3rd center, the manipura chakra, which ensures and can promote the resilience and support of the entire spine. This center of the spine can lend great strength and expansiveness to the entire yoga practice.

The development of the center can, to a certain extent, be significantly promoted with the help of exercises. The practitioner distinguishes the periphery of the body from the center of the spine and develops movements that are best placed in the center and flow centrifugally outwards from the center to the periphery.”

The seven periods of life and the seven chakras, Heinz Grill

Without an integrated spine and without an awareness of the spine, we tend to move the arms or legs in a more decentered way. We move the arms, the legs, but we lack a connecting axis, a connecting center. We move towards a point, but we don’t start from a center.

The breadth and dynamic expansion of the yoga exercise is then missing. We cannot center the power and use all the possibilities of our strength.

We can see the limbs, but we have to consciously imagine the spine in order to work with it. The first point is to differentiate between the periphery and the inner axis. Then we select a specific center, for example the middle of the spine, and work on it. Finally, a centripetal flow is created from the center outwards.

In this way, the spine can lend the entire posture tension and expansion. All parts of the body are integrated. The exercise now has a beginning, an inner center, an inner support and a centrifugal flow. It has a dynamic effect and radiates vitality.