#flowyoga

An Interview With Josie Sykes

Drop in to almost any yoga class these days which features physical practice (asana), and you will hear some mention of the word ‘alignment’. And most probably it will be paired with a word like ‘proper’ or ‘correct’.

Proper alignment. That means: “Feet hip width.” “Shoulders over wrists.” “Neck and head in line with the rest of the spine.” You can do it right, or you can do it wrong, in which case you will likely be corrected.

Alignment functions to keep bodies safe as we move through postures. But in asking all bodies to comply in the same way, could alignment also impose a system of hierarchy and rules, establishing one dominant right, correct, or proper way of moving?

It can get a little confusing.

So I sat down with Svaha Yoga’s senior teacher Josie Sykes to learn more about the concept of alignment, what it can do for us and how it might limit us in our practice – and what kinds of alternatives can keep our bodies safe during asana while opening up new possibilities for liberation.

Alex: Let’s start with talking about alignment, the concept or principle often held up as a guideline for how to practice properly with the body. What do you think of alignment as a guide for asana practice?

Josie: I think alignment of the body within a vigorous vinyasa practice is important in terms of keeping bodies safe. But outside of a vigorous modern practice I don’t think it is necessarily important. I think breathing and listening well enough will bring the body to alignment.

In talking about alignment, I have the flavour of being brought to heel, being brought under a set of rules that everyone complies to. Although in some sense when I think about aligning with something it feels like a kind of voluntary pleasurable experience, at the same time it also brings to mind an idea of everyone submitting to a standard set of rules.

For example, at a certain point in practicing asana I needed permission from a female teacher to stand with my feet hip width instead of together. I think that says something about a hierarchical way of teaching yoga in which the teacher knows everything rather than a pedagogy that asks for experience and exchange. That is actually very strange, given that the physical practices of yoga are so much about embodied experience.

I suppose I’m suggesting yoga as a territory where being correct or being absolutely free are mutually exclusive. So let’s step back from this idea of getting it right or being correct and look instead to freedom.

Alex: It seems like ‘alignment’ then has to do with much more than only the position of the body, if it also connects to social systems like hierarchy, education, or regulation. Does alignment have a cultural meaning?

Josie: I think it reflects a bigger way that society functions, which is about aligning with a certain philosophy of how the body must be in order to have approval within a system. Certainly, as women, (though more lately also for men), we know bodies are subjected to alignment with principles about how the female body is supposed to be. I strongly believe that is rooted in a kind of religious structure, and the male gaze - bigger functions of current society. Because really it is only very recently that we were told “this is how it should be”, with noncompliance corrected within a class.

Alex: What other tools do you draw on aside from to guide asana practice, as an alternate to the system proposed by ‘alignment’?

Josie: Perhaps it is something like this: acceptance that there is a form, and also a realization that because each of our bodies are different that form has space within it as well. Which is interesting in terms of how yoga asana is described by Patanjali in terms of sthira and sukha (YS II.46). Sthira sukhamasanam proposes asana in terms of a boundary, a steadiness which supports a moveability or spaciousness. If we engage with Patanjali in this way, it already tells us in fact that within form there is space for movement.

And practicing this way – sthira sukhamasanam - you recognize the importance of the equality of two things, in which one of those things cannot be more important than the other. You can’t have one without the other successfully or healthily. If one is more dominant than the other, things are not at ease for either side of the equation.

Alex: Is this where the breath comes in?

Josie: Yes. I think breathing in specific ways which respect the equality of sthira and sukha, and listening well enough to the breath, will keep the body safe. What I find useful about alignment is that it does definitely help to prevent injuries. But I think breath, proper listening to breath, can do this as well. Because the breath will speak to you before the rest of the body speaks to you, if you listen to it well enough.

In the breath, the equality of the inhale and exhale is also arguably the equality of sthira and sukha, or of the masculine and feminine. This is the equality of the qualities of the body, or the pose, or the state of mind, or the breath. If we guide movement with the breath then we naturally align the body in ways that are equally sthira and sukha.

Alex: Do you feel then that practicing with sthira and sukha, and the breath, as a guide, can have some impact off the mat?

Josie: I think so. It can change our thinking. For instance, if we have this intimate listening possibility with the breath first of all, because it makes us receptive to our experience, it has a broader reflection out it teaches us receptivity out there as well. And then we can stand very strongly in ourselves because we listen and understand what’s going on internally, or at least we see our reactions to everything that’s going on around us.

When we have trained ourselves in that kind of receptivity it naturally brings those skills of intimacy out into the world. In that way every relationship we have is grounded in an intimacy with ourselves and that is very natural, and so that is extended outwards. So I do think that it is possible for these practices to have bigger implications; it is possible and absolutely radical.

Alex: This model certainly sounds a long way from the compliance based system or alignment. Any final thoughts?

Josie: I think if everyone was practicing in these kinds of ways to listen clearly to ourselves rather than all that external input, it would be the foundation for a new feminism and a new masculinity. We would be moving together from the same place and able to express ourselves, because we understand ourselves so well.

Alex Niemeijer - Brown, teacher / lecturer,  Svaha Yoga Amsterdam