#mulabhanda

I have a new found appreciation of the bhandas having attended a 4 hour workshop on them run by Karen. I have come to the conclusion as a result of this workshop that I shall develop my awareness of the bhandas not just to some day be able to lift myself up/over/away from my mat which in time I hope to do, but more because I think I now understand that they offer a way to a stronger connection with our bodies and therefore the capacity to practice with a greater integrity. Integrity was a word that popped up a lot during the workshop.

For this blog I’m going to write about mula bhanda in particular as we talked a lot about it in the second course weekend of the TTC during which I had the sudden realisation that I had not been practising with a conscious connection to mula bhanda.

“I never feel mula bhanda during practice” I found myself admitting.

Sure I had been trying to bring integrity to the movements and postures in my practice by drawing my navel to my spine and engaging my core but to be honest the deeper elements of the bhandas had not been at the forefront of my mind. I know about them, have done for a while and have been to a lot of classes where teachers have reminded me to engage with the bhandas by often quickly throwing in the statement ‘mula bhanda and uddiyana bhanda’ but they remained quite under appreciated in my mind.

Bhandas I have now realised are not so baffling, but are somewhat brilliant. They are neither elusive nor an optional extra but are as important as the breath. The term bhanda relates to the word 'bond’ and as with almost everything related to yoga it is another tool for creating unity. The concept of 'breath, bhandas and drishti’ has taken me a long time to understand possibly because I have been a bit of a vinyasa yoga person rather than a dedicated Ashtangi. I hadn’t realised the role of bhandas in relation to prana or realised that posture, breath and bhanda bond together to produce a seal of prana.

Mula bhanda relates to the pelvic floor and the root chakra and as such translates as 'root lock’. Gregor Maehle states that,

“By slightly contracting the pubo-coccygeal muscle, which goes from pubic bone to tailbone, we create an energetic seal that locks prana into the body and so prevents it from leaking out the base of the spine.”

Mula bhanda takes a lot more focus for me but I have realised how powerful it is after finally managing to use it during my practice finally. I became aware towards the end that during a vinyasa I engaged the bhandas for certain postures but not all and so I tried to remedy that. I’m not able to 'jump through’ (yet!) but when I did switch on mula bhanda it suddenly opened up the possibility that maybe I wasn’t as far off it is thought. Moving upwards and forwards while holding mula bhanda brought a lightness and ease to the movement. Rather than trying to haul myself back up to the top of my mat, by suctioning and drawing everything up I seemed to find the antidote to gravity.

Using the bhandas, I discovered the amazing ability to suction my tummy area in so it almost disappeared into itself in an empowering combination of body / breath / energy. Engaging mula bhanda in core exercises brings a whole new level of intensity to them. It’s such a small action in a sense but so transformative. By creating an enhanced connection to that area I hope to remedy a long standing detachment I’ve had from it which I think has held me back.

So to conclude, my new found appreciation of the bhandas and intention to focus on using them in my whole practice has given me a bit of a boost. I now feel that I have woken up a part of me that would otherwise be asleep and as a result of creating space and lift with the bhandas, I feel like I have more access to move into new postures over time. I’m going to endeavour to hold mula bhanda throughout my whole practice with more words from Gregor Maehle as a reminder,

“Every posture needs to grow out of its root.”