About the best advice I could give anybody, the rest will sort itself out: (try yoga)

As one of my teachers said, Yoga is a 3,000 year old tradition, and it got that way because of an unbroken string of complete beginners. It is utterly spiritual, and almost without dogma. All it really ever says is just let go.

Imagine a line extending from the top of your head to the center of the planet. Pull on it at all times, keep your weight centered under it, and be grateful for it at all times, as your generous companion. Without it we would have no way to create a strong body. You could do worse than try and generalize this to life: treat every circumstance as an opportunity to grow toward your best, or at least add to your skillset; lose the desire to achieve, and instead just practice.

Lots of times you’ll hear two people who discover a common interest in yoga, and they’ll both burst with enthusiasm, exclaiming it changed their lives, even saved them, and they go on awhile in mutual bliss, then they find out they have studied completely different kinds of yoga. There is no single correct style, and even within a standard move you’ll find different teachers who emphasize opposite tactics, both with successful results. Still, the way to progress is to work hard on the basics. Some of them are so difficult that you may study your whole life and never truly master them; so what, you just always try, and accept. There are also things you can learn in a few minutes that can very well change every single thing that comes after.

One of the most amazing poses (or Asanas, pronounced AH-suh-nuhz), is Standing Pose. Studying this pose has completely changed the way I walk. To an observer, you are standing straight, maybe a little stiffly, but otherwise just standing there, unbent. Meanwhile, it doesn’t take long to break a sweat. There are around twenty things to be aware of, and no doubt twenty more after that. In the beginning, doing any three at once is a triumph. The main thing ever to do is keep long, even breaths; if you stop, just start again. Let curiosity replace effort.

Always, always: the main thing is the breath: without strain follow it in, let it mingle and mix, without need let it go out, relax empty, then repeat. Life.

Let's start at the floor. Stand with insteps parallel, about hip width apart (6-8” or so). Inhale gently but fully, lift your toes, spread them wide, then then as you exhale put them down, little toes first. Push down strongly with both feet, equally (very, very difficult, but just try) on the insides and outsides of both heels and forefeet, eight points altogether (like many things in yoga, at first it takes great concentration to get even a little going, but, if you stay with it, in time, unfamiliar things become, well, more familiar). While doing this, pull up strongly through the the arches of the feet (from a point under the arches: try it, see what point/s feel most prominent). Work these two energies off each other as best you can.

Now, keeping legs straight, but not hyperextended, very strongly pull the kneecaps up the front of the thighs. You’re doing it right when you feel the other end of the muscle chain pulling the front of your lower spine forward into your body. This is the psoas muscle (silent p); it is the anchor to your entire lower back. Learn to use it all the time; eventually different muscle control will develop and you can keep your tailbone much closer to your centerline. (You should pretty much never allow your lower back to arch back; later, for any back bends, keep the tailbone long and buried strongly forward, and bend only the legs, from the hip joint.)

Rotate your hands, so the thumbs go first forward and then out to the sides, then all the way back; the insides of your elbows should now be facing forward, or even slightly outward, and your upper arms should be rolling well back along the sides of the ribs, opening the front of the chest. Inhale, and try to make all the shapes and spaces you are creating larger. The, release and exhale.

Keep your upper arms rotated outward, then rotate your hands back in so the palms face the thighs. Lengthen your fingers. Relax your face, let your eyes soften completely, watching along the sides of your nose as the breath goes steadily in and out.

Next, try and move your shoulderblades down and a little back, letting the tops rotate outward and move apart while the bottoms move down. At the same time, lift and open the ribs, and keep the kidneys soft and buoyant to avoid overarching. The midback moves forward into the torso, while the upper body moves up and back, now centered over and balanced on the middle spine, rather than hanging off it as before. Allow the front of the chest to broaden and open, and create ease and space around the heart. Never compress your spine; if you arch back, you do so by lenghtening and opening the front of the spine, always filling tensions with breath, and awareness.

Pull your armpits high, while letting your shoulders drop back and down. Make your shoulders as wide as possible, while pulling your arms into the joint. Lengthen your arms toward the ground, while pulling the bicep up into the shoulder socket. Only lengthen your arm, do not hyperextend.

Try to lift the creases between the legs and groin, and pull them into the hip joint, lifting and closing the entire base of the abdomen (again, it's unfamiliar at first, but gradually practice leads to ease).

Now, try to do it all, just cycle through: pull/push your feet, lengthen your fingertips and suck your armpits up, and pull your kneecaps up some more. And make your neck long and tall, and soften your jaw. And relax and breathe. Then go around again, and again. There's plenty more, but this is the basic pose, and a basic introduction to proper posture. Just practice; soon all of this will be completely second nature.

If I took my own advice and spent ten minutes a day in this pose...

"U Jai" breathing: one of the simplest things,yet also one of the most effective. Like much of yoga, it sounds a bit iffy at first, but with a little practice it works like a charm: as you exhale, make a strong "hhaaahhh" sound, a smooth even hiss in the back of your throat. Now, close your mouth, and try and make the same noise while exhaling through your nose. Totally foreign at first, but you’ll get it if you try. Then try and develop it on the inhale as well; it will come. Work toward making both equal and steady, flat in, flat out, and as loud as you can without overdoing it. Do this for awhile and your ears will start to buzz, and your mind will give itself a nice little vacation. I try and do this whenever it occurs to me; it’s a powerful relaxer. It’s also an effective tactic when stress hits, like usually.

Even simpler, and even more powerful, is this. Yes, it sounds really cheesy, but done well it’s quite the handful. On the inhale, imagine that the energy is coming from absolutely everywhere, and as it comes in, think to yourself "YES! YES! YES!", letting the energy fill you and mingle with all of you, becoming your life. As you exhale, release it all to everywhere, die just a little, and think to yourself "thank you, thank you, thank you." By about the third breath you should feel your entire body contracting and expanding. I tend to get so blown out by it that it's kind of hard to focus enough to do five complete breaths, it's that effective. Yeah, you think you know, but try it, watch what happens. Told you so.

This eternal energy you’ll be swimming in is called Prana. The sooner you get addicted to it, the less effort it will take to make time for yoga. I basically try and work toward it whenever it occurs to me, pure energy, for free, all the time. Whenever I walk, I try to incorporate the above standing pose element into that anyway I can (soft knees, push down with your feet rather than back with your legs).

One VERY cool thing I learned: let your awareness go to your bones, start with the thigh bones. We always ignore them completely, focussing on the soft parts, but man, there is such a well of lifeforce there, expect to be quite surprised. When I remember to, I use it quite effectively to displace nagging body anxiety; why struggle to solve a problem when you can utterly pre-empt it.

At the end of every class is the final cooldown meditation, called Savasana (shuh VAH sunna), or corpse pose, "for preparing us all for that moment when each of us will be asked to let go" (shiver); there, you try to enter and maintain "witness/observer consciousness", meaning that you do not attempt to direct your thoughts in any way, but only observe them, uninvolved, continually retreating. It is the most incredible experience, actually quite difficult to do (concentrate on not concentrating), but trying is allowed, and sufficient. go for at least five minutes, and stay right on it as best you can: withdraw, withdraw, withdraw, just figure out how to do it, and do it over and over and over.

A

It’s important to choose your teachers well, so ask around. Without the right guidance, you can seriously injure yourself in just a few seconds. Seriously, shredded for life, just like that. I hear classes at fitness clubs can often stray into competitiveness and such; it isn’t yoga if it’s about striving. It’s about going to your limits, backing off slightly and just relaxing and breathing there. It doesn’t require pretzel action or strain, just focus on form.

The style I learned is Hatha, and in the vinyasa style, which means a series of moves linked to the breathing cycle. If your teacher doesn’t build it all on a strong foundation of breathing, find another one.

NYC recommendations: for beginners, I loved Jivamukti on Lafayette, $18 w/mat, steep but utterly priceless; of late political bungling there has me a little turned off. Christopher Hildebrandt (who now runs Yoga Sutra) was my first teacher there: intense, but worth it just to meet him; he’s not entirely of this world, magical in his own inimitable way. I’ve also had good experiences at Om Yoga (especially Lippy, what a delightful nut, and Jonathan Gordon, who now has his own studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Schuyler's Kula Yoga is down closer to Wall Street; if you can catch Tanya Uhlmann there, do, what a gem. Elena Brower is also excellent; she also has a fine instructional double-CD out (for non-beginners only). AFTER you get a solid grounding in Basics, you can search for DVDs, which is a great way to save money.

I waited to start yoga until I felt really ready to commit to it. Ten minutes into my first class (my eternal thanks to Christopher), I knew I was absolutely bitten for life. Wish I’d known that was going to happen; I’d have stumbled in years ago. A little pissed off about it actually, but that’s just another attachment to let go of.

It can be a little annoying in the beginning as you’ll just feel stiff and grumpy about it; very often my muscles fail before the pose is counted out. Whatever: quitting doesn’t help, continuing might. I often wish class would be over almost as soon as it starts, but I want my practice, not gonna give it up over some pain.

Also be warned that the first month or so can involve a lot of deep emotional releases, and can leave you more than a little unsettled and volatile. This is a good thing; it shows that old stale crap is getting moved into the light and/or drain. So drink extra water, and watch that temper. It’s also fairly common to cry or shiver in classes, especially at the resting pose at the end; just by gentle breathing and letting go, so much release is possible, like, out of nowhere. Sometimes I’ll just be sitting there, not twisting, and my lower spine will give it up: crack. Mmmmm.

Also be warned that your entire life will start to change a lot. Be prepared for friends to see you on the street, and light up and wonder what the hell is so different about you.

Regardless, whatever reasons and goals you bring to yoga class, try and check them at the door; come only to do yoga, and the rest will sort itself out.

As the yoga expands into your home and life, we come to Feng Shui.