On Kitties & Doggies

Yoga What Can YOU Learn From Kitties & Doggies About Yoga?

HELLO! . . . Welcome to the Extended Version of Part 1 of Your e-Course on:

The 7 NATURAL LAWS Of YOGA
From the DSL Let-Go Yoga Perspective
by David Scott Lynn

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Have you ever watched little Kitties and Doggies when they're not sleeping or resting? (Well, sometimes they even do this when they are sleeping!) . . .

What do they do A LOT the time? . . .

And human babies? . . .

What do they do that's similar . . . a LOT of the time? . . .

One thing is that when Kitties and Doggies are born, they soon start stretching quite a bit. . . . And so do human babies. . . . Everyone I know who has children agrees on that.

Human babies stretch . . . A LOT.

No, its not a yoga pose in the classical sense, and its not very conscious, if at all. (Some would argue this point, yet as Ken Wilber points out, there is a BIG difference between the pre-personal consciousness of the very young child and the personal or trans-personal consciousness of the adult.

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Some people assume that childlike consciousness is somewhat the same as higher states of adult consciousness. They do so because, they think, the child lives in a state of more-or-less egolessness. And a few people hold egolessness to be a very high and desirable state.

While this has a grain of truth to it, the brain and mind of a child have not developed or programmed most of the structures necessary to process the data flowing through their senses and nervous systems.
Their messages from the world around them are undifferentiated, just one big mass of sensations, colors and sounds. The same is true of their inner sensations.

The very young child cannot interpret or do much of anything with what they are **conscious** of in their ego-less state. The child does not yet know that they know, they are not aware of awareness, nor can they . . . yet.

The adult can interpret, understand and apply what they are aware of, the child cannot. And it appears to take a good 20 to 25 years before all the necessary nerve structures and programming are fully developed.

Many New Age thinkers mistake pre-personal, infantile consciousness for a transpersonal consciousness that only a fully developed adult can achieve. The pre-personal child has no capacity for responsibility, the transpersonal adult has full responsibility.

As one Buddhist Teacher said years ago, you have to become SOMEBODY before you can be NOBODY.

BY-THE-WAY . . . I am firmly NOT in the anti-ego camp, although it is clear that egos CAN get out of control. I believe it is the MIS-USE of ego that is the problem, not its existence. We MUST have self-identities to survive and prosper in this world, and ego is the very fabric of self-identity. As Krishnamurti once pointed out, many of the supposed implications of various ideas from the East are actually MIS-Translations of ancient ideas. Too, the idea that we can do without ego is a very egotistical.
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Stimulation Of Physical/Mental Growth:
This wide variety of seemingly random action constantly explores and expands the range of possibilities of movement. The movements initiate sensory/motor — including neuromuscular & myofascial — activity, establishing foundations for nerves, muscles, fascia and other body systems, including brain development.

Constant reaching, gripping and movement — and stretching — serve nature's intent to expand the capabilities of the young human being. Without this initial activity, these physical — and most mental — developments would not easily happen, if at all.Constant reaching, gripping and movement — and stretching — serve nature's intent to expand the capabilities of the young human being. Without this initial activity, these physical — and most mental — developments would not easily happen, if at all.Constant reaching, gripping and movement — and stretching — serve nature's intent to expand the capabilities of the young human being. Without this initial activity, these physical — and most mental — developments would not easily happen, if at all.

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According to **Job's Body** by Deanne Juhan*, the nervous system and brain emerge and grow from the skin inward, not from the core out. The ectoderm, one of the three kinds of cells that first develops soon after conception, is the foundational material for the skin, superficial fascia, nervous system, and brain.

This means that stimulation in the periphery of the body — sensation in the skin and activity in the muscles — sends increasing numbers of nerve impulses to the core of the central nervous system and brain. Like any kind of exercise, this drives the development of these nerve structures. The higher the quality of these sensations — the more pleasurable and more organized the activity, rather than painful, irritating and disharmonious activity — the higher the development of the growing child.

Conversely, primitive impulses begin to arise from the inner reaches of the body which further stimulate this activity. This activity is more random in nature. Impulses from inside reach out, and proper training and education from the outside work inward. It works both ways.

This piece of information explains, for example, why more health care workers and researchers are discovering that infant massage can be an excellent, maybe even critical, thing to do for the developing infant and child.

More research is coming out with small children doing some yoga. The results certainly appear to be positive and promising.

*One of THE BEST ways to get a basic understanding of the physiology that applies to bodywork, yoga and related bodymind practices is Deanne's book, **Job's Body.** I use it as a text in my programs.
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Inner Urgings & Good Feelings:
Now, have you ever noticed yourself getting the spontaneous urge to start reaching and stretching your body, even if only for a moment or two? . . . And it usually feels really good, right? . . . And you just naturally take a big long sigh with it too, don't you?

(Just writing that — even re-reading it — makes me want to do it!)

And have you ever seen other people do the same thing? . . . I would bet the vast majority of us find ourselves doing that AT LEAST once in a while, wouldn't you?

Now, one BIG difference between kitties and doggies and us humans is they keep stretching as they get older. Most humans do not, except for that occasional impulsive stretch I just mentioned.

My observation is that we humans have a subtle sensory IMPULSE to stretch built into our body, by nature, from birth (if not before), and it is strong enough when we are young to make us stretch spontaneously.

Impulse vs. Instinct:
But most animals have a pre-programmed, behavioral INSTINCT to keep doing it. We humans have the impulse, but NOT the instinct. There is a BIG difference between impulses and instinctual behavior, and humans have very few TRUE instincts.

Because of our more highly developed cerebral cortex — the consciously thinking, inner-talking part of the brain, as soon as we wake up in the morning, our self-talk usually over-rides our more subtle impulses. And since we do not then feel the impulse to stretch — at least not consciously — we don't stretch.

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On Instincts and Impulses:
An Instinct is, strictly and scientifically speaking, a pre-programmed, fixed pattern of behavior that is a specific response to a specific stimuli.

In animals, their behaviors are pre-programmed at birth to act in certain ways to certain things. These responses can be modified somewhat with enough training, and some instincts are not triggered unless they have certain environmental experiences. But they cannot change their own behavior.

An impulse, on the other hand, creates a stimulus, or irritation, or drive to do certain things. Yet the behavior is optional, and can be over-ridden, or not even noticed, by the person having them.

Reflexive actions are a lower level (low-level complexity, anyway) reaction to stimulus that approaches or approximates instinctual behavior. When the infant sucks his or her mother's nipple, for example.

Most people, when they talk about acting on their instincts, are really talking about FEELINGS and IMPULSES they have, not actions. Then, they choose to either go with that feeling, or not. Or, they are really referring to an intuition or habitual, learned behavior that FEELS like it has been a part of them forever. But the true instinct is rare for humans.

If you can choose to go with an impulse or not, then it is probably not an instinct.

This lack of instinctual behavior, on the other hand, is what allows for the wide variety of new possibilities, responses and actions that human beings are capable of.
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Now, please ask yourself, what if most people WERE naturally stretching several minutes, several times a day, every day, for their whole life? . . . And it was PLEASURABLE, not painful or irritating? . . . And it was SPONTANEOUS, not forced?

Do you think that would result in fewer physical problems for more people?

How about mental and emotional well-being? . . . Or even spiritual?

Now, this would not solve all problems of the bodymind or life, of course, but far more than most realize.

The only draw-back for us yoga teachers is, far less people would need a yoga teacher or class for basic tension and stress relief. But then, there would probably be far more people ready to go to the next higher level with yoga, so we would be working with them.

The Bottom Line:
If you look at the Big Picture of humans and nature, it is truly UN-natural to not stretch. But most of us have to use our thinking mind — and even more of us need an outside source, like a teacher or coach — to make ourselves do it.

The Art of Teaching Yoga includes — among many other things — helping to inspire people — intellectually and physically — to recover and act on that long-buried impulse to keep stretching.

Now, my words here have focused on the more physical aspects of stretching. For many people, yoga has a so-called higher purpose to it. However, how much more easily would you be able to achieve your higher intentions or self-actualization if your physical body was not in the way of your mind and emotions most of the time?

(We'll get to the need for CONSCIOUS Stretching — the more mental aspects — in a later Natural Law.)

So, start talking about this (nearly missing) Subtle Impulse to your Students and Clients. Or people who could potentially practice with you (your prospects, to use a marketing term). See if they start to think a little differently about yoga.

And just maybe, they might start to notice that natural impulse to stretch a little more often. And then, maybe they'll even respond to it!

In the early stages of talking to new people, it's about experimenting with different ways to talk about what works for them as individuals, what hits their ON Button. What can you say or do that makes them want to learn more about yoga, or try it out? For some people, for example, it might be better to call it Conscious Stretching rather than yoga.

And One Secret of Yoga:
Yoga Looking for and finding that impulse to stretch is in itself a psycho-physical, meditative, Zen-like experience, and well worth the energy investment.

So . . .

NATURAL LAW #1:
The impulse to stretch is built into the bodymind by nature, at birth. It is UN-natural to not stretch. . . . And, because it is NOT an instinctual behavior, we must use our Thinking/Feeling Mind — and a certain degree of WillPower — to initiate and maintain the stretching behavior for a better life. . . . Ideally, yoga helps reveal the natural impulse to stretch, and can be a meditative focus. . . . And further, pleasurable, spontaneous, non-forced stretching is best.

Thanks for Reading, and See You in Three Days,

Take Care,
David Scott Lynn
DSL — Your Hi-Touch Up-Link to the Inner-Net