Basic Pursuits

Having practiced and taught yoga for over 20 years, I've done a lot of reading and given a lot of thought to stretching.

For some time I have thought that static stretching is a bad way to warm up for vigorous activity. Holding a stretch defeats the nerve connections that cause your muscles to snap back after contraction. You are in effect temporarily reprogramming your nervous system.

According to the Yoga Sutra, the goal of yoga and meditation is to calm the fluctuations of the mind.

When I sit in meditation, my goal is to calm my thoughts, the "fluctuations of my mind," and to be present. Being present is a long way toward calming the mind, because let's face it, most of these thought fluctuations are about the past or the future.

Researchers at University of Leeds, UK, "...have found a direct neural connection between these neck muscles and a part of the brainstem - called the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) - which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure."