Anatomically, your lungs and heart are inseparable. A matrix of intelligent fascia enmeshes both organs, so that if your heart were lifted from your chest cavity, your lungs, attached, would ascend alongside it.
When you breathe, your lungs and your heart together circulate and propel blood throughout the organism. Like an infinity sign, the lung space and the chambers of the heart create a continuum to cycle smooth Qi through the system. I call this circling of fascia around these two organs the “Upper Prana pond.”
In the emotional body, your lungs and heart are also interwoven as the hosts of certain qualities of a radiant Self. Lungs process grief and loss and are the mechanisms by which we process impermanence and find the ever-stable, fixed vital point of the practitioner — what I like to call our “Buddha Nature.” Healthy Lung Qi gives us the courage to withstand change and find the unchanging nature of the spirit, which governs our life streams.
The heart holds compassion for the collective, so it has a dimensional capacity to empathize with suffering. Rather than clouding the heart space, this actually clears it; the acknowledgement of difficulty for ourselves and for others creates a template of the inner body that can be wide open, spacious like the sky — room for all the textures and the tones of this vibrant, unpredictable life. The blissful … and the bitter.
The lungs and the heart are the centers for sentiments of tenderness and love. In Sanskrit, this is called bhava: the courageous stance of an insight seeker who chooses to lean into feelings of empathy and kindness.
Courage and power from the lungs are coupled by the tender fragility of its delicate tissue, impressionable enough to permit gas exchange from the capillaries into the bloodstream. Particular poses which pull on the connective tissue around the lungs helps to clear the spongy tender lung space, alongside any psychological pressures which surface inside our lungs and our heart.
(with block under head to relieve
weight of the skull and shoulder girdle)
International yoga teacher Kali Basman enriches the paradigm of Yin Yoga to integrate distinct aspects of Self into an innate wisdom practice to awaken a rich inner life and radiate with ritual. Her offering honors Yin Yoga as a tool to surrender to our intrinsic wholeness. On the textured path of mindful healing, Kali is celebrated for her integration of the 5 Elements and Chinese Meridian Theory with self-inquiry, embodied Anatomy, Buddhist Philosophy of Equanimity and sharp intellect. kalidurgayoga.com @kali_durga.Originally published in Winter + Spring 2022-23 issue.
