“There’s going to be some controlled chaos,” announced Matthew as the class began.  There was, but the energy in the room noticeably shifted as he spoke thoughtful words of wisdom and guided us through our practice.  “My story is your story,” he said, as he explained how the inner sensations, or prana, he’d discovered whilst practising yoga as a paraplegic, were relevant to us all.  People often focus on the outer shapes of yoga, but what happens on the inside?  That’s what we were about to discover. 

Matthew taught us asana (poses) through pranyama (breathing), allowing us to access the inner experience of yoga without performing full poses.  In simple seated exercises, assisted as necessary depending on ability, we experienced the opposing forces of energy that form the underlying principles of asana.  We recreated the inner experience of standing poses and felt the energy shifts of flowing sequences.  Raise your chest slightly and feel your sitting bones move down into the chair, your heels into the ground, for a taste of the seemingly simple yet profound ideas we experienced.  We tuned into and nurtured the ‘subtle body’, centered at the spine.  On the inhalation, we noticed the breath filling the body in all directions and a feeling of expansion.  On the exhalation, we noticed the downward energy through the sitting bones, legs and heels, the opposing upward energy moving through the chest and head, and a feeling of extension.  We filled both the space within and around our body.  If we didn’t, Matthew immediately knew and was quick to point out.  “I’m talking right in front of your face,” he said loudly when I had my eyes closed, focused on my breath.  With his less than subtle reminder, I experienced an immediate shift in my body.  I could see the same transformation happening around the room.

“Coming to yoga (or life) with a disability, an experience of loss, can be an advantage,” Matthew said.  Sometimes you can’t experience the relief of something being there, without first experiencing the loss of it being taken away.  We explored this idea through partner work and the use of yoga bricks to provide reference points.  The gentle touch of a partner supporting our wrists while our arms were extended upwards was all the more apparent once we had also experienced the loss of that touch and support.  You could see the changing energies in your partner’s body when the touch was both given and taken away.  To an outsider, we may not have appeared to be doing much, but this was an advanced yoga practice involving intense and focused work.

“Are you feeling more hopeful now?” Matthew suddenly asked me, partway through the class.  The practice seemed to embody hope.  To use Matthew’s own tagline, it was ‘humanity disguised as yoga.’  We experienced intimacy, gratitude and touch, all vital for well-being.  In our last partner exercise, we gently placed the palms of our hands on our partner’s shoulders, to “bring them home.”  We were told that if we were really clever about it, we’d help ourselves come home too.  It was a simple act that felt grounding and comforting.  We completed the class with a chair Savasana.  The energy calmed.  The room settled.  Attention was truly turned inward.  All sense of controlled chaos had passed.  Namaste.  The divine in me, to the divine in you.

Meeting Matthew Sanford – All Humanities Yoga Class, Part 1