What’s the difference between Attention and Intention?
Written by Inner Fire Yoga teacher, Karen Rigsby
“Attention is where your eyes focus. Intention is where your heart is focused.” -Grandpa Kraft at my high school graduation circa 1980s
When we begin a yoga practice, our attention might be initially on our breath, on our alignment, on what our asana looks like in the mirror. We might focus on the strength of our standing leg while we contort our spine to some preconceived notion of flexion so as to put our forehead on our knee. Our intention, however, is where we hope our practice takes us. Our intention brings our awareness to a quality or virtue we wish to cultivate in our lives. A yoga practice may seem daunting in and of itself without the indulgence of virtue. But once we have the bones right, virtue follows naturally. It hangs the muscle on our practice.
Why Does Deep Breathing Feel Great?
written by Inner Fire Yoga teacher, Ken Kloes
What’s the big deal with taking a deep, controlled breath during yoga practice? Other than the obvious benefit of bringing oxygen into the lungs during inhale and eliminating carbon dioxide on exhale, the benefit is much more profound. Understanding some anatomy is key here. Your main breathing muscle is the diaphragm, which separates your lungs from abdominal organs. When you inhale this muscle flexes down into the belly expanding the lungs, filling them up with air. On exhale the diaphragm relaxes upwards squeezing the lungs and forcing air out, the deeper the breath, the bigger the movement of the diaphragm.
