Isn’t it fascinating what can all happen when an egg and a sperm combine?
It all begins with a single cell, which divides again and again, and then before you know it, we have roughly 37,2 trillion of them making up our body.
Epithelial cells, cellular connective tissue cells, muscular cells, nerve cells become our organs, nervous system, the circulatory system and the musculoskeletal system, the tissues of a functioning unit.
And suddenly, we are something that we call human – a mass of body and mind.
From the moment we are born, we are dying and every day we are born again. Only symbolically, of course – or perhaps not?
Each cell has a certain lifespan, and the level of cell deaths in an infant is far greater than in an adult. However, infants create more cells than they lose and, as we can see when we peer into a mirror, precisely the opposite happens to us adults.
Fifty billion cells die every second and are replaced by „just as many“. The total cell matrix of an eye is said to have renewed itself within three days, and that of a liver in four to eight months. So to what extent can we influence this?
Many people who use alternative Eastern holistic therapies and energy therapies believe we can positively influence and stimulate this cell-matrix through positive thinking, nutrition, positive life circumstances, passive methods of treatment, and active physical and mental practices such as yoga.
I, too, am convinced of this, as while I cannot fully explain the significant effect of yoga, and especially yin yoga, I have been able to experience it in my own body.
As a result of modern fascial research, there are more and more implications regarding the way in which yin yoga affects us physically, and the way it triggers processes.
Back to fascinating humans!
Our brain, as a potential headquarters of aware memory, contains 100 billion neurones and 1,000 trillion synaptic connections.
A brain chases information through the body at 10–270 km/h (some resources will say up to 400 km/h), monitoring and regulating our vital functions.
We never need to think about this.
Every day we move 7000 litres of air by breathing.
We never need to think about this
Pumping between 60 and 80 times a minute, the heart pushes between 7000 und 10000 litres of blood through our arteries at a rate of 6 metres per second. The heart detoxifies our body via the lungs, and transports oxygen and nutrients to our cells.
We never need to think about this.
If we are attacked by viruses or bacteria, the body police ensure that we can, as a rule, fight these enemies off by ourselves.
We never need to think about this.
The fascial network, our largest sensory organ, carries information through our body, by means of compression and tension, at a speed of 1100 km/h. In our body, our fascial network reacts to changes in the external world (e.g. unevenness) faster than the speed of sound.
We never need to think about this.
At this point, I pause briefly and bow to my own body – Namasté!
The fascial network, from which bones and organs are suspended, forms our structure, gives each individual person his or her shape, maintains the tension in the body, acts as a shock absorber during movement, and gives our body integrity. This enclosed tension network creates an amazing compromise between flexibility and stability. Without the fascial tension network, we would be a blob. We would simply drift apart and would be incapable of movement.
At this point, I pause briefly once again and bow to my own body – Namasté!
Standing in mountain pose and focusing your attention on your heart and feet is utterly fascinating. Each heartbeat creates a pressure wave which has to be offset by the body, for example when standing.
A combination of nerve impulses and the tension network ensures that we remain standing with minimal counterbalancing and only light muscle contractions.
Every meditation pose that we assume when seated is characterised by a calm exterior and a tsunami that is raging within us and being simultaneously offset.
Need I write any more? Quite simply, the human body is nothing short of wondrous.
I am grateful for the fact that I never need to think twice about the fact that my heart beats and that I have the freedom to observe this fascinating process.
In our increasingly time-poor world, obsessed with the principle of higher, faster, further, I would like to practise yin yoga not only for the spiritual peace and balance that it brings, but also as a means of celebrating my body, and bestowing upon it the maximum possible attention and gratitude – with respect and devotion.
In yin yoga, I pause and bow to my own body – every time – Namasté!