In this companion volume to The Posture of Meditation, Will Johnson, a certified Rolfer and director of the Institute for Embodiment Training, explores the interplay between the body and mindfulness. Meditators know how the internal monologue of the mind, what Chogyam Trungpa called "subconscious gossip," can impede truly being present in the moment. Much in the same way, a rigid and tense body that is out of alignment can block our awareness.
This handy volume is designed to help readers become more familiar with their bodies through exercises designed to kindle attention to sensations. Johnson states: "The posture of meditation is like a stool with three legs — alignment, relaxation, and resilience." Proper alignment means that the body should be balanced — not listing to the right or to the left or too far back or too far forward. True relaxation, according to the author, is "a dropping into ourselves, a movement toward our core and very center of self." Johnson defines resilience as "the allowance of free and unhindered motion that wants to pass through the medium of the body." To be alive is to move.
A final chapter includes notes on rejoicing into the breath and imagining that "your body is a flute and that God is blowing life into you." This holistic treatment of the body-mind connection is instructive and encouraging.