Awakening, Yoga and the Living Matrix  

a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
214 Crosby St.

Arlington, MA 02474

781 643-0117
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

12 Principles of Awakening

Spiritual Foundation

Scientific Foundation

Embodying the Practice

Collective Awakening

          Fundamental Aliveness:

         An introduction to the Life Sciences

      Water and the Fluid Systems of the Body

        Our bodies are 70 % water, one of the most extraordinary molecular structures in the universe. Over the course of evolution on planet earth, life has discovered how to take advantage of the many amazing capacities that the water molecule displays as a way to both diversify and complexify the possibilities of life. Life, as we know it, cannot function without water.

  Water flows, and thus acts as a transport system, like a river. Water dissolves, can absorb, and thus acts as a storage system. Water is not compressible, and thus can act as a strengthening, stabilizing system. Water has no gross form; it takes on the shape of its container, and thus allows flexibity and adaptability. Very recently, new discoveries are showing how some complex structures of water molecules with unique properties interact with the structural protein collagen to give the Living Matrix  exceptional properties of communication.

  Where in the body is all of this water and how does it move? Through the digestive systems we absorb water and through the excretory systems we excrete water. The circulatory system, including the heart, arterial and venous blood vessels and the lymphatic vessels is specifically designed to move water through all areas of the body. There is water inside the cells as well as water outside the cells and outside the circulatory vessels. It is this last area of water that fascinates us in yoga as movement creates soaking and squeezing effects that keep the extracellular fluids dynamic and the tissues healthy.

What is healthy tissue? Healthy tissue has the proper balance of structure and flow. Dry tissue has no means to facilitate the movement of nutrients into and waste products away from the cells. A lack of sufficient hydration leads to a tight, brittle structure that is vulnerable to injury and disease

  Edemic tissue, with water that pools and does not flow, also does not allow the cells to receive nutrition and information and discharge excess material. Here the stucture becomes weak and distended and again vulnerable to injury and disease.

 Only a dynamic state of fluid flow allows a proper balance of nutrients, ions and other necessary chemicals to flow towards the cells and the waste products to be transported away. Here the connective tissue structures are elastic, mutable, vibrant, adaptable, and fully alive. When this healthy tissue is extended throughout the entire body, the fluid/connective tissue continuum emerges as an intelligent organ of communication known as the 'Living Matrix'.