(With practice tips below)
In the ancient Yoga Sutras, Patanjali tells us that Yoga is both the outcome and the practice: Quieting the mind.
Yoga is also the wisdom to recognize the value of quieting the mind.
Yoga is awareness and paying attention. It is taking an active, enthusiastic, and extended interest in how we are doing life, so life isn’t doing us.
By concentrating on a specific thing or specific things, we turn our attention inward and to this moment—the only actual space and time. There and then, we get to see how, why, and what we are thinking and doing. That’s all and that’s enough.
The more we practice awareness through concentration, the more we connect with the wisdom that encourages us to show up for our lives.
As we pay attention and practice, we become less reactive and more effective. We make better choices to support our inspirations, which bless our lives with opportunity, information, and delights.
The practice of concentration heals many of the ills of modern society, which include infinite distractions at our finger tips, multi-tasking as the norm, and clicking on devices for an immediate rush of dopamine. Our nervous systems are stressed by everyday life. Fixing awareness brings respite and rejuvenation.
With enough practice returning attention, the distractions simmer down. There we discover space—that enjoyable space between sounds that make music; that interesting space between objects that make art.
That space between thoughts and emotions is a vital aspect of who we are, in the full, supreme sense. It’s easy to miss, without awareness. In that space, there is freedom to be our best selves.
Paying attention to our lives is the best and only way to improve them.
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Practice Tips
When practicing anything, always remember to thank yourself.
In meditation, choose something on which to focus the mind, as a “home base.” Patanjali recommends concentrating on the mystic sound Om, one of the senses, the breath, or basically anything that inspires us. I’ve used different words, stared at visual items like a candle flame, and have ultimately landed on the breath. The breath calms me as I ride the waves of respiration.
When the mind drifts off, return it to the focus, until such a time you discover the mind has wandered off again. Sometimes the mind is mainly wandering off, but that is the gig. You aren’t trying to hold the mind rock steady because you can’t. By repeatedly returning to home base, we are training the mind to simmer down and focus.
In yoga poses, concentration is a natural and efficient tool to build a shape. Concentrate on each part of the body, as you create a safe, strong, and comfortable pose from the foundation up. Concentrate on breath, alignment, and all the sensations that arise. There’s a lot of options, and they will often volunteer themselves.
When balancing, focus the eyes on anything to hold you steady. Hone onto that thing with laser focus--a spot on the curtain, for example. The stronger you hold that gaze (inspect the spot, examine the colors, shapes, patterns), the stronger it holds you. Space out for a moment and Oops! You get to try again. (And as we stare at something intently, we often discover it isn’t exactly what we thought it was. Same with our internal selves when we examine them.)
In an uncomfortable, deep stretch in which you are trying to simmer down the nervous system’s boisterous response, focus on deep, slow, steady breath and/or hold the gaze on something. It will calm the system down. Concentration supports your efforts until the resistance of the stretch softens. With concentration, those tight, irritated places simmer down, after years of stress and neglect.
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