Sunday, April 3, 2011

the Concept of Mindfulness


While on vacation, I picked up a copy of "Yoga for Beginners," a magazine by Yoga Journal. I highly recommend  it to those starting out with yoga. It had great descriptions of the different types of yoga that are available, as well as other useful articles. One such article was about "mindfulness," which is a Buddhist ideal. Mindfulness is the practice of being aware of your thoughts and feelings while in meditation. Keeping my thoughts at bay has always been a challenge for me, whether it is when I am at my mat or in bed trying to fall asleep. Here is a sample of my brain at any given moment:

"I love yoga. I am feeling great. Although this hurts a little. But that's ok. Right? I can write about this for my blog. How should I describe it? Oh well, it's great that I have a blog to keep me motivated. Oh shoot, ok focus on meditation. Ok meditating, meditating. I am keeping my mind clear right? Or was I thinking about something? Ok, breathe in, breath out. But is that thinking?"... and on and on and on.



I am not sure I have ever achieved some pure meditative state. But enter the idea of mindfulness. Rather than try to fight your thoughts, as I have been doing, be aware of them. That way, instead of trying to push out the thoughts of the day, note that you are thinking them. Instead of punishing myself for not meditating, I am accepting that I have other thoughts and feelings, making it easier to let go of them all. Previously, I have felt a kind of nagging anxiety while trying to clear my mind. I always had the image of myself in an empty room, with all of my thoughts trying to break down the door. I was focused on what I was doing wrong causing myself anxiety rather than peace.



Mindfulness has also helped with the pain of certain positions in my practice. When in a particularly challenging position, I would try to talk myself out of the pain, saying, "This is just an illusion. I can actually do this, no problem." But the pain would still be there and at that point I would come out of the pose, probably when it would have the most effect. Now, I accept that I actually am feeling pain. I accept that my leg is wobbling out of control. And because it no longer feels wrong, or like something I need to take personal action to fix, I am more easily able to work through it. 

It may seem like mindfulness leads to inaction. I am not advocating taking a passive view on life.  Instead, to me, mindfulness means allowing experience to occur without being bogged down by analyzation. Accepting the pain means that I am able to hold the pose and build muscles so I will feel less pain next time. Noticing my over-active brain means staying calmer and coming closer to finding inner-peace. There are plenty of times when action is necessary, but if you run too fast, you may pass by the answer. 

0 comments:

Post a Comment