Sunday, July 11, 2004
Playing Simon Says -- Paying Attention versus Being Attentive
In Unity Woods Yoga Centers quarterly newsletter (Unity Woods website), John Schumacher responds to a question that students frequently ask him: "Why isn't my practice at home like it is in class?" He provides some really good reflexions on this dilemma.
"Gathering, coalescing, and focusing your attention creates an intensity of physiopsychospiritual energy that quiets the mind and uncovers the underlying capacity for awareness. To be aware is to be awake, and to be awake in this way is to be alive in the fullest sense of the word. This is the goal of yoga. It is what the teacher guides you toward. And for most of you, because you haven't learned to do that for yourself, your home practice doesn't feel quite as good as your class. Yet."
I've found that my pranayama and meditative practice comes very easy now. I look forward to each sessions. By sheer repetition, I have become comfortable with these parts of my practice. On the other hand, I have to force myself to do asanas. Part of the resistance is that I have to think so hard to get them right so I really can't feel the flow. I know that I am not going to make progress until I work on my asanas everyday because that's when you make breakthroughs.
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I have a suggestion about your asanas difficulties. In the book, Yoga Mind Body & Spirit, the writer says that just like your body has a natural and normal way to walk, it has a natural and normal way to move through asanas. She says that if you concentrate on the intricacies of each position, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the complexity of it all. Her suggestion is to learn to understand "patterns" of movement and underlying principles that apply to any asana. That way you can figure out the alignment of any posture by yourself and follow your own instincts.
While I am not new to meditation (have been meditating since I was 18), I am fairly new at yoga. Her approach has helped me bring the "flow" I feel during meditation into my yoga practice, even though I'm a novice.
While I am not new to meditation (have been meditating since I was 18), I am fairly new at yoga. Her approach has helped me bring the "flow" I feel during meditation into my yoga practice, even though I'm a novice.
I only really meditate, but the same thing happens with us. We learn in a group, then have a few follow up practices in a group, and then, unless we arrange it, we meditate alone. I rarely experience much myself, though it can happen a little, but the only big highs/improvements I had was during the group meditations.
I was told there is an energy (prana I expect) that is generated by sharing meditation, like when Jesus said 'When two or more gather and think of me', that seems to enhance it, and this would go on to imply that whenever we're with someone else we're hooked up to their energy field.
I'm in England but visited my cousin in Rockville long ago, though he's still there with his family.
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I was told there is an energy (prana I expect) that is generated by sharing meditation, like when Jesus said 'When two or more gather and think of me', that seems to enhance it, and this would go on to imply that whenever we're with someone else we're hooked up to their energy field.
I'm in England but visited my cousin in Rockville long ago, though he's still there with his family.
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