The Evidence of your Practice | Part 1: Manas, the Mind
Yoga can be many things.
Your practice might be yoga asana (postures), breath, meditation, kriya (cleansing), or any combination of these and more. Regardless of what your sadhana (daily practice or dedication) looks like, there is potential for powerful transformation on a physical level, as well as less tangible inner states. We move away from a dispersal of intention and energy, towards yoga as a state - presence, integration, connection with the witnessing Self - and perhaps, as a way of life flowing from this state.
To reflect on how and why we practice is to investigate how these transformations ripple into our lives, and all the lives we intersect with. This is svadhyaya - a form of self-study.
Over the next few weeks, we'll examine the evidence of the practice 'working' in your life, along with prompts for your own reflection. *
Especially as we draw towards into a fresh year, knowing which choices fertilise your being (or don't) can help create more space and clarity in what you take into the path ahead.
I encourage you to set 10 minutes aside, with a notebook or pad handy. Enough time to read these prompts, take a few breaths, and jot down some words to acknowledge and collect your intuitive response (or draw some lines, make some shapes, whatever form your reflections take).
Pay attention to how this evidence shows up in your life, over the next 7 days. Each week, we’ll add another layer of observation.
These reflections are in no way a determinant of the value of your practice, nor are these the only ways to reveal the evidence of your practice. Consider these prompts to invite a more curious gaze towards how yoga invites meaning and self-awareness for you.
Establishing and maintaining this active relationship with your Self (big Self, not little clingy small-mind self) takes patient, consistent work. Like any relationship, our attention reveals a mirror. The practices can - and will - move us through uncomfortable, sticky spaces within. This is a necessary part of growth.
Gradually, we may begin to experience more moments of touching into state of intimacy with life. Herein lies the reward of yoga: a certain sense of wholeness, abundance and freedom.
From here, it is up to you how and where you direct the gift of your attention.
This exploration is itself a conversation, and our practices a constant evolving journey. Please feel free to comment with what strikes a chord with you, or send me a message. I'd love to hear about what you discover, and how we might better support and celebrate each other, in community.
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THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR PRACTICE
1. Your mind, manas, begins to calm down.
I love this term - 'the unfettered mind.'
The word 'fettered' itself almost feels like an onomatopoeia: torn, flustered, fluttering, unsettled. It's become such an common, or even expected state of mind that we forget to question its validity. What if our natural state is not to be upheaved, but to be steady and broad in awareness?
This is the essence of the second line from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (1.2): Yoga citta vritti nirodha / 'Yoga is the cessation of fluctuations of the mind'. According to the yoga tradition, ananda (bliss) is our natural state of being. Like a clean, clear mirror, this can become stained with the marks of the assumptions, judgements, worries and fears which emerge through our daily lives.
When we practice yoga, life doesn't get easier; in fact, by facing some things we tend to avoid, it might make things more confronting. Such challenges in our physical, mental, spiritual practice are the rungs we climb towards a greater willingness and capacity for staying present, while retaining a stable sense of mind.
We can, in other words, begin to feel more internal ease, even when feeling pushed and pulled by external circumstances.
However briefly or subtly, witnessing these moments where the thoughts explode like ribbons, and being able to think: 'OK, this is happening... Now what?' rather than being swept into a cycle of reactive fear, anxiety or frustration... What a relief this can be. You are starting to realise that a sense of peace is a choice.
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REFLECTION + PRACTICE
Consider a typical day in your life. When do you feel the most stability, ease or peace within yourself?
For example, it might be upon waking into that veil of early morning, during Savasana in your Vinyasa practice, stepping into the shower at night, sitting down for a meal whether solo or with loved ones.Has this changed since your yoga practice began, and if so, how?
What does this peace feel like?
Be specific - where or how you feel it in the body, the way your thoughts move, the way your pay attention to your environment.What might be a word/s, colour, shape, person, or way of breathing that helps you to evoke this feeling?
Consider now one instance during a typical day you feel most in contrast to this - ie. stressed, scared, anxious, worried, angry. How can you set a little reminder to yourself to use the breath / words / colour / shape / person etc to lean towards an unfettered mind?
Every time we choose to recognise and lean into this remembering, we deepen the grooves in our heart-mind (literally re-wiring our neurological pathways) which recognise the road towards calm. It's like cleaning another little patch of your mirror.
Try it on for a week. Be patient. Be observant. Be OK with slip ups - another chance to practice that tenderness with yourself, as you would a loved one.
(And hey, if you don't like this route, you can go back to sinking into the spiralling anxious mind-state, so, what's to lose?)
Conversation is a catalyst for clarity. Feel free to share below, what strikes a chord with you, or what feels challenging - you can also send me a message. I'd love to hear about what you discover!
* This series is inspired by a post from Rod Stryker, founder of Parayoga, and an incredible teacher and yogi, whose transmissions have been an invaluable source of guidance for my own practice. You can see more about ParaYoga and Rod Stryker here.*