Here in this blog, let me try to explain my understanding of
mind and how practice of yoga has helped me to deal the mind in a better and
productive way. First, let us get answers for questions such as: What is mind
made up of? Factor that determines the mind activity? What is the purpose of
mind?
Answers:
What is mind made up
of? Mind is just a collection of our past experiences, our own Values and
Beliefs. Our reality as well as the experience of the life is determined by our
own perception. Perception works in coordination with the mind. An event that
we experience is projected to the mental screen where a meaning is assigned to
that event based on our own past experiences, values and beliefs.
Mind activity:
Mind needs a centre point to move around. The centre point is nothing but our own
interests and priorities. Further to this, mind activity is determined by
engagement. A chain of thought is formed by the very act of engagement or the
way we entertain the mind. That is how, we have a thought A at one instance and
within a matter of few seconds, and we end up having a different thought B.
Such is the power and speed of mind.
Purpose of Mind:
The sole purpose of the mind is to protect us and keeps us in our own comfort
zone. This provides a sense of safety and security. For a real change to materialize,
we need to learn ways to come out the comfort zone.
We experience growth only we explore the discomfort zone. We stay as the same person with the same personality built as we
continue to stay in the comfort zone. Yoga provides us a path to explore the
discomfort zone mindfully.
With the above basic understanding on the characteristics of
the mind, let us look into the yoga and its influence on the mind
Stillness of Mind:
There is a strong correlation between body and mind. Each influences one
another. Mind becomes still when body becomes still. When, I say stillness, I
am referring to an absolute
stillness. Even when one attempts to stay physically still, there would be
always some subtle movements in the body such the movement of spine, head and
even the eye balls. An absolute stillness can be achieved when all these
movements are taken care of. To attain such a state, body needs to get trained
and that is where static practice (Asana) comes into play.
Fixing the gazing (Dhristi) of eyes in the posture becomes
essential and helps in achieving the stillness of mind. An upward gazing
towards the third eye or even the crown of the head provides an easy access
path to the subconscious mind. In
addition to Asana, one needs to train on this aspect of fixing the eye ball
movement.
To draw the energy and to achieve the state of stillness,
one should able to get connected to the core. Core is the source of energy. The
best way to achieve this is to have a neutral spine. Neutral spine can be
achieved by practicing the vertical upright postures such as lotus, thunderbolt
etc .
The three practical tips mentioned above are the good start
points to train the mind. The practices help to stay in a “detached awareness”
state which is the key in achieving the stillness of the mind. As a beginner,
if one experiences frequent movement of mind (random thoughts) then I suggest
to use the Labelling technique. It
is a simple technique of “self-talking” where one talks mentally his observation
of his mind and labelling the observations as “mind is wandering” “mind is
still” etc. Labelling technique helps in
keeping the awareness above the mind.
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