Attention to the details: Yoga

One of the key factors that determine the effectiveness of the employees in the fast changing dynamics of the corporate world is their ability in paying attention to the details. This attribute is uniformly applicable to the entire gamut of the organisation starting from the entry level staffs to the top level senior executives.

Attention in today’s scenario:  In today’s information age, every individual is bombarded with millions of information in a day. Distraction is set in an individual due to the heavy volume of information handled. How to cope up with the distractions?

Awareness is an infinite field and attention is nothing but shifting the awareness to the specific task or information. Attention is just like a spot light in directing your awareness to a narrow region. Attention is the gateway to explore the finer details of the specific task or to gain entry into the internal world related to the task. Attention is nothing but the convergence of infinite potential of awareness.

A new world related to the task opens up with the intensified attention level which otherwise stays invisible in the normal circumstances. This gives rise to the opportunities to explore and move further. Now, the person thought, mind and his entire internal world are in perfect sync with the exposed world related to the task. In this mode, the external massive information become insignificant and fade away in the background. This perfect synchronisation generates the perfect results. Otherwise, in a normal circumstance, the massive information stays in the foreground acting as distraction.

Yoga & Attention: Yoga is a mind body practice where one develops the faculty of attention to the next highest level. Yoga practice is a journey of exploring one’s own internal world. Yoga practitioner systematically pays attention to the breathing, bodily sensations & his own thought process as well. Thus, a practitioner enhances and strengthens his attention faculty each and every time as he performs his practices on a regular practice.

In neuroscience, there is a law that states as “the neurons that fire together wire together”. This is the effect of regularity in the practice. As one repeats the practice, the neurons that relate to the attention faculty get fired and finally improving the attention faculty in the brain.

Now, the practitioner is in perfect tune with his own internal world with developed heightened attention faculty. When a task is given, it is natural for him to open up the internal world related to the task and get it aligned to his own internal world thereby generating the right kind of result.

Success of the Yoga Practices: DECODE

Each practitioner should get the maximum benefits of the practices such Asanas (static Postures) and Suryanamaskar (flow exercises) that involve the physical movement of the body. In this blog, let me decode with an example of the above practices .You will get good benefits if you know how to decode clearly a posture or flow. So, let us start the decoding now!!

Basics: I am sure most of you are aware of the breathing sequences, how to synchronise the body movement with respect to breathing, where to keep your awareness or your focus as you progress through the practices. It was covered separately in my earlier blog ( ref). In case, if you are not aware of the basics then I suggest to get familiarised with it before attempting to decode the postures.

Example 1: Let us take an example of prayer posture. One of the reasons for doing this posture is to elongate the spine. As known to you, spine is the main communication channel for the entire CNS (Central Nervous System). In yoga, the sushumna nadi , the main energy channel moves along the spine. So, this posture plays a crucial role in clearing the main energy channel and thereby increasing the energy level.

With the above points defined, we now know how to decode the posture. So, the intention is to stretch the spine. The condition is satisfied if one pays attention to points 2,3 & 4, that is to keep the butt closer to the heal, not dragging the palms towards the head & finally to keep the forehead closer to the floor.

A beginner may not able to satisfy all the above conditions at the initial stage. But, all he needs to do at the initial stage is to just become aware of the intention and the decoding points. Over period of time, you see the wonder of how your body gets transformed to a whole new level.

Progression Period: With the awareness on the decoding points, everyday one sees how the progression that is happening Say for example, the forehead may be few inches off the floor. One may mindfully get the head towards the floor without causing any major comfort. It is good to attempt for the progression ONLY during the exhale duration when the body stays at the relaxed phase.

Common mistakes: Many of the beginners try to keep a different intention of bringing the forehead to the floor. In that process, they drag their palms towards the head & raise the butt up the heels. By doing so, the spine no longer stays parallel to ground but inclines at an angle to ground. In this case, the main purpose of stretching of the spine is defeated.

I captured & decoded for many such practices including Asanas & flow exercises based on my experiences. I released the video to most of my clients too.

Trust the Present Self:

Trusting my “present” self is one of the core attribute in my personal transformation journey. Earlier, I used to trust more of my “future” self than my “present” self. When I was assigned a task, I had a tendency to postpone the activity to some other day. This was the case for the most of tasks especially when the task demanded considerable amount of my effort. A clear sign of trusting my “future” self than my “present” self!! On long term, many such tasks piled up and most of those were not accomplished leaving me in a state of inertia. A clear sign of “no growth” state!!

One of the greatest learning in my personal transformation journey is the realisation that “future” self is a faraway being and not within my reach at any given state of time. In fact, it is just a delusion and non-existing entity of mine. What is existing in reality is my “present” self which is true & real. When I start to manipulate with my “present” self, the results are always in my direction of growth.

 If you see yourself in a state of inertia then you may be stuck in a similar state of reality of mine where we trust our “future” self. Let us analysis and see the driving forces that act behind the scene. Let us take an example of doing regular workouts. The full enthusiasm that we witness at the earlier stage fades away as we progress through. We might tend to take an excuse to cut the practice and allocate time for some other activity. In few months, we would notice that we were completely off the track and stop doing the workouts altogether. Sounds familiar? There are only two good reasons for this kind of behaviour.

The act of mind: In performing an action for a task, everything is set right as long as the action allows staying in our own comfort zone. If the action demands and pushes to our discomfort zone then the mind comes into the play. The whole purpose of mind is to keep us in a comfort zone so that we stay protected. All the excuses and stories are the act of mind to keep you safe in the protected zone.

Once, we are aware of this process, we know how to push ourselves into the discomfort zone mindfully. In fact, practice of yoga develops such a kind of mindful awareness.

The reward incentives: Whenever we perform a task, we expect rewards. We get motivated when we get the desired results or rewards. In fact, this activates the “pleasure” circuit of the brain which helps in pushing this task in vigour to the next level. In the case of regular workouts, we may have an expectation of the result and after few weeks when we don’t get that expected result, we tend to lose the interest. Here is the time again all the excuses and stories will come into play.

The best way is to experience/feel the present moment of action than focusing on the end result. The awareness on the experience is lot more significant than the result itself.

So, if you are in a state of inertia like how I was, hitting the “no growth” zone then become aware of the two underneath currents that play within us. Trust your “current” self than your “future” self and do the action NOW. 

Engagement Model: Go with the Right Mindset

When we practice yoga, the result varies from person to person. Some of us get good result; some of us get “not so good” result and some simply give up after few days of practice. Here are the guidelines for the novices who want to engage with the practice of yoga and get the result that they really deserve. These guidelines primarily set the right kind of mindset as one enters into the world of yoga.

Commitment: First, get yourself committed. This is the fuel that needs to be ignited which acts as a guiding light as we take up the unknown journey. There is a BIG difference between “commitment “and “Interest”. There is a vast difference when I say

I am interested in becoming healthy &

I am committed to become healthy.

There is a nice saying, “committed people always do the things and achieve the result whereas interested people always watch the committed people getting the result”. Interest is doing on convenience where us commitment is doing things without constructing stories and excuses.

So, the first guideline is to stay 100% committed. Here in yoga, you are not only training the body but also mind & emotions. There is a learning period which takes considerable time but provides a definitive shift in you.

Priorities:  Regularity is the key fundamental element for the success. Why we need regularity in the practice? Body has its own intelligence and it can understand clearly our intention when we do things in a repetitive way. But, generally during the course of our progress, we may come up with certain excuses or some sort of stories just to break the regularity. It is an undesirable path where we compromise the high priority that was set in earlier.

It is important NOT to give excuses or create stories that disrupt the regularity and it essential to train the body appropriately.

Faith: Each one of us operates and takes actions based on his/her own faith & belief structure. Yes, our daily actions in life are based on our faiths. Now, when we start to learn yoga, it is important to have faith on the person who imparts the knowledge, faith on the practice and faith on yoga itself. Do not compromise on any of these and blindly follow until to a point where you start to experience the changes by yourself.

So, trust the person who imparts the knowledge, the practices & Yoga.

Value: You are not only trusting but you completely value the things that are given to you. There is a saying & it goes as, “Value has value when its value is valued”. It is simply translated as, “if I really value yoga and its practices then I get the true value from yoga and the practices.” The intensity of the “return energy” , the energy that comes from other side depends on how much energy we create from our side.

So, simply VALUE yoga, the person who imparts the knowledge and the practices.

Sustainability:  The initial enthusiasm at the beginning slowly dies off as we progress. This is mainly because of many surprises such as pains/aches, not getting the expected results etc.

The fundamental key point to ensure sustainability is not to over/under do the practices. Just, identify the boundaries of the comfort and discomfort zone and try to stay at the boundary of the comfort zone and never jump straight away to the discomfort zone. For this, you need to develop the art of listening to the body, especially to the subtlest signals.

Knowing & Owning: The idea here is not to KNOW but to OWN the things. Knowing is an intellectual knowledge whereas owning is an experiential knowledge. Intellectual knowledge does not give the experience. The one which we do not experience fades away from our memory. Unless, we subject ourselves to the “experiences”, we cannot OWN.

So, pay attention to your experience/feelings. We are here to OWN this skill and keep it forever and lifelong.

Energy for productivity: Each one of us has infinite power. Yoga provides an opportunity to tap this infinite power within. Generally, when there is no clear direction and purpose in life, we tend to have worries, fear and doubts. We waste this energy in solving our worries, fear & doubts. With the inner clarity that one gets by the practice of yoga, one no longer divert energy in solving mundane issues but using the energy for the REAL constructive purpose setting up the life in the positive direction.