Concentration is hard, except once you're actually doing it

The topic of focus I'm closing out with this post is the yogic principle of concentration practice, or dharana. A good write up on dharana can be found here. When first evaluating this principle, I could readily find examples in my life where my concentration on yoga asana and breathing practice has been able to seep into my "living life" in a positive way. During yoga practice, the opportunity to practice concentration is ongoing. Concentration, which is quintessentially "being in the moment", is most evident during balancing poses or physically difficult poses where strength or flexibility are challenged.

I'm fortunate enough to say that living through these concentration challenges while in the safe confines of a yoga asana practice have allowed me to view myself and my capabilities in a much more positive light outside of the yoga practice. For starters, if you can practice focusing on breathing long enough to hold a pose you didn't think you could do, or balance on one leg for an extended period of time...just think of what miracles you can stretch yourself into while living life!

When completing tasks of everyday life over the last two and a half weeks, I often reminded myself to return to the state of dharana, or concentration. The fact I had to remind myself shows I have much more room to practice. This is a good thing, as I get to continue exploration of this principle. I love that the teachings of yoga allows you to respect where you are in the present, all while providing a positive context for growth inside of your already perfect self.

I find it most difficult to stay present and concentrated when I'm upset, anxious, or have any other type of negative emotion. If I'm in one of these states, it is helpful to if I can get to a state of peace by concentrating on the moment versus the upset. Afterall, all upsets in reality are just feelings about something that's already past. However, getting there, or trying to get there can be the tough part! Using the negative feeling as a reminder is one way to train oneself to get back to the present, to focus on the now.

Namaste

Thoughts on Maitri Experiences (and lack thereof)

Practicing loving kindness towards oneself is an easy practice to forget. The last two weeks I found myself often forgetting this concept entirely and inevitably delved into the self-inflicted pains of blame, self-doubt, and frustration. However, the times I did remember the practice were well worth noting, as evidence to keep this principle alive no matter what. Though many times in life we can find plenty of reasons to not love ourselves (that may look different for each of us, but we all experience it), it ultimately does us no good.

For me, investigating the "why" behind self blame/hatred is reason enough to drop it altogether. As with all non self-kindness activities, it's merely a way to avoid responsibility for whatever it is that is going on in our lives we're associating the contempt. Blame in general acts as a diversion from dealing with reality. Hatred (especially when directed at the self) is a way for one’s ego to avoid attention on the matter at hand and instead focus on the separateness identified with the object (in this context, oneself). So why not turn that around and merely fess up those unappreciated attributes to ourselves instead? Learning from real or imagined self-inflicted dislike is much less painful than reliving such matters. Logically this makes sense, but I’ve found it can also be hard to remember.

In light of the human tendency to conveniently forget what's best for ourselves, I will cut to the chase on the reasons (benefits) to remember to apply the principle of Maitri. When I was able to access self love and kindness in times of pain, what I found was a sense of recognition of choice. When I needed it most, coming back to it was like having the experience of suddenly remembering a wonderful thing that had simply skipped my mind. I remembered the choice that I always have right inside of me to have reality occur differently. In all my moments of recognition, my case against myself was obliterated by the compassion, love, and reason I provided inside of that wonderful memory. When being with loving kindness with myself, I no longer felt agitated, uneasy, or blameful of myself -- or others.

Perhaps flexing this particular memory will work like exercise, as in muscle memory. The more I use it the more I'll remember to use it going forward. What do you find challenging or rewarding about the practice of loving kindness? Please share your thoughts in the Comments.

The First Challenge: Commitment to Yoga (Asana) Practice for Health

The first two weeks of the year I was still formulating my process for this blog. I think it all began at the closing of 2008 when I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Happiness Project. Gretchen’s piece on creating your own commandments as New Year’s Resolutions struck a chord for me. Instead of making all these specific goals to fulfill an obligatory New Year’s tradition that most people fail to live out, why not take the opportunity to create a way of life, sort of like rules to live by, for the New Year (and beyond) based on what you want from life? So after some thought and inspiration from within, those I love, and perhaps a bit of Benjamin Button, I posted my commandments on Gretchen’s blog and made it real for myself. I also shared my commandments with some friends to make it stick even more. The context of my commandments allowed for a space where I could actually formulate this living memoir idea of life exploration I call my Creating Alive blog.

My Commandments:
Act the way I want to feel

Plan and do

Honor that love is all that's needed

Rehearse happiness

It's never too late

Say Yes

Be purposeful

Cut the losses

Return to laughter

Embrace failure

I think it’s a great idea for all of us to create these types of commandments. They could be established either internally or in writing. I personally believe in the power of writing things down, so that is my obvious preference.

One of the principles I’ve learned in life about being successful is it is a much easier path if you clean house first. This could be metaphorical or literally involve cleaning your car, desk, house, garage, etc. For me I had to come to terms with living inside my body the way I wanted to. I was still taking advantage of my youth and good fortune that I could look reasonably healthy without a consistent exercise program in place. So starting the first week of January, I began a commitment to be healthy with a yoga regimen. Thanks to Jeff for giving me a wonderful gift of yoga classes for Christmas, this made it a lot easier. I committed to one class per week, and warm up sun salutations every day. I’ve done consistent yoga in the past, but usually from a once/week going to class type of regimen. This whole concept of promising myself each and every day would have been overwhelmingly not possible in my previous not-as-purposeful life!

However, when looking at what I wanted (mental and physical health) inside of the application of some of my commandments ( “It’s never too late” , “Plan and Do”, among others to some degree), I was able to formulate a plan I could stick with and be successful in doing. I told myself I’d work on a certain number of sun salutations, plus whatever additional stretches I felt like each day of the week. Then the next week I’d add one more sun salutation to the mix until I reached the traditional 10 (Surynamaskar A and B), as is the standard.

Since embarking on this challenge, I have done at least my daily sun salutations and additional stretches and gone to one yoga class. Though I had to miss one day of a yoga class due to some wacky weekend scheduling, I feel remarkably successful. I also felt strong enough to do a 16 minute interval jog last night.

Upon review of my newfound success, I believe I’m more committed than ever because my heart is in the right place. I no longer feel like I have to do yoga or jog regularly because I should. I really want to do these things because of inspiration. Even inside of a difficult pose, longer run, or just a dark cold morning and I don’t want to get out of bed – I still feel inspired by the healthy life these actions provide me in return for my dedication. I already feel like I have more energy and physical stamina, but I also know this is just the beginning. I can already sense the old familiar power my yoga asana practice invites in the other aspects of life (mental and spiritual). Taking on physical exertion, practicing breathing sequences, and sticking to a regime are all a daily reminder of my internal strength and commitment to life itself. Now that goes way beyond a mere workout. I really could dedicate a blog solely to the benefits of yoga as a whole, so there will more on this later.