Yoga - New Begininings
November 8th 2007 03:26
Empty your mind . . .
The practice of yoga is not entirely a mystery to me; in my sporting days I practiced it on and off for a year or so, mainly to improve my flexibility and prevent soft tissue injuries. I also enjoyed the muscle tone it developed, and I especially admired this result manifested in my girlfriend Alicia, who was a vigorous practitioner. Always in a bit too much of a rush to get home or to training to really benefit from the relaxation at the end of the session, I thought of yoga as merely a good conditioning practice for a healthy body; the spiritual nature of it was practically lost to me.
I found it too hard to quieten my mind enough to gain any introspective insights and during the exercises and I liked to push too hard to maintain any control over my breath, let alone my facial features, which were contorted in anguish as I contorted my limbs and spine. I could never attain the serene and relaxed look of the instructor and other class members, especially as yoga causes so much agony!
The same pattern is true for my attempts at meditation. One semester at uni I signed up for a short course in transcendental meditation. I was optimistic; classes began at 8am Monday morning. At first the timeslot sounded ideal; a fresh start to the week, enforced early nights on Sunday, a relaxed an open mind ready tp receive the lessons of the day. However, due to the excesses of the weekend and the concerns of the coming week, I never really achieved any deep sense of tranquillity. I have a mind much harried by strange, whimsical, capricious and sometimes disturbing thoughts. It has never been in my power to silence or even slow these thoughts for a moment, except perhaps during the heady days of chronic weed smoking. I wondered how I would fare . . .
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