John’s Sunday Blog

Connect

To bring together into CONTACT so a REAL or NOTIONAL link is established. This is the definition of connect.

I ponder this idea as it relates to the practice of mindful movement such as yoga. There has been a trend in the world culture during these last few centuries. A trend of building empires on ideas and outward actions to succeed, which has given us many comforts, yet, at the same time, tremendous difficulties.

Yes, we do connect outward in yoga by going to sessions and meeting new friends. But, as all yogis know, if they stick to it, the greatest impression it has on us is the inner world.

The concentration of slow rhythmical or static postures in combination with the breath, bring one to oneself in real time. This takes one out of the default mind (past and future storylines) and into the real. Without knowing it, we discover our closest and most constant companion… our body. We would know nothing of any story without our bodies outgoing senses. However, with yoga, they become ingoing senses. We learn that our responses to life are over-rated. We give up the outrage and fear that drives our behavior thus substituting it for the other mode of mind. And what is that? Your simple attention. See? It’s in the word itself - tension. And is tension bad? From the Latin attentio meaning “to stretch towards”. When we loosen that outward focus and bring it in, balance starts to happen. Everything here has its polar opposite and the balance of the tension is found in the middle.

So what happens in yoga? We turn our outward reach inward in a receptive and curious manner. Revelations occur. We find we are not broken, and begin to un-label our false stories about our bodies. When we allow our attention to fall inward, with clarity, confusion about our “different parts” clears. And, we find a whole-ism to the body. We begin to get notions on what the body needs beyond our personal desire. We connect more often with our other mind power, our attention, here and now. It wants nothing, it judges not, always with you, open and clear. Connecting more often with this mode of mind lets us sort out our at-tensions, and we begin to cast our lines, in different directions. And connect more deeply with our…

SELF.