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Awareness, Breathing and
Gentleness
Bryan Kest
Awareness
Awareness of breathing is our top priority. For this to happen, we need
focus. We need to focus: move away from all thoughts and distraction in
order to pay attention to what we are doing. In doing this, we give our
brain a little rest from the constant influx of our normal, redundant,
unnecessary thoughts that are incessantly passing through our brain, mostly
distracting us from what we are experiencing and contributing to the mental
stresses we create. In doing this, we also stop feeding the normal habit of
our mind. When you stop feeding something, it starves and dies. In other
words, “killing the qualities and habits that contribute in a very large way
to the disease and miseries in our life.” Focus means “paying attention,”
paying attention to what you are experiencing allows for a fuller more
satisfying experience. In other words, you can’t benefit from something you
don’t pay attention to. Also, when you pay attention to what you are
experiencing, you can make intelligent decisions according to what you are
feeling, so as to keep what you are doing healing instead of enacting old
redundant (abusive) habit patterns. There will not be an aspect of your life
that won’t benefit from a heightened state of awareness. Ultimately that is
a goal of yoga: to bring benefit, satisfaction and understanding to every
aspect of one’s life.
Awareness is easy enough to understand, but not so easy to practice, because
it is against the normal habits of the mind. Whenever you try to break a
habit, there is a revolt. Focus is difficult. Please be patient. Don’t slip
into frustration or criticism or any negativities we are trying to
eradicate, not facilitate. Just bring your attention back to your breathing.
If you do find yourself being frustrated or critical, smile and again come
back in to your breath. Again, you need to be patient and keep trying and
slowly you will find your focus improving and it won’t simply be during your
yoga practice. It will encompass all and you are on your way to sucking more
of the juice out of your life. As humans, after basic necessities, I don’t
believe there is anything more important we can work on than “awareness” or
you could call it “being present” or simply “paying attention” or “sucking
the juice out of every moment of life.”
Breathing
If focus/awareness is the transcendent quality of our practice, breathing is
its object. The breath is significant for at least a few reasons. Firstly,
it is happening right now. Therefore, when focused on the breathing, you
become quiet, clear and present. Second, the breath usually mirrors the
mind: when you are stressed/upset, the breath loses its calmness; when you
are calm, the breath remains calm. As we know, so much health and benefit
come from a calm and peaceful mind, the opposite of stress. So maintaining
calm breathing is a priority. Third, I believe most of the filtering
mechanism for the air entering the body are in the nostrils, hair, mucus,
etc…Also, I’ve noticed deep, smooth breathing has a soothing, quieting and
calming effect on my mind. So for the asana practice, let the breath be
deep, smooth, nostril breathing. Let the smoothness and calmness be one of
two barometers of the practice (the other I will mention later). Remember,
the calmness of the breath represents the calmness of your mind. If you lose
the calmness and begin to strain, the postures become counter productive,
counter productive because you are creating stress as well as feeding more
food to the reactiveness of your mind, the root of stress, therefore hurting
your body. Yet this straining of the breath as well as possibly the eyes,
lips, jaw, neck, etc… can not be detected unless you have awareness, because
it has become normal. So maintaining deep, calm breathing helps develop
awareness, strengthens our equanimity (ability to keep the mind calm) even
in challenging and difficult moments. It would be very difficult to hurt
yourself or anything while being calm and gentle. So with awareness, we work
with the breath to have a powerfully healing yoga practice which uses
calmness and gentleness as its instruments. With calmness and gentleness, we
improve every aspect and relationship in our life, not just the one we have
with our body.
Additional note: Being calm represented by the breath flowing free as well
as being gentle does not mean not to challenge yourself. The level of
physical exertion should depend on our energy level and mood. If you want to
work hard, go for it; if you want to take it easy, fine. Whichever you
choose, just stay calm, don’t strain. Also, your breath rate will be
determined by your needs for oxygen. Remember, I never said to breathe
slowly. I just said to breathe deep and free.
Gentleness
If awareness is the transcendental quality and breath the instrument, then
gentleness is the modality of the Practice. It is a combination of kindness,
calmness and awareness. If healing is the goal, then gentleness is the Path.
Rationally speaking the harder you are on anything the faster you wear it
out. Overdoing it physically can have the opposite effect than intended.
Joints can wear down, muscles give out, energy level drops. Practicing
gently has a big effect on our longevity. Within this concept of being
gentle towards ourselves within our practice we come across the idea of
moderation. It seems moderation is one of the powerful by-products of
gentleness. Moderation is another word for balance, and health is a state of
balance. Balance can be said to be peacefulness or harmony, all true goals
of yoga. Gentleness is not only a way of acting, it is a state of mind. A
state all the great ones attained. A state that desires to harm nothing. A
state of kindness. Gentleness is the quality behind the action. In other
words, you may need to be firm in your action to accomplish your intention.
You may need to challenge yourself or the situation. You may even need to be
harsh. But regardless of how it looks, the quality behind the action is
gentle and kind.
A physical health practice is a practice designed to preserve, protect and
enhance one’s body. On the physical level, that can’t happen if you are
insensitive, aggressive or abusive. Remember, the harder you are on
anything, the faster you wear it down, not build it up. Exercise these days
seems to be about making your body conform to certain standards of strength,
flexibility, size and appearance. It seems health is determined wrongly by
appearance. What I’ve noticed is a lot of people are beating themselves up
and even making themselves sick trying to look good. It seems that mentality
has been brought into yoga. Just remember the purpose of this practice is
not to become loose, strong, young, pretty or skinny. The purpose is
wellness, and its doorway is gentleness.
Note, injuries occur when our practice is anything but gentle. It will be
extremely difficult to hurt yourself or others when gentleness is the
priority!!
Also, nothing should ever be excruciating! That's the body sending a clear
message to back off. This is the other barometer of whether you are
practicing correctly.
Remember, "There is no healing if you are not honoring what you are
feeling!"
So be “aware” of the “breath” flowing free and touch yourself everywhere
“gently.”
Namaste,
Bryan
Reposted with permission of Bryan Kest,
www.poweryoga.com.
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