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february / march 2018yogajournal.com.sgA NEW PERSPECTIVE
Yoga class is a great laboratory for becoming
more mindful because it’s rife with conditions
that are beyond your control. On any given
day, the traffic noise might be uncomfortably
loud, you may feel bored or restless, your
neighbor’s sweat might drip on your mat, your
hamstrings may feel unusually tight. Armed
with mindfulness techniques, you can reframe
these conditions so that you feel less reactive
about things that you usually find irritating and
distracting.
For yoga teacher Laura Neal, mindfulness
techniques made her aware of her tendency
to push too hard in her physical practice. “Now
I’m less likely to push past my limit—and also
less likely to stop short of it,” she says.
Michelle Morrison, a supervisor for an
accounting firm in Manhattan who also teaches
mindfulness yoga, feels the effects of combining
awareness practice with her physical practice.
“I came to see the different kinds of things
happening: where I was clinging to pleasurable
sensations, what was causing the irritation,
noticing my habits,” she says. “I tend to be kind
of hard on myself, and I’ve noticed that I can
have those feelings and yet open myself to other
options.”
Cyndi Lee, who founded New York City’s
OM Yoga, says that, while she has always loved
the physical poses, it wasn’t until she applied
specific Buddhist mindfulness practices that
she saw the fruits of her practice go beyond
the physical level. “The Buddhist mindfulness
practice has a fully developed technique,
which can then be modified to apply to asana,”
she says. “For me, that is when my practice
showed up in my life as increased patience,
curiosity, kindness, the potential for a letting-go
of agenda, the understanding of craving, and
the recognition of basic goodness in myself
and others.”Cat-Cow Pose
Come onto your hands and knees,
positioning your hands directly
under your shoulders and your knees
under your hips. As you exhale, round
your back and scoop the tailbone
between your legs. Let the head tilt so
you are gazing back toward
your thighs. On the inhalation, tilt the
pelvis forward, opening your belly
toward the floor and letting your spine
move into the torso, creating a gentle
backbend. Reach the crown of your
head and your tailbone up toward the
ceiling. Be careful not to reach upward
with your chin, which compresses the
back of the neck. Flow back and forth
for a few breaths.
As you continue to coordinate
the movement with your breath, let
the timing of the breath determine
your pace. After going back and forth
several times, notice the mind’s natural
tendency to wander. This is a common
reaction to repetition. The mind
seems to assume that having done
something well, it doesn’t have to
know anything more and needn’t pay
attention. This “knowing mind” is
often the biggest obstacle to intimacy
with oneself and with others. When
we think we know, we stop listening
and seeing. Try to maintain the “don’t-
know mind,” and you will grow in
understanding and intimacy. Come
back to the breath again and again; it’s
the thread that keeps body and mind
connected.Sucirandhrasana (Eye-of-the-Needle Pose)
From Corpse Pose, bring both feet to the floor near the buttocks, hip-width apart. Place your outer
right shin on your left thigh. Draw your left knee toward your chest; reach between your legs with
your right arm and around the outside of your left leg with your left arm to clasp your hands.
Notice whether you held or restricted your breath as you moved into this stretch, and continue
to let the breath flow naturally.
Depending on the openness in your body, you may feel stretching sensations
in your right hip. You may also feel some resistance to the sensations, which causes you to tense the
surrounding muscles. See if you can release this tension and observe how the sensations change as
you maintain the stretch. You’ve just established mindfulness of the body, sensations, and mental
formations. Continue this work as you release and repeat on the other side. Since we are not perfectly
symmetrical beings, you may find that one hip provokes stronger sensations and reactivity than the
other. Can you stay with the bare sensation, maybe even see the difference between one side and
the other, without getting caught in judging or picking and choosing?
MEDITATION
practice well
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