Yoga and Mindfulness

 

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Yoga and Mindfulness

Mindfulness can be defined as the ability to be completely aware of everything around and within us. It is that quality which lets us know who we are, what we do and what is around us, while not allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by everything. In simple terms – it is being completely conscious.

All of us have this ability and use it and exhibit it unconsciously in our day-to-day life. We need to nurture this and cultivate it as a conscious habit. There are many ways by which one can do this and many spiritual and yoga Masters teach this – prayer, pranayama, bandhas, mudras, asanas such as shavasana, and meditation.

The act of simply being aware of one’s thoughts and feelings is mindfulness, rather than spontaneously acting on them. It is not possible to learn this in a few days, it requires regular practice of certain yoga-asanas which helps in increasing one’s awareness. Certain asanas require the practitioner to focus, keep their attention on their breath and relax into the posture. This naturally brings one’s awareness to the body, mind and breath, thus making one mindful.

The practice of yoga helps one become focused and single-pointed. The modern world requires multi-tasking and segregated focus where one’s attention is focused for barely a few moments, in this scenario mindfulness brings peace and balance into our busy and chaotic lives.

Pranayama, breathing techniques, such as Nadi Shuddhi, Kapalabhati and Bhrastika involve bringing control over breathing in and out. Regulating one’s breathing helps calm the mind and channelise the flow of prana (life-force energy).

Being introversive and practising internal mindfulness constantly is a form of meditation which one can do on an ongoing basis. There are several yoga-asanas such as Padmasana, Vajrasana, Siddhasana, Sukhasana which are very conducive for the mind to go inwards, as they help in keeping the spine erect and direct the life-force energy in the upper part of the body. Internally it improves our perception, focus and emotive understanding, it improves our consciousness to such an extent that it helps us in noticing and discarding habits which are not good for our mind and body.

Mindfulness helps us focus on the present moment, thereby refining the constitution of both our body and mind. Regular practice makes it easier to train the mind to achieve the level of consistency required to achieve this level of consciousness, though initially it appears to be difficult. But with time and regular practise it becomes easier.

Let us end with a quote by Sri M – “If you can be mindful of your thoughts, of your actions, of your meditation, of your breath and so on, that is called total mindfulness.”