Yoga for the Mind

Yoga has gone mainstream. It is in our everyday vernacular. It sells cars. And cereal.

Whether or not you've tried a class, you have an idea of what yoga is. To most people, yoga is a way of stretching and becoming more flexible. For others, it is a means toward relaxation. For others still, it is a fitness workout.

All these elements may be attributed to yoga, but yoga has a broader base and higher purpose. With origins dating back at least two thousand years, yoga is an ancient spiritual practice. Its intent is not to stretch the hamstrings, but to bring quiet or stillness to the fluctuating thought waves that disturb the mind. The word yoga means “yoke”, inferring to the union of body, mind and spirit.

The reason that asana practice is popular in the West, is that it appeals to our sense of working the body, giving us something to “do”. Besides, there are a myriad of health benefits in performing yoga poses. Depending on how they are taught, the sequence they are taught in and the skill of the teacher, asanas can bring about relief from much physical discomfort – alleviating anything from back pain to PMS. And this is a good reason to practice yoga. But it is not the only reason.

If you sit around and watch your mind for any given five minutes, you'll notice a turbidity of thought. Carol Shields called it “the longest conversation of your life”. The inner dialogue that is crammed with endless opinions, admonitions, desires, fears, justifications, observances plus an assortment of mundane and intriguing ideas.

Yoga aims at quietening this mental noise. And the brilliance of BKS Iyengar, a living yoga master, was that he perfected alignment of the body in the yoga asanas in order to penetrate the mind.

Say, when you go to a yoga class and are asked to work in triangle pose, your feet are spread wide, your arms extend from the shoulders. Then, you are asked to lengthen and bend to the side. But the pose isn't over. Many actions are required to sustain this pose: the feet must press into the floor; thigh muscles roll outward to align the knee joint; quadriceps contract to further the stability of the legs. Then the spine lengthens and the torso revolves upward. Then, of course there is the matter of the breath – you must breathe.

While you are working, the mind -- which is usually preoccupied with thoughts of dinner, or the argument you had with X, or the seeds you'll plant this summer, or the weather -- is harnessed close in to the body.

Even for one fleeting second.

After that second, you may become aware that you feel discomfort in the pose, or you want to come out, and then the instructor reminds you to contract your thigh muscles. So your awareness returns to the thighs. Then, she reminds you to breathe, so you realize you've been holding your breath and you let it go and you breathe. For a moment, your mind is freed up again.

And so it goes.

This is not to say that you'll become enlightened after one class, or even after twenty years; however, the awareness gained on the yoga mat, through the body, can be applied to daily life. You begin to recognize how the body affects the mind. For example, slouching forward closes the chest, it brings about a depressed mind. Opening the chest invites life into the body, nudges the mind into a state of well-being. When your life feels out of control, standing poses bring about stability. Forward bends, tranquillity.

The beauty with the practice of yoga is that awareness deepens over time. As you practice the asanas, the body becomes more open. But more profoundly you learn to move you past your thoughts and into the essence of your own Being.