Turning Off Autopilot

In the mind of an expert there are few possibilities, yet in the mind of the beginner, there are many.
Photo borrowed from Seattle Times (ARTIST: GRAHAM ROUMIEU)

Photo borrowed from Seattle Times (ARTIST: GRAHAM ROUMIEU)

When you shut off auto pilot and open you mind, eyes and heart to the new discoveries waiting, you will be awed by the incredible inner landscape filled with endless possibilities. We are so used to knowing how we are, want to be, or should be that we leave little room to discover our fullest potential. Asana practice is the perfect place to learn to turn off auto-pilot and move into a more exploratory mode. For instance, we have certain beliefs about ourselves and our bodies, and how we will or won’t be able to do a pose. Or even, whether we can or can’t relax at a particular time. But in this knowing we might actually be misreading ourselves and even hindering ourselves. Perhaps we are capable of so much more than we think we are. As one of my favorite teachers, Erich Schiffmann says,   “Know that you don’t know,” 

Know You Don't Know

To help develop more open-mindedness, I like to use this technique in my vinyasa flow: Instead of synchronizing the breath exactly with the movement, I wait one or two mille-seconds for the breath to start and THEN initiate the movement. The 'waiting' becomes a mindful 'Pause', and sharpens my alertness throughout the vinyasa flow making it effortless to stay present. This is especially helpful when you do things so repetitively that it becomes hard to make them new. 

Try It

Start with a simple flow like Cat pose. Get down on all fours in cat pose, pause for a moment and feel the ground under your hands and knees. Allow the inhale to begin, feel it inflating you then begin your movement, releasing the belly to the floor as you gaze up. Allow the exhale to begin, pause, and after you feel the breath releasing then round your back to the sky. Let the inhale begin before you initiate your flow back into the arch. Continue like this for 10-20 breaths. Relax, flow, stay interested in the breath, and feel what you are doing.

You can also enjoy 17 minutes of mindful Yoga flow with this ONLINE YOGA PRACTICE I created for Prevention Magazine

Untie The Knots

Because yoga asanas are not so much about exercise as they are about learning and unlearning, it is not the movement itself, but the quality of attention we bring to the moment that makes the postures qualify as yoga. Yoga actually begins to change the body by reeducating the brain. There is a particular way of moving, characteristic of classical posture practice that heightens our brain’s capacity to draw areas of the body’s unconscious up into consciousness. Slow, deliberate movement anchors the mind in sensation and allows a deep relearning to happen. Western science has now discovered why this is so. When muscles are moved slowly and consciously, the movement is brought under the control of the most refined aspect of the brain, the neocortex […] When we’re untying a complicated knot, we know enough to look carefully first, then gently undo the tangle. A hard yank on the cord will just make the knot tighter. So, too, with the body’s knots. Slow, intentional movement creates a kind of absorption in the mind that allows precise internal sensations to be tracked very consciously. This kind of movement keeps awareness centered in the neocortex and works against the body being hijacked by the primitive brain
— Stephen Cope (Yoga and The Quest for The True Self)