“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think…with our thoughts we make the world” Buddha

Our life is riddled with elusive questions and, sometimes, they remain as puzzle to us. The discovery of that enigma, our real obligation, leads to a cascade of events unlocking the door to our destiny; mindfulness is the path to that discovery. In silence, in meditation we pave the path to mindfulness leading to the goal we are destined to.

If mindful breathing, poses and foci form the triangular base of yoga, the converse might be true too: yoga should cultivate mindfulness. Nurturing mindfulness through yoga practice and in our life is the theme of our practice, the last one, in the park this Sunday at 8.30 am. Hope you will be able to make it.

Here are three ways one could cultivate mindfulness (and this is what we would do):

1. Make breathing mindful. Use thoracic and abdominal muscles efficiently. Bring into your mind the complementary benefits (internal organ massage, sensitization of endocrine system…) of deep breathing. Redefine breath, if you may: breathing is nothing but our ability to enhance the three dimensional capacity of lungs. Deep breathing in mindfulness triggers parasympathetic nervous system stimulating “rest and digest” and “feed and breed” mechanisms in contrast to “fight or flight” stimulation triggered by sympathetic nervous system and shallow breathing.

2. Make poses BEADED: In every pose scan your body to see how the body acts or behaves, how the energy flows (close your eyes and listen), how you are working with your body; how you are directing and elaborating your poses to yield the dynamic stability you need to stand or sit in a pose for a long time (if needed) without any discomfort. By definition, yoga should be stable and comfortable.

3. Deploy external, internal and cognitive foci in yoga practice.

All these accompanied by a live soul music rendition by Tey! Hope you see you.

Love,

Jay

P. S 1: Mindfulness reduce anxiety and depression; in children mindfulness improve test score, awareness and attitude; it help adults to succeed in all realms of their activities.

P. S 2: When I first set the time at 7.30 am, they told me, “it is too early and too cold”; I changed the time to 8.30, now they say, “It’s too late and too hot”…haha. We, still, are children. Good news for a yogi!