This is where the practice of yoga steps in. Yoga is the science and art of steadying the mind in this moment. We can do this on a yoga mat or in a seated mediation posture. I use both techniques yet find the seated meditation practice to be a more solid ground to understand and work with my mind.
The Hatha Yoga practice serves as the physical exercise systems that strengthens and purifies the body while cultivating a mind that is steady and familiar with breathing and the body. The Hatha Yoga practice is means to bring us into deeper states of stillness and to prepare us to sit in meditation.
In meditation practices, you are not shutting your mind down or attaining a state of non-thinking, rather, you are learning to make friends with and understand how your mind works. And this becomes the very ground upon which you can make wise decisions on the direction your life is taking.
When you sit and get still and settled. It becomes a place where you can begin to see which voices are driving your life and which direction you are headed. Our lives carry with them a lot of momentum. The practice helps slow down and cultivate a heightened state of awareness--intimacy with ourselves. It also helps us begin to develop a relationship with the presence inside of us that can see and feel thought and emotion from a third party perspective.
My friend and mentor, David Nichtern, calls meditation a burn. He says that when we sit we can burn up our karmas. We can begin to rewire our brain and we can cultivate qualities that can help change our relationship to life.
This process is challenging. The momentum our lives possess is like a river that is carrying us. In the beginning it can be like swimming up a stream. Daily practice and a relentless commitment are required.
