For the past three years I have been planking every single day. I started this practice a month before my 200-hour yoga teacher training, with the intention of building a strong body that could contort into the shapes I saw on the cover of Yoga Journal and on social media. Then teacher training started, and I learned that asanas (yoga poses) are just one part of yoga.
I realized I had been practicing yoga before I ever found my way onto a mat. I was just calling it something else: running. The yoga sutras remind us that yoga is about calming the fluctuations of the mind. You know that monkey mind, with a million thoughts running in tangents every second, often in a negative tone? As a middle-distance runner, I regularly found myself on a “runner’s high,” with no thoughts and in a very good mood. It wasn’t something I needed to practice; it just happened. Then I stopped running and lost that amazing gift. So it’s no wonder I found my way onto the yoga mat. It wasn’t just a great workout. It was 75 minutes of calming the mind-stuff.
Building the habit
The first month I planked, it was only about building the habit: one minute every day, on my knees. From that practice, I could get creative in building my powerful plank. The first thing I did was hold myself accountable by sharing my commitment with friends and asking them to join me.
What I’ve learned from this daily plank practice is that no matter how strong and powerful my body is, unless I can control the negative voice in my head, I will not be planking for very long, or achieving any other life purpose for that matter, regardless of how many friends are supporting me.
Concentration: choosing your object
So I began a daily meditation practice, which for me really begins with a concentration practice. In yoga we use the Sanskrit word drishti to prompt us to focus our attention on a body part, the breath or a mantra. This is the beginning of the concentration practice that quiets the mind.
We bring our attention to one object: a flame, a stone, the ocean. The ocean is my happy place and one of my favorite objects to meditate with. It’s important to select one thing that brings you joy and stick with it. Once you have your object, you build your habit of concentration and work on controlling the mind’s thoughts, exercising the muscles of the mind.
Yoga Sutra 1.17 describes how a focused mind gains power, and how, when that powerful mind concentrates on an object, the full knowledge of that object is revealed to it.
From concrete to subtle
Once you completely know your object, you can begin to concentrate on its subtle elements. It would be hard to imagine the color red without having seen a red apple, or to picture a flickering flame or smell the salty ocean without experiencing it first. But once you have concentrated on your object, your mind is ready. I spend time listening to the sounds of the waves, feeling the water, seeing blue all the way to the horizon, all in my mind.
After my first month of planking on my knees, I knew I was ready to lift them. You’ll know when you are ready to move from concrete to subtle concentration. And if you aren’t sure, try. There is always the option to go back, to lower the knees, to return to your object. It helps to keep the actual object, or a picture of it, in the place where you sit daily.
After a lot of practice with the first two steps, you will approach what I think of as the runner’s high: the joyful state of meditation in which there are no thoughts to reflect on, where you simply contemplate the tranquil mind itself. This is what keeps me coming back to my mat. This is the powerful mind.
One thing at a time
I used to pride myself on being a fantastic multitasker, but I have learned I can get just as much done one thing at a time, in the present, peacefully and joyfully. The shapes, the poses and the forearm stands are all really fun, but when I am on my mat with a calm mind, I am my best self. When I can lie in savasana and not think about the to-do list, but just be, I know I have done my practice of creating a powerful mind through concentration.
Three years in, planking has become a form of concentration practice for me: first finding my drishti (a spot on the mat), then bringing attention inward toward the third eye or the mantra “I am patient, loving, kind,” then moving to that joyful, tranquil mind. The planker’s high.
The fourth level of concentration is a work in progress for me. It is a practice, not a perfect. It’s hard to imagine this level, where you are simply sitting with yourself. It’s hard to practice the unknown, so we start with concrete objects and move backward toward the self, without the ego. We have to practice mindfully and slowly, because a powerful mind we have no control over becomes dangerous, just as someone with a powerful body and no control could cause harm with force.
Your turn
My spiritual bucket list includes a 20-minute daily meditation practice. I encourage you to join me, or share your goals with a supportive friend who will hold you accountable.
- What would a practice of creating a one-pointed mind look like for you?
- Where would you sit? What would your object be?
- Can you give five of your precious minutes every day to concentration?
- While you are doing the dishes, can you concentrate only on the dish?
- When you fold laundry, can you feel gratitude for the piece of clothing in your hands?
- When you enjoy your guilty pleasure, can you give yourself permission to be fully there, joyfully, instead of somewhere else in your thoughts?
This is the practice of the powerful mind: enjoying life. Practicing gratitude in concentration helps create pure thoughts, and helps the mind become selfless rather than dangerous.
Like any other practice, do not expect your mind to be quiet the first time, or the millionth time, you sit down in silence. Rumi reminds us that the quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. Keep practicing, keep pulling the tangent thoughts back, keep training the mind. Yoga Sutra 1.14 teaches that practice becomes firmly grounded when it is attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness. And one day, your mind will listen to you.
Here is the secret, the trick, to concentration: just breathe.
I wish you a beautiful day creating your own happiness and living a life with purpose. Namaste. (And keep planking!)
