Mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh.
As the mind, so the person: bondage or freedom is in your own mind.
The natural condition of the mind is peace. So why are so many of us constantly searching for what’s already inside us? The key isn’t finding peace. It’s practicing peace.
The environment we carry with us
As someone who lives with anxiety and is a classic overthinker, I can tell you the mind plays a powerful role in our ability to be at peace. Many of us believe our environment and circumstances cause our pain, but the truth is they’re only a small factor in our happiness.
Imagine this. You’re in bed, following all the rules for a good night’s sleep. Blue light from your electronics isn’t a problem. You didn’t have that third cup of coffee after 3 p.m. like you wanted. You’ve followed all the advice from those online articles. Yet as you lie there, your mind races from one event to the next. You replay your entire day, plan tomorrow, and rehearse conversations you will or won’t have. Maybe you dwell on the time you accidentally offended someone eight years ago, a memory that has somehow managed to prick your skin again. So why aren’t you blissfully drifting off? Your sleeping environment isn’t the problem. Your mind is.
The problem is the environment we carry with us 24 hours a day. You can live, vacation or travel in the most beautiful, peaceful places on the planet, but if your mind is not at peace, the serenity you seek will never be found. Peace is a practice. Once you cultivate it, you can be in the midst of complete chaos and not internalize any of it. But you must continue to practice, or slowly but surely you will lose it again.
Taking yoga off the mat
Yoga is key to practicing peace. For many of us, yoga happens on the mat. We show up to the studio. We do the asanas. We sweat. We move and stay still when the teacher instructs. We try to silence our minds in savasana. Finally, we walk out the door with a sense of tranquility, ready for anything.
That feeling only lasts so long, though, if we don’t take our practice off the mat and into daily life. Yoga isn’t just poses. Yoga is the practice of breath, meditation, letting go, self-discipline, self-discovery, devotion, joy, compassion, patience, concentration and acceptance.
Let’s focus on focus
The practice of peace is too big for one article, so let’s focus on focus. The human mind loves to wander. Most of the time we aren’t fully focused on any single task, especially in a culture that glorifies multitasking. Being focused lets us be fully immersed in what we are doing. Through all its aspects, yoga helps us be fully present, which keeps us from dredging up old pain or creating new pain.
Staying focused isn’t easy when the mind is constantly being distracted by our surroundings, but continued practice strengthens the mind and trains it to return to peace. Start small. Dedicate a little time to practice as often as you can. Remember, peace is a practice, and it gets easier with time.
Focusing exercises
- Count backward from 100. You’ll be surprised how often you lose your place because your mind has wandered.
- Identify your senses. Name everything you see, hear, smell, taste and feel, with your body and your heart.
- Meditate. This may be the hardest, so enlist help: set a simple timer or use a guided meditation app.
- Screens off. Set a timer for a period when you won’t look at any screens, and gradually increase it as it gets easier.
Avoid these pitfalls
- Forgetting to practice. Set an alarm to remind you, and don’t hit snooze.
- Making excuses. When your reminder goes off and you’re busy (or lazy), do it anyway. Choose an exercise that fits what you’re doing. Driving? Identify your senses. Working? Focus on one task only. No checking email; it can wait five minutes.
- Getting distracted. Set a timer for your practice and put your phone across the room, and don’t check how much time is left. Keep a distraction list: when a thought pops up, like “What will the weather be on my vacation?”, write down “weather” and return to your exercise. When time is up, you can check on all those “urgent” things.
