Intuition, yoga and Blink

Yoga philosophy writes of intuition as reaching the profound wisdom within us.  The wisdom is there, available for access, but we don’t always notice it, we don’t necessarily listen to it or heed it.  In fact, we don’t ‘see’ the wisdom behind the masks of misconception and conditioning.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of four NYT Best Sellers thinks that it is time we paid more attention to the “fleeting moments” when our “rapid cognition” is trying to tell us something important - Blink.  He writes that intuition is a concept we use to describe emotional reactions – gut feelings – and he defines it as “thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking."”

Common belief has it that we make our best decisions by carefully evaluating all available, relevant information, but Blink and yoga philosophy argue to the contrary.

Gladwell’s book propounds to answer “What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better?”   - http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html

Yoga practice in the meantime offers to help locate and listen to that ever present wisdom in this busy, crazy world.

An effective yoga practice helps us to calm our busy minds and create a little space so that we are more aware of that deepest wisdom.  Over time, a developing yoga practice can also help us to minimize those masks of misconception and conditioning.  For example, when we improve the health of our bodies and regularly create calm in our internal chatter, we realize the difference between that which we can control and that which we truly can’t control.  We recognize the difference between true assumptions and false assumptions.  We understand when we are defaulting to bad patterns and habits rather than deepening new, healthy patterns.

Knowing that we have clearer access to this wisdom is a benefit from yoga that takes time to occur and even takes time to acknowledge that it’s happening.  Interestingly, being in touch with this wisdom also wanes if your yoga practice falls off!  And that’s not something that hits you right away either.

Finding the space between our incessant thoughts takes time, practice and forbearance.  When people speak of mindfulness, that is the quality our yoga sessions require to find the space, appreciate the space and create more.

While science and Malcolm Gladwell make great strides in interpreting intuition, try finding a yoga that resonates with you… then stay with it.  You owe it to yourself and even to those around you.

Yoga and 'happiness as a human condition'

This morning’s Globe writers dip into two good books: one on happiness and one on self control.

The first article indicates that longing for happiness is a central tenet of the human condition. 

Through yoga, my understanding and experience is that it is in our very nature to be happy: there are just so very many reasons that we loose touch with that.  And we mainly focus on acquiring / reaching out for something to make us happy.

Are we mostly looking to the future when we have reached stages or acquired things that will make us complete. Are we often looking back and dwelling on something that separates us from our happiness?

The second article indicates that the ‘best bet’ to mastering our self control is mastering our environment (since everywhere is overwhelming with temptations).

Through a sustained practice like yoga, we work through what disconnects us from our inherent happiness, and we find that we have a different relationship with what overwhelms us. 

With a yoga practice that personally resonates, that is done wholeheartedly and done over time, so very much more is possible.  Not fast and not without effort but very, very possible.

Addressing stress: why so important?

“Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" is an amusing title for the serious, and humorous, book by Robert Sapolsky.  And there is much more than ulcers under analysis and discussion!

In his book the Stanford University professor - teacher of both biological sciences and neuroscience - explores the consequences of stress on both the body and the mind.  The short version of how zebras can cope with the reality of finding a lion in pursuit is that they suitably utilize their body's stress response by running, running fast and running as far as it takes.  The zebra's serge of stress hormones are beautifully utilized and the animal returns to calm.

Stress hormones save our lives in a crisis; however, what if these hormones are constantly activated - by our experiences, what we consume and, or, our behavior - and what if we can't turn them off?

For more about the book's content this book review gives an excellent account.

For how to manage your body's reaction to all of the responsibilities and stresses that life heaps on us: try yoga!  

A yoga that is done with attention to the state that the body as it arrives to class, and a yoga that is 'mindful' and pays attention to how you breathe with each yoga posture will make a noticeable difference.

The only real way to know how yoga can work for you is to do some research and reserve some of your time!

Yoga is more relevant in this Internet age

“When we're constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to forge the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our thinking.”  - Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Yoga is more relevant today than at any time in our past.  During the past 10 years our minds have been increasingly bombarded with messages and circumstances that put us in a state of disconnect.  The clarity of our thoughts and reactions can be impeded by our lifestyle as we adopt more methods to cram more in. 

But this disconnect, this cramming, means that we find it much more difficult to relax, repair and rejuvenate after our days, and weeks, of multi-tasking and heavy responsibilities.

Loosing the "depth and distinctiveness to our thinking" can impact on all aspects of our life and most immediately on the reliability of our decisions.  Without depth, where is the wisdom?

Yoga is a beautiful, accessible and time-honoured method to re-connect our minds with our bodies; and to clear our minds in order to access that deepest wisdom.  That way we don’t disregard the state of our nervous system or the state of our spine (and more).  We come back into contact and relate to how we can indeed slow down and relax and enable our bodies to regain, maintain and even build energy and good health.

A good yoga class that allows your body and your mind to relax is more essential then ever before.

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