and now it is the play of consciousness : DAY 7 on Yogic Lifestyle Experiments
I am even more focused today. It’s a self observation. I have been sensing hot blocks of energy experience in the joints as I do any exercises. I am trying postures with eyes closed and focusing on the pain and discomfort in body parts.
Normally it is not something that we feel but when we do it with consciousness focused on the right part of the body it is a different sensation. I see burning sensations and area of energy density in the knee.
If you do the postures as only stretching with less involvement of consciousness you neither feel the actual sensations not you will get the actual benefits. Its is a simple observation. You too can try.
Do a set of postures just for the sake of doing and then do one more set of postures with your consciousness to experience the contractions and pain and discomfort. You do not have to make any affirmation or visualization or expectations. You just have to experience the reality of the contraction, pain and discomfort. You just have to experience.
That is the whole point of experiment. And seeing the reality.
Adding a affirmation and visualization along with consciousness can be an another set of experiment. It actually works wonders I have already tried that. But the raw experiment gives us the true reality. It makes us realize the reality. It is most important from my perspective.
So, about adding the the play of consciousness at will, It is no doubt much more than 10X the results and also reduce the time duration to receive the benefit. Time reduction is significant.
It is as if your consciousness fuels the body with the energy wherever it goes in your body. As I move my consciousness along the line of pain and discomfortable area it’s kind of becoming more energised with hotness and it is as if burning an iron rod to shape it further.
This conscious play of consciousness is a part of Yoga philosophy. And it is practical thing.
Here is one case.
I am lying down on the cotton mattress in the floor. Facing up. And I am lifting my right leg upward. I can not do it if my consciousness is dreaming a day dream or if it is blank.
Blank means paralysis of consciousness I call it. Many people experience it. I too many times.
When I am not focusing on anything. I am confused. It is like when you are in a three way coming from one direction and now you just completely confused which way to turn. Something like that. But there are more to it.
So, When I am enforcing my consciousness at will at the entire right leg and hip joints then only I am able to lift. I also have to keep a consciousness on knee as well to make sure it is not bending on its own. And it is tough.
The reality of my situation I am having a lot of vibration in the entire leg and upper body and on the hip joints. And it is difficult to stay still with right leg uplifted at 45 degree. It is a huge struggle.
It is important to understand this. What is this struggle. What is it all about. What is the reality of this struggle. Simply saying I am struggling is not enough. It does not really define the base problem.
My observation says that it is the problem related to the association and connection between consciousness and body. It is a problem of dissociation between the two.
To keep it lifted at 45 degree for 20 seconds I have to put so much effort in my brain to keep focused and to maintain the simple posture. I just have to lift right leg with 45 degree and I could not do it with easy. I literally need to squeeze my four head so much hard just to maintain the posture.
At the same time I am trying to experience all the events which are happening in the body. Its vibration, legs tendency to fall down, knee tendency to bend, and pain in the hip joints, contraction in the stomach, heat generation in the forehead and inside of the brain. So many things are happening with just one simple act of making a right leg 45 degree posture and holding it there.
As I observe more, I find that the actual task is to move and submerge my consciousness into the right leg and stretch my consciousness to be there in hip joints as well. And control the right leg 45 degree position and the posture as it is. I need to maintain the presence of consciousness in those areas as it is in this position for the set duration of 20 second.
Initially it is the problem of making a posture. Then as I observe the reality it appears as the problem of moving, and stretching the consciousness.
And the eventually it appears that the problem is not only to move and stretch the consciousness but to hold the consciousness in that position.
As part of the observation, for this particular posture, I see that it also about using the consciousness as a tool to control the legs and drive it to make required posture.
In this whole experiment and observation based approach of learning Yoga is giving me a different set of experience and opinions about how we work as a body and consciousness and mind together.
I think it is interesting learning. This way is making a lot of sense to me.
I am still missing the affirmation and visualization part which I have seen many trainers mix when they are training their clients. I will have a separate article into this. I still need to do enough experiment with this.
I have anyway found a different from day 1 to day 7. My level of body vibration has gone down. Not really something to get satisfaction. My intention is anyway different. No expectation. It is experiment and real experience based approach of doing and learning.
I think that is it for this article today. I will continue to add things here as I discover more. I think consciousness is wonderful thing to explore. .
Key Takeaway:
- Yoga is not really the problem of making posture. It is a problem of controlling your consciousness and using it as a tool to consciously control the body parts to make posture. And maintain your posture while maintaining your consciousness. And while still maintaining other parallel activity like conscious breathing and holding breath. (Try to make posture with this kind of perspective and see what is your observation.)
