Being present (mindful) whether in yoga or in daily life are the keys to a life with less worries, less fear and less anxiety
About 8 years ago, I read a book called "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle and I realised how restless my mind was all the time (incessant streams of thoughts, judgements, comments, labels, hypothetical situations, etc) running through my head all day and how I had never been aware of that before! I always thought that that little voice in my head was actually "me".
I started to consciously try to observe my breath as often as I remembered as a means to be present, it would be really hard to be thinking about the past and memories or making plans about the future while you are breathing mindfully. Observe your breath and you are instantly in the Here & Now <3
I started to observe my thoughts more and more (as a witness) , I noticed how on my way to University one day, I was on the bus, running late, my mind was commenting "the bus driver is so slow, I should have ridden my push bike, I am going to be late and when I get to class I will have to sit at the back where I cannot see too much because I'm near sighted and don't wear glasses, blah blah blah" I noticed how I could simply observe these thoughts forms from a different place in myself, from a place that I didn't know existed, as an spectator behind the thoughts...
"When you are aware that you are thinking, that awareness is not a part of thinking. It is a different dimension of consciousness"
Our minds, as it says in the book, tries to escape the present moment, it rarely resides in it, it is always thinking of past or future events (which are mostly hypothetical) and this fact, prevents us from enjoying what actually is, instead of feeling sorry for what could or should be...
“Realise deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
I tried to observe to the content of my mind as much as I could, and the more I paid attention, the less anxiety and worry I felt, of course I did (and do) get carried away by thoughts, but at least little by little I felt glimpses of aware presence. And with it, a sense of freedom
“The beginning of freedom is the realisation that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realise that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realise that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.”
When we contemplate the breath, when we consciously pay attention to sensations as the air passes through the nostrils, we gain access to a sense of stillness which eventually leads to us to be healthier, calmer and happier, and even people around us can feel the domino effect of those qualities.
By being mindful, we make better decisions which contribute to our overall well-being, when we are in this place of awareness in us, negative harming thoughts towards ourselves and others start to dissolve... Conscious, calm people don't go around hurting others spraying negativity, have you noticed? Once we consciously become the witness of what happens (in our minds), rather than reacting to what happens, we start to live in harmony with the Universe, we start to feel a sense of Oneness
"Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness."
The more we pay attention to subtleties in our minds, body and breath, the more we are in tune with ourselves, and in tune with the Universal energy. The body as well as our mind talks to us at all times (in subtler ways), it wants to communicate wisdom that can serve us to live a healthier life... When we don't hear, or we ignore the cues the body gives us, the body starts screaming so that we can hear, it screams in the form of injuries, disease, etc... Can you relate?
Being present allows us to clearly see all of what we are, in our deepest form (remember that we do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are.) By being present we accept who we are at all times, knowing that our divinity lies within, and only in our Selves we find happiness, only in our Selves we find love, only in our Selves we find contentment <3
"To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment"
Nothing is outside of you, you are IT all, the formless within us is the magic seed that allows us to grow, re-discover (remember) who we are, a spark of Divinity <3 Namaste,
Amor
*All quotes by Eckhart Tolle on "The Power of Now"