A few years back, I moved from semi-regular Yoga to regular meditation. I still do a little Yoga from time to time, but a particular writer on the general subject suggested an unnecessary link between contorting your body and freeing your mind. Also that there was this notion in Yoga of clearing your mind. Meditation, he argued, had to do with opening up your mind and welcoming all of what you are into that space. In other words, don't worry about pushing thoughts out of your head. Find a rhythm to them, rejoice in them, and just relax. The type of meditation he talks about we have all experienced just by happenstance, though we have probably just attributed to being spaced out. Just getting lost on a thought, or being taken in by the peacefulness or beauty of something you come across in life.
Anyway, a couple of great moments in recent days:
The first was driving down to Waterloo for the weekend. Lucy sleeping in the back, Sharon half-sleeping in the front. Me driving. Full moon, so bright that it was making the remnants of snow over the countryside glow blue, and actually casting long shadows of telephone poles across the road. u2's Joshua Tree was on the radio and I had just picked up a medium cup of coffee to go. I enjoyed an amazing state of peace & contentment that lasted for basically the length of the album.
The second was yesterday. Got out for my first run of the spring over my lunch hour. It was around 60 degrees and sunny. I've really not been out a whole lot recently, but this was spectacular. The sun was just strong enough to warm my cheeks, and I was surprised to find how comfortable and easy my stride was, even though it had been on the shelf for a few months. Signs of impending spring all around, I took a loop through the Wood Lake Nature Preserve, lost myself in the soft thudding of my feet and my rhythmic runners' breath and emerged a happy man.
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3 comments:
Yoga, for me, is just a more sophisticated version of 'stretching'. Other than the normal physiological effects that come from exertion, I've never found that it cleared my mind in anyway more than a good run, a hard-days work, or whatever. I have adopted a few stretched from yoga for my normal stretching regimen before basketball. There is no stretch on Earth that stretches the back of your legs (hamstring, calves, achilles) like Downward Dog. It is phenomenal.
I don't need to speak of the delirious effects of The Joshua Tree. Combine that with your running and you might never stop. Quietly, of course, so you can still hear the chirps of birds, the rustle of trees, and the pounding of your heart.
What the hell is "The Downward Dog?"
Like Upward Dog only different.
http://www.dodam.org/en/yoga/poses/up_down_dogs.htm
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