What's Missing?
The yogic system teaches us how to take conscious control of our thinking and gradually still the fluctuations of our mind so we can become more present for each moment of our life. This practice can guide us to become the master of our minds, which is essential to achieving greater well-being in all areas of our lives.
Despite my dedication to this system, I continue to notice my mind racing, chest tightening, brain fogging, and body tensing. These signs are what I know to be anxiety and result when the fluctuations of my mind run rampant from future to past thinking. Rather than move into a controlled, clear, and focused state of mind, I notice I often get stuck in my continuous, automatic, and negative stream of thinking.
And it’s no wonder. We live in a world with a plethora of stimuli to distract us from whatever we long to escape. When boredom strikes, we can reach for our phones. Restlessness can lead us to seek instant gratification in a box of beer. Overwhelm can prompt us to take a short walk into the kitchen for a bag of chips.
Many of us engage in the physical practice of yoga because we want to improve our well-being. Yet we tend to know emotions like anxiety, depression, and overwhelm more than joy, clarity, and inner calm. As soon as we leave our yoga mat, our racing mind persists and continues to persuade us to take actions that don’t truly enhance our lives.
Ask Those Who Have Gone Before
Yoga has gained a significant following of 300 million practitioners globally. Despite the growing popularity and accessibility of yoga, there appears to be an escalating prevalence of mental health disorders and an overwhelming array of distractions to fill our time.
This incongruity raises questions about the aspects of this yogic system that we may be missing to help us overcome the fundamental challenges of modern life.
It may be best to put our yoga mats aside when we want answers to help us better understand how to implement this system of yoga into modern life and turn to yogic philosophy instead.
We can use these philosophical teachings to learn from those who have gone before us since they, too, have encountered similar obstacles and discovered how to overcome them.
What Does Patanjali Think?
One text often referred to for guidance in yogic philosophy is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In this text, Patanjali states that one obstacle we will have to overcome in our yoga practice is ignorance, which is another form of delusion.
What Patanjali specifically refers to as ignorance in the Yoga Sutras is believing the unimportant to be important. Take a moment to ponder that. All of our mental suffering comes from thinking something is important when it is actually unimportant.
So what is important?
According to the yoga tradition, the only thing that is important is this very moment right now.
Boring...
Being present is not very exciting. It’s actually quite boring. That is because our minds are creative problem solvers. They love it when we give them a challenge.
The problem with this quality of the mind is that it is often overly misused in today’s modern society. We no longer have to figure out how to collect enough food to last us through a long winter. Or build a shelter to protect us from predators.
Instead, we often give our minds problems that don’t even exist. We focus on past events that we think should or shouldn’t have happened. This type of thinking can result in regret, anger, jealousy, grief, shame, or depression. Or we jump ahead into the future and think about what could happen. This type of thinking can result in anxiety, stress, overwhelm, fear, worry, or restlessness.
While present-moment thinking may not always be the most exciting option, it does allow us to experience a state of calm, courage, focus, drive, joy, and resiliency. All of these emotions are what most of us are after when we dedicate ourselves to any practice that has the potential to improve our lives.
Importance of Presence
Our mind will likely fluctuate between future and past thinking unless we remember to take conscious control of it. It’s like walking into a dark movie theater and standing in the hallway not knowing where we are going to sit.
The mind starts to remember why we don’t like walking into a dark theater. Suddenly, we experience terror because our mind recalls how dark the theater gets when they turn off the lights. It visualizes us tripping over everyone’s feet and causing a scene.
Then our minds jumps ahead into the future and imagines how embarrassed we will feel with everyone looking at us. We won’t know whether to stay or run right back out of the theater. But we won’t be able to leave because we won’t be able to see!
Next thing we know, we are terrified, embarrassed, and anxious and we haven’t even entered the movie theater. We completely forget that the only decision we have to make is walking into the theater. Then we can focus on the next one, then the next one, then the next one….
Focusing on the present moment may not be that exciting, but it may be better than getting caught up in drama-filled narratives that our minds tend to construct.
Now, Take These Teachings Off Your Mat
The purpose of yoga is not to turn off that unconscious part of our mind that likes to repeat old stories and vigilantly look for things that could go wrong. Instead, the system of yoga teaches us how to become aware of our thoughts, and intentionally direct our mind back to the present moment, which is the only moment that matters.
The yogic system reminds us that we can override that anxious, hyper-vigilant, mostly negative part of our brain and consciously direct it toward focusing on things that we can control right now.
What do I want to think right now? How do I want to feel right now? How do I want to act right now? What’s the next best step I can take right now?
Arriving There Is Not That Important
Patanjali advises the student to continuously practice remembering and returning to the importance of this very moment right now. No matter what our mind tries to convince us of, our life won’t be any more full, rich, or enhanced when we arrive someplace else if we don’t learn how to be more present, alive, and awake now.
It’s a shift from rushing through life to savoring the small, profound moments that shape our existence. Rather than hurry to wash the dishes so that everything will be clean, we begin to focus our minds on what happens between the dirty and the clean- the temperature of the water, the sound of the faucet, or the movement of our hands.
Without presence, we often miss these middle zones because we are too busy looking for something else. We miss the moment right now because we are too busy thinking about what our life should be like or what we would rather be doing.
When we begin to live more presently we can live more fully here than there. We no longer think of tasks as mundane, but rather as perfection itself.
You Get To Decide What Matters
Patanjali’s teachings echo a timeless truth—our lives won’t be more fulfilling or enhanced in some distant future unless we learn to embrace the importance of now.
The practice of yoga may only enrich our lives if we also incorporate this element of presence into it. Committing to return to the present moment again and again can lead us to a life that’s not just lived, but truly experienced.
Through the wisdom of yoga and its philosophical underpinning, we can learn to master our minds and transcend our anxieties and distractions of modern life, while embracing the tranquility that resides in this moment right now.
Contemplation Points
If you find yourself living in your mind rather than engaged with the outside world, practice coming back to the present moment. Repeat this over and over again as many times as needed until you are fully engaged with this very moment right now.
It may be helpful to pause and notice what is happening in your mind whenever you experience a state of internal suffering or negative emotions.
Notice if your thoughts mainly consist of future or past thinking. Don’t judge them or think that you’ve done anything wrong. Just observe your thoughts and acknowledge them. Maybe even tell yourself that nothing has gone wrong. You are safe in this moment.
Try to focus on the sensations of your body. Notice how you are breathing. Direct your attention to those things that are a part of your current environment.
Notice if your mind resists your attempts at being more present. If so, don’t judge it. Just get curious and ask why. What is uncomfortable about directing your attention to the things that are happening at this moment?
When you notice you are in a hurry to get somewhere else, try slowing down and be aware of your thoughts, body, and breath. Notice your surroundings. What do you hear, see, feel, smell, taste?
Remember the chatty, primitive part of our mind won’t necessarily give up and stop talking. With practice, we can learn to detach ourselves from this aspect of our mind and instead decide to be present right now. It’s a choice and a lifelong practice.
