Inside Yoga 330
28/6/2024

Disclaimer before I kick off: this is not about Euros currently taking place on football pitches in Germany! This article is about how we achieve what we aim for with our yoga/meditation but without having goals during our practice.

The root of this message is the advice that a grasping mind does not get what it seeks, that by reaching out and grasping we can push away or squeeze what we seek. It is the paradox that is yoga practice.

In recent classes, at the end when we have finished with a short meditation I have advised to sit and watch our breathing, without seeking to achieve anything from what we are doing. Simply be content to sit still and breathe was the message.

Easier said than done, but this is what is needed if we wish to achieve anything from our practice. Contradictory I admit, but most practitioners who practice consistently and over time reach the conclusion that the answer lies in dropping our goals at the time of practice. Practice is practice.

This is a key point, ‘at the time of practice’, because if we look at the big picture, or, what we want to achieve overall from practice, we will have goals, aims, a sense of what we seek. It makes sense to have an overall target in mind. But it is not used, as a thought, when actually practising.

Although I need to clarify at this point, this is not necessarily referring to a goal to be able to touch our toes in a seated forward bend. This is perhaps something we can aim for and make effort whilst practising, increasing our effort and stretch, but like most things it is not guaranteed.

What I am referring to here is the aim to have a balanced and clear mind through practice, to improve our mental well-being, or perhaps to unlock and find answers to mysteries of life – to become enlightened. These are the big goals, the long term aims for many, though I do concede others practice for a good stretch, but I would add that this is not then a yoga practice, just a physical exercise with its associated goal.

What is advised is that when meditating the focus is on keeping the mind quiet, no thoughts, just conscious awareness of what we are doing: sitting, breathing, nothing else. And holding our attention on this is the exercise, the goal you could say, keeping the goal to the moment-to-moment activity we are engaged in. Its repetition and its practice.

Another way I like to explain this is to have faith in the practice. To simply focus on the mechanism and methods of practice, if seated, breathing and being still.

Equally, this applies to yoga asanas (the physical exercises we call postures), because here the advice is to trust what the postures offer us, in terms of practice, they hold our attention on what we are doing. Not holding onto a wished outcome whilst practising, like above reference to a seated forward bend, not filled with thoughts like “how long before I can touch my toes”.

Instead focus on the breathing, the physical sensations of the exercise to tell us what is happening at that particular moment, and perhaps deepening or adjusting the forward bend if it feels right, that is, make an appropriate response, but not with the thoughts ‘how long before I reach those toes, how long before’ etc.

This is yoga without goals.

Trust in the mechanism of practice, its tools and methods, after all, they have been practised by people for thousands of years.

Stay present and focussed on the here and now, pay attention to what we are doing, and not an imagined future somewhere out ahead.

Any thoughts, leave a comment in the panel below, or email me.