Amanda Ramcharitar Yoga

Why is it sometimes when you are learning everything is just so hard to understand? Sometimes it takes an enormous effort to read and digest just a paragraph from a book.  For me sometimes it can seem as if half an hour has gone by and I am still staring at the same page or somehow gotten to the bottom of the page and don’t remember a word I read. Yet when a song that  you absolutely can’t stand and you turn the radio station every time it comes on, somehow you wind up at a party and that same bloody song comes on and somehow you know every single word!!! What is the rational for this type of behavior?  

After practicing Yoga for the last 13 years it is a common understanding that the practice brings concentration, certainly due to the heightened conscious effort of forcing the mind to connect with the body, therefore slowing down the rapid thoughts and creating focus.  What i find interesting though is the times understanding comes, whether it be in a pose or when an AHA! moment happens when reading a book.  I think these times are akin not just to concentration, but a sense of openness as opposed to being closed to new information.   But what is this state of being?

Usually i would research a topic such as this, to find the scientific or philosophical reasoning, but today the answers are flowing from the heart.  I’ve spent many years interacting with different generations of folks, strangers to family, from all walks of life worldwide and what can is say?  I love good conversation.  In this its an interesting phenomena to speak to strangers and feel their sense of being.  Some are very tapped into their life, their families, some are very disconnected from life and seem to be wandering, floating in thoughts.  Yet some are very open to conversation and can follow a new train of thought, where others reminisce about the past and seem determined for you to know who they are as if they need to remind themselves of who they are and where they come from…

What does this have to do with being open or closed?  From my own personal experience, the training of body connecting with mind gives access to allowing the body to communicate how it feels.  Being “open” can be felt, it is being in a state of non expectation, having no preconceived ideas or opinions, basically not thinking about what or why and being physically being relaxed.  Being closed is the exact opposite, expecting, thinking, planning for the next moment, physically feeling tight with anticipation.  This closed state somehow doesn’t allow for new information because as the buddhists say “the cup is already full”.  How does this affect one’s life?  When the cup is full, its hard to have new life experiences, to allow new people to bring fresh perspective, to read something that can make all the difference in a tough decision, to allow the magic of life to flow through our lives.

So the next time you feel anxious or just thinking a lot and just can’t figure out what is going on, try to relax, drop the thoughts, and feel the difference… make way for the flow…