Choose Your Focus

If you have practiced yoga, you have likely heard the teacher say to focus your eyes on something stationary as you undertake a balance such as tree pose. The lingo for this action is drishti, which loosely means resting your gaze on a fixed point. Concentrating on a static spot can be a tremendous help in keeping yourself steady when attempting to stand on one leg or perform a head stand, but it is useful when practicing basic postures as well. 

When you focus your eyes on something in this way, you are asking yourself to truly see what's in front of you. You aren't just looking at it or past it or through it; you are seeing whatever it is for what it is. This may be very different from our everyday experience, because most of us aren't very good at paying attention to what's happening right in front of us. Whether it's blowing through a stop sign on the way to work or kissing a partner on autopilot in a rush to get out the door, we are rarely giving our full attention to what is happening right now. 

When you bring your full awareness to the moment at hand, you may naturally find that your sensory experience is heightened because your thoughts become quieter. Your hearing might become sharper, allowing you to trace the sound of your breath. You might start to notice your sense of touch and where you are resting the weight in your feet, how it feels to be rooted down into your mat. Or your awareness of where you are in space might increase so you know without looking that your right arm has dropped from its position parallel to the ground. All of these sensations help you to be mindful of what is happening on your mat right now instead of simply plowing through the motions. 

As with most things in yoga, this is extremely relevant in our every day life. Being mindful is a commonplace phrase right now, and rightly so because it's important! But what does it mean? Being mindful simply means giving your full attention to the moment. It means ignoring the argument you might be replaying in your head and softening your mind instead, letting it go. It means using the senses to be right where you are, listening to the person speaking, feeling the rain on your face, or tasting the dinner that your partner made for you. We spend so much time rushing through one thing just to move onto the next. Instead, we could focus on where we are right now and put all that energy into the moment at hand.