15/05/2021
Directing attention and our senses inward, like we do in yoga, mindfulness and meditation (pratyahara- withdrawal of the senses) activates alpha brain waves. It’s kind of an alternative medicinal therapy; one that can improve mood and cognition, reduce anxiety and depression and balance emotion. This is like a drug for me, and something I look forward to every time I practice- which is every single day in one form or another 🙏🏼
If you are like me, thinking can become exhausting, and it’s not something that can be switched off, even during meditation, because we don’t ever stop thinking. But when we focus the mind inward, thought is directed to examining the internal landscape without external stimulus. In this way we can increase awareness; it is the gateway to understanding yourself, developing self awareness and personal growth. Those alpha brain waves help dissolve the mind into stillness and calm. That’s the drug I’m addicted to, the dissolution of everything else, a single pointed focus and sense of clarity. Over decades of cranking and sweating my body through asana I’ve come to understand that it wasn’t so much the physical practice that kept me going back every day, it was what was happening to my mind.
