THE FOURTH PILLAR OF YOGA – THE PROCESS OF THOUGHT ( VICHARA)
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit to the changes it has had to go through in order to achieve that beauty” – Unknown
This pillar is referring to learning how to handle and discipline our own thoughts. To have that internal dialogue with ourselves and make a friend of our own mind.
Our mind is like a monkey jumping in a veritable jungle of disjointed preconceived ideas, feelings, desires, sensations, tension, thoughts, restrains that put us in great disbalance.
Our thoughts are more or less undisciplined and uncontrolled, repetitive and useless. From morning to night we are continuously “recycling” our thoughts, and rarely some new fresh thoughts are created, for that to happen we have to wake up to our own potential.
When we feel that we can no longer have control over our own mind, the overthinking takes over creating compulsive thinking, an addictive mental state many of us are suffering today that generates states of stress, anxiety, panic, and depression…
In the last 100 years, our minds have been stimulated to think more than it was needed. We gave supremacy and prised the mind, this way creating an unconscious identification with the mind and its accumulated content. In the end, the mind is nothing else than a tool, an intrinsic part of our body.
We have to understand that the intelligence that is at work is far greater than the mind, and when the mind integrates the body it can become a great tool.
Think with all your body not only with your head; feel your breath moving in and out, feel your posture, feel your legs, your spine, shoulders, feel your neck position, your jaw muscles, thees, tong in your mouth, ears, eyes…Become aware where your attention is focused when you think. Is your body existing at that time, or you completely ignore it. Use your mind creatively and connect with the all of you. Merge into a state of body-mind connection by entering into that state through your body. Pay attention to every single sensation that comes and goes, make your mind curious about bodily sensations.
When we consciously take the responsibility to begin to know “the monkey mind” we can see that we have the power within to change our mental tendencies and understand our own thoughts meaning. The power within can arise only from knowing our way of thinking. There are many thinking styles we approach today, as the mind is stimulated to achieve, to compete, to be successful, to be “someone”.
We have to start to reach the point where we overcome this predominance of the mind, otherwise, we will be destroyed by our own mind. Until we figure out that our way of thinking is the one that is harming us, half of our life passes by.
What can we really do about it?
What is thinking itself? What is the source of thought? Can we leave without thought and become free?
In the next post, I will continue with the five types of mind discussed here.
Warmly,
Maria Mitea,
HealthYoga Therapist, Teacher, and Student,