I felt that my obvious lack of presence in making coffee yesterday morning was a great preparation fot this post. On-the-mat, wondering presence can be more subtle and bringing attention to it a rewarding practice. I recently “caught” myself being not present in a very subtle way during a sequence of back-bends – and I thought to share it as a real-life example instead of writing some theoretical post about the subject.
Though it’s not my practice sequence – this is what a typical back-bending sequence may look like. It is a vinyasa (gradual progression) of back-bend variations (note to myself: do a post on the subtle aspects of back-bends!).
I teach and practice such sequences with a rest between each variation. A resting position would be legs and arms in a relaxed position and the head resting on the floor, turned sideways to one side (alternating the position of the head in each rest – to keep an overall centered exprience).
When I am present in the practice, I complete a variation and simply lay my head to one side. When I am not totally present in the practice I start thinking about the resting position before I finish the last round of movement. As I a moving back down towards the floor I am thinking about what the position of my head should be. If it’s the first asana in the sequence I may find myself debating on which side I should place my head in the first rest (keeping in my obsessive mind that this first choice affects the entire sequence) . My mind has left the posture while my body is still in it.
It’s relatively easier to catch mind wondering off when it makes larger fumbles like losing count, forgetting where you are in a sequence, losing balance or just plain shopping around worries and preoccupations of life. Smaller excursions are more subtle and deviant. Catching them is a more subtle practice.
Have you noticed what your mind likes to do when you practice?