When my first year Teacher Trainees begin to practice Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and the accompanying Mindful Meditation Practice, five days a week, two hours a session, they begin a trans-formative journey that changes them forever. It allows them to realize their full potential.
Within 12 weeks they comment : “I wasn’t this bewildered before. Meditation has made my state of mind worse. I thought I would experience a sense of peacefulness, but now I’m upset, frustrated, angry, and confused.”
My response is to point out that they are just recognizing a level of thought and emotion that they had never had stopped to pay attention to before. Their “look –in” at their wild and over-stimulated mind frightens them. The practices show us them nature of their mind.
This is why it takes our courage to practice.
Seeing the constant flow of thoughts is how we begin to train the mind. We begin to inquire: Is mind the ultimate authority? Or is mind subject to an authority? Can I have control over my mind? Or am I victim to its movements and its antics?
I encourage them to see that they can regard this as a positive experience, even though it may not feel that way.