Everyone falls prey to unwanted, rambling or spontaneous thinking when trying to practice meditation and yoga. Here is a creative imagination to engage the bigger part of your mind to overpower these nagging intrusions to your practice.
Imagine that someone has let you in to a football stadium after the game is over. Spectators gone and gone with them all their energy…. their 110 decibel shouting, team chants, horn blowing and screaming is finished. The cleanup staff finished hours ago and went home. The merchandise and food stands are empty; only the exit signs are lit.The stadium is empty and silent. But….
… you notice that someone has left a small radio playing at full volume in a corner of the stadium. IN a couple of minutes your conscious mind says “this stadium is very noisy!” – isn’t this what sometimes happens while practicing?
It is only because of the silence of the stadium that you hear the small radio playing. If we could play back a recording of the final 30 seconds of the game at full volume we would not notice the small radio. In this context we begin to understand why, when we silence the stadium (come to the mat to practice) the “small radio” of the mind often takes over. What happens if you start to explore the stadium to find the radio? The practice is over!
Your mind in practice is really like the empty stadium; 99% silent. It is understanding this, in context of the silence, that enables you to control the other 1% that rules the mind with the game, what we call “contents” (the game).
In other words, silence is the means of re-framing the part of us that is always concerned about “contents” (the game).
The part of your mind that gets uptight about wandering thoughts or loses track of yoga posture sensation is only 1% of your mind, like the small radio in the empty stadium. By using this context, we see when we focus on it, it is very powerful 1% – capable overtaking or hijacking the other 99%. Knowing this, isn’t it worth practicing re-framing, to engage the silent 99% to rule over the 1% – instead of letting the smallest rule?
It is this 1% of your mind that is responsible for comparing yourself with others. It’s that 1% saying things with contents (the game) “did I take something out of the freezer for supper?” and “do I really need snow tires?”. And it’s the 1% that takes over your consciousness and gets you to quit your practices early, too soon, by thinking the game of “maybe we should be doing something else!”
Letting the 1% run your life…. it is as if you are in the stadium watching the football game and the 1% thinks the content of the game is the real you, but the real you is actually eternal, like the stadium. The stadium doesn’t need the crowd, or the game, or the radio to exist.
Spiritkeep Positive Yoga 