Friday, March 6, 2015

Day 6 -- Monkey Brain

I have a busy brain. It has served me well all these years. It's the reason I can contemplate a gnarly plot point in my latest novel while folding the daily laundry, or how I can make a mental shopping list as I drive around.

My brain is so busy that, in addition to my thoughts and my actions, I have a soundtrack going on during almost all of my conscious hours. It could be Brahms; it could be The Violent Femmes. But there's almost always something my brain is running over and over to itself.

Not at Bikram class. The yoga is so intense for me that I can't think about anything else. I focus totally on what my body is doing, and I hang onto the teacher's constant, calming flow of words like a lifeline. During the savasana breaks, I keep my mind as still as my body. I try not to anticipate what's coming next; I try not to evaluate what I've just done. I just breathe. This is a new thing for my monkey brain, but it feels good.

The stillness lasts about halfway through the drive home, but that's okay. I have a busy life, and I need to stay on top of things. But I welcome the daily break from the busy brain. It feels great just to turn it all off and regroup for a while.

2 comments:

  1. I'm getting better at this but struggle not to think about what I need to do after class. So hard to quiet all those thoughts. That your learning to do it gives me hope.

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  2. I'm getting better at this but struggle not to think about what I need to do after class. So hard to quiet all those thoughts. That your learning to do it gives me hope.

    ReplyDelete