119/172 - Attitude and Visualization

Sunday 9:30 am with Rohit

Hooray for Sunday morning classes! Today was the first 9:30 Sunday class, and it drew 31 people. That's only half of yesterday's class. but its amazing for the first class in a time period. Usually, a first class has drawn somewhere between three and eight.

I went to sleep last night with a bad headache. When I woke up, it was better but not by much. By Awkward Pose, it was gone, and gone for good. I'll never understand how that happens, but it's not the first time and I know I'm not the only one.

Aside from curing my headache, class was very pleasant and moved quickly. Rohit encouraged us to treat the poses as a form of exploration. The idea is to push a little bit in new directions, and new ways, and see whether it helps or not. Not only does this help with progressing in the pose, more importantly it helps develop the power of observing. And it helps keep you present.

The day 171 meditation again brings up the theme that our attitude can be more important than the facts themselves. If you want to change your world, then first change your attitude. Here, however, he applies the idea to asana class itself. He suggests you picture yourself as flowing through your practice as you want. Imagining it will help you to realize it.

This process of visualization is one that is useful in lots of sports and activities. I probably first used it when learning to shoot foul shots. First you see yourself taking the perfect shot and the ball swishing through the net, and that visualization does help making the shot. Good musicians will practice away from the instrument simply by running through the performance in their head, hearing and visualizing every nuance.

So why hadn't I realized that the same thing would apply to asana practice? Especially when I've already talked at length about how attitude can make all of the difference? Well, obviously I hadn't made the connection between attitude and the process of visualization that I've used elsewhere. Now that I have, I can't wait to try it.