09_23_2019

Paying Closer Attention to Transitions

In one of my recent yoga classes, the instructor started the class guiding us to transition from the busyness of our lives to bringing our attention to the yoga mat and our practice that day.  Throughout the class, she asked us to pay attention to how we approached transitioning from one pose to another.

I must have been in a receptive place as her directions registered and I was at times during the class able to pay more attention to how I moved from one pose to the next.  What I observed about her guiding instruction is that I momentarily paid attention to what was happening with my body and my mind as I was transitioning.  I may have to figure out with more practice if is possible to do more than momentarily notice as I’m also trying to listen to the directions that go with moving into the next pose.

More so than paying attention to my body, I was mostly noticing what was going on in my head, hearing messages like “Thank God we’re moving on from this pose,” or “Oh, here comes the part I don’t like so much,” and even encouraging words like, “Oh, I know I can do this pose and I actually like it.”  I did pay some attention to what I was experiencing physically, but I’ll have to do this again to see if my attention can go to deeper levels of insight.  As I learn to appreciate the subtle messages that my body is sending me, I hope to listen to and heed what those messages are telling me to keep my body healthier and free from injury.

So why you might reasonably ask is this kind of direction helpful?  My initial reaction based on my after-class experience is that it is another tool to help us remain in the present.  Often in yoga classes a thoughtful instructor will remind the class that the goal is to take what you learn on the mat to your experiences off the mat.  Here are a couple of examples I experienced after the class in which I noticed myself paying closer attention when I was transitioning from one thing to another.

Recently I reseeded my lawn, choosing the Fall weather as an optimal time to give the new grass a chance to take root.  Well, new grass seed needs to be watered at least twice a day, so I’ve been fitting in extended periods of time in the morning and the evening that are divided into fifteen-minute segments of watering.   (As you might gather, I don’t have a sprinkler system, or to put it another way, I am the sprinkler system and I have to manually move a handheld sprinkler around the yard to make sure I water all of the areas.)

Typically, I set a timer and when it rings, I move from what I’m doing to heading outside.  What I’ve noticed since the yoga class where I was encouraged to pay more attention to how I transition is that I was at least aware that I was transitioning.  Now that in and of itself may not have much significance in my life, but when it allows me to be present and aware of what is happening around me, then I am benefitting.

For example, once outside, I noticed bees that were hovering above flowering bushes and plants, and I took the time to observe them at work.  I found it interesting that they were not the least concerned with my presence if I stayed out of their way.  I also noticed the presence of monarch butterflies which I haven’t seen in ages, and they seem to be sticking nearby as I see them now almost every day. Seeing monarch butterflies feels like a sign of hope that we may be making some improvements in caring for the environment.

Especially during the late afternoon and early evening watering, I am more aware of breezes that help cool down the day.  I would have missed these phenomena if I was still in my head caught up in the project that I put on pause as I came outside to water.

I’m going to continue working with paying attention to how I transition as I think there is merit in working with how I use this time well.  For one thing, paying attention to transitioning time enables me to come out the other side with some intentions of how I want to approach the next activity that I’m engaged in.  If I am meeting someone for coffee or lunch, I can spend some time thinking about what I hope to bring to that conversation and perhaps what is important for me to give or share in that exchange.

I want to live my life as fully as I can, and to do that, I need to be aware and present.  I’m finding that the more I practice being present, the easier it is to do.  I notice more quickly when my mind is somewhere else, and I can work to bring it back into the present.  Using transition time well is an art and it is within our reach to use these times well.

One job I had involved 100 miles of commuting each day, and initially I thought I would hate that much time in the car.  However, I found that it provided me with the space and time to make good use of transitioning.  On the way to work each day, I would mentally process what I thought was important for me to address, and on the way home, I could invite those thoughts that I had noted earlier in the day needed more attention to surface, giving me time to re-think what had occurred and to decide if further action made sense.

And driving served as my “Drishti” or focal point, which helped clear my mind of other thoughts and reach a calmer and more focused place.  One of yoga’s benefits is that the focus that is required on getting into and working with different poses pushes aside all the other thoughts in one’s head.

I found a similar experience from playing golf years ago.  If you have ever played golf (or goof as I liked to call it), all your focus is on your positioning and your swing.  After playing 9 or 18 holes of golf, my mind was cleared and free of whatever I had been stewing about before the game began.

As one of my early meditation teachers explained to the class, our monkey minds love to be in motion, and they will jump on any train that comes along and we’re off and rolling without even realizing how many things we’re missing in the current moment.  The more tools we have in our backpack to help us stay in the present moment, we will be able to enjoy more moments in our lives.  I suppose one could say with some validity that being in the present moment enables us to live longer if we measure time by what we notice in our lives.