A person who runs on only thoughts has little endurance. A person that has great ideas yet they 'just can't make it happen' may discover that the body is not actually involved. The Skillful Means way of speaking is that we need to give time for feelings to sustain our well being in daily life. Simply put: thoughts go fast and feelings go slow.
Our ability to think is overemphasized in our daily life to the point that thoughts are almost continuously pushing, shoving and demanding our attention. In the mean time, it may feel as if the more physical world of feelings lays waiting for a chance to come forward. We may get temporary relief from working out or, worse, an emotional outburst where our feelings suddenly surge up and take control. The way to get more lasting relief, to focus on and enter the feelings, can easily escape us. Usually, it is only at night that we begin to feel what happened during the day. We have become so accustomed to directing our energy toward thoughts, that as the feelings finally have a chance to come forward, we even assimilate these experiences through thinking. Often, even in sleep we have intense mental activity going on. We wake up feeling already tired. We need to learn to give time for feelings, and to give our mental activities a break, or deep stress will be the result.
With Kum Nye-Tibetan Yoga we are in luck! The postures of Kum Nye provide us with many simple ways to give the mind some much needed rest, and teach how to do this more consistently. The steps are clear and we know how we got there. Even after twenty minutes of Kum Nye we can feel revived, as if we have had the best kind of rest. The world around us will be experienced as sensual and vibrant. Even our thinking will be clearer. A Kum Nye practice is like a training that gives us a consistent method to bring the mind into the body.
It is the practice of Kum Nye that will teach us to sustain wellbeing by striking a balance between the thinking and feeling aspects of ourselves. The perfect example of this phenomenon comes to us from eKum Nye Level 2 Lesson 3. We are asked to perform exercise #25 Calming Inner Energy (the last variation on page 185 of Kum Nye-Tibetan Yoga). ".....the exercise emphasizes [many different places in] the body, the hands and the arms while also demanding your attention to focus on the ball of energy....." You have absolutely no choice but to continually keep the mind tied to the body. This is the rest your thinking mind truly craves.
One warning: It is possible to do Kum Nye wrong. You can simply do the physical movements while continuing the constant mental chatter and the exercise will still have an effect. If you want the kind of lasting benefits that awaken your inner resources for energy and vitality and to see the effects ripple out into your life, you must bring the body and mind together. The simplest way to do this is to focus on the feelings and sensations in the body without interpreting them. Just follow them. Go where they go. Feel them until the end. Then you will realize the body is the mind. You will experience a life not held back by limitations and doubt, and truly live your potential.
Meggie Hayne - Kum Nye Instructor -
Dharma Publishing
dharmapublishing.com dharmapublishing.com
kumnyeyoga.com kumnyeyoga.com
No comments:
Post a Comment