Setting Goals For The Focus

Folly Beach

I am continuously learning more about myself through the ebb and flow of my practice. I learn about the physical aspects of myself. My psoas and hip flexors are tight. My hamstrings continue to lengthen every practice and my core gets stronger. I learn about my aptitude to quit when I get challenged. The standing poses always give me a run for my money and I have to decide to keep going, every time. I learn about my emotion and when the stretches have built up in just the right way, I learn how to relax and release. I learn that letting go is a series of steps, not one thought and pouf; rather, many thoughts about where I am and where I am headed and how I will get there.

Whether I know it or not, every yoga class I give and even get, has a focus. When I think up the class myself, I concentrate harder on the goals that will render the focus reachable. However, when I am receiving a class, the process is akin to going on retreat or to church and not really knowing how the speaker will get me to my destination. In this case, I take the time to set my own goal, maybe several, even though I am not always sure of their focus. I let the unfolding happen to me, as opposed to creating the whole, I allow the whole to be created with my goals at heart.

Several months ago, I went to an “Open heart”  yoga conference. Sounds almost like a doctors' convention. It was a surgery of the thoughts in and of the heart to address the mind and actions that spring out of being. I realized that practicing, though fun and my initial goal, was not the real goal at all. Though I did practice for hours at a time, it was the person next to me that continued to talk that became a goal to having an open heart. It was the talks before the class that rendered the practice lovable. The goal was getting all I could, not just from my practice on the mat, but for life. The goal was observing what I was thinking, how and why I am thinking this or that and somehow, over the course of one weekend, I created a new goal almost every couple hours. At the end of each day and especially after I had a chance to integrate the learning from the trip, I realized, off the mat, I was meeting the goals of the focus-- to open my heart in as many ways as possible.

When events approach me, I see my yoga in a light that appears stronger then before. Going to Philadelphia or going to a Yoga conference, even starting to work full time again, allows me a look at my goals and my focus. However these events allow to me observe what I am doing, I realize that this goal-and-focus play need happen all the time. Consistent work is diligence. If I chose to show up occasionally, I probably forget my lines when the lights are on or forget to connect with the crowd. The goal is to show up, create and observe where I am every day in order to make my focus a reality. If I do not set myself up for the focus with a series of goals, my psoas is too tight to do hanamanasana (splits) and my core is not strong enough to do ardha mukha vrksasana (handstands) and if I attempt, I will hurt myself. I must prepare the lesson to support the focus and pillage through the forest of myself in order to get to the other side.

Create goals that facilitate opening to your focus. If my focus is to be a writer, then my goal must be to write often, attempt and publish work, read other works…. If my focus is to be a great yogi or yogini then I must practice daily, my asana, meditation, and pranayam (breathwork)…. I must go to practice with others whom know more than me. I must uncover my yoga through reading spiritual texts and experiencing life with an ever opening heart. I must experience the ebb and flow into my true self, and with diligence.

Sat Ra-
Namaste.