Active Yogi

We’ve looked at pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses to focus on the internal experience (read the post
here). The next step for developing focus is learning to concentrate with single-pointed attention (dharana). One way to develop this skill is with drishti, the direction of your gaze. By targeting your gaze toward an object, you anchor your mind, preventing the drifting back and forth that characterizes much mental activity over the day. With your gaze and mind completely focused on one object, you sharpen your mental skills.

You may have used drishti in balance poses on your mat, riveting your gaze to an unmoving object to gain steadiness.
If you have practiced Ashtanga Yoga, you’ll be familiar with the directions for focus in each of the poses. Drishti is an important tool in stilling the fluctuations of the mind. When the eyes cast about, it’s tough for the mind to be still. Resting the gaze on one point enables us to slow down our minds for presence on the mat.

You can also use drishti to develop focus in your active life.

Running Running over trails, you must set your gaze a few feet ahead of you, to keep foot placement stable. (The same anticipatory forward gaze applies in skiing.) On the track, where you don’t need to worry about foot placement, you might link your gaze to the runner in front of you, or to the finish line.

Cycling Focus your gaze tochoose a good line. Your bike will go where you look, don’t focus on obstacles like potholes but instead look forward and out of turns and traffic.

Swimming Pool swimmers know drishti well, staring at the line on the bottom of the lane for hours each week. Focus is also important in open-water swimming, where cloudy water can limit your gaze, and where your sighting breaths require the skill to take a quick glance at an object, then keep your mind’s eye focused on it to ensure you are swimming the most direct line.

Climbing Use drishti to choose a good route. Your gaze can serve to support your anchor to the wall. Newbies: don’t look down!

Ball sports In ball sports, you focus your gaze on the ball as you receive it–and where you want it to go as you release it. When setting up a free throw, for example, your gaze is focused on just where you want to place the ball, to the exclusion of everything else (no matter how the opposing fans act behind the basket!). In tennis, you watch the ball as it goes over the net and as it comes back.

On the mat, the trail, the field, or the court, when your gaze or attention wander, gently bring them back into focus. Sharpen your ability to focus exclusively where you need to, and you’ll have learned to control your mind in ways that can improve both your sport and your yoga experience.

Mental focus makes the athlete. The ability to remain centered, focused, and in the moment, even under extreme pressure, separates the great athletes from the also-rans. Mental focus is what lets us tune out the crowds and make the shot, tune out the pressure and make the putt, tune out the screaming in legs and lungs and keep pushing to the finish line.

We develop this practice in training, and we also work on it in yoga.
The first step is pratyahara, a turning inward of the senses that disengages you from all the distractions of the external world and sharpens your focus on your internal experience. Pratyahara is what keeps the sixteen-year-old soccer player’s eye on the ball, while the six-year-old soccer player wanders around the field chasing butterflies or asking Mom for a juice box.

For many years I taught a weekly yoga for athletes class at the University of North Carolina Wellness Center, where a wall of glass brick separated the studio space from
the indoor track. I purposefully set my mat against the glass brick, so that students could learn to handle the distraction of the runners and walkers on the other side. The unfocused image of people as they passed by made a beautiful visual metaphor for what happens as we begin to focus inward. We saw the runners, some moving fast, some slow, but we couldn’t quite make out their faces. Sometimes they passed by over and over and over;  sometimes they walked by once and were gone. Whatever excitement was happening on the other side of the wall–an impromptu race, an older gymgoer with a walker, a mother with a toddler following her–we stayed focused on the experience in our bodies, breath, and minds. This was the practice of pratyahara.

Run through this simple exercise at the beginning of your next yoga
practice, training session, or trip to the meditation cushion, to set the mood
for an internal experience that will develop your focus.

First, soften your gaze or close your eyes. Even then, you’ll be receiving visual information through your sense of sight. Notice it, then soften your awareness further. Next, notice the sounds that are present around you, both far and near; soften that awareness, too. Breathe in and out through your nose, noticing any odors, then soften your sense of smell. Toward the end of an exhalation, swallow, and notice the taste of your own mouth, softening that awareness, too. You’ll be left with the sense of touch. Feel the air and your clothing against your skin, notice the parts of your body in contact with the ground, then soften that awareness, too, so that you focus exclusively on how things feel from the inside.

From there, re-engage only the senses you’ll need for your next action. If you are sitting in meditation, keep your focus inward. If you are on the mat, try keeping your eyes closed for as much of the practice as you can. If you are heading out on a run, leave the iPod at home. See how this shifts the experience, laying the groundwork for better focus on what’s happening right now.

For those who spend time hunched over bike handlebars–or simply steering wheels and keyboards–tightness in the hip flexors can be a big problem. (We investigated the interplay between the hip flexors and hamstrings in this post about Anjaneyasana.) For fluidity in the pedal stroke and running stride, as well as for comfort in asana practice and in daily life, we need to release the front of the hips.

One nice way to get this done, while fostering recovery, is to enjoy supported backbends. Specifically, these two approaches to supported bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana).

*Bridge with a bolster or blankets. This approach is more gentle, stretching the front of the hips, belly, and chest as you rest against a soft support. Use a yoga bolster run lengthwise down your spine, stack blankets to simulate a bolster, or wrap a foam roller in a blanket or beach towels.

Slide your head off the support so that it rests on the floor, and let the tops of your shoulders sink down, too. Arrange your arms and legs in a way that yields a nice open feeling across the front of your body, and stay for five minutes or more.

*Bridge with a block. Using a block to support bridge pose allows a deeper release in the hip flexors. Depending on your needs, the block could be on its low, medium, or high setting–start with its medium height, and adjust as needed. If you use the highest position, be sure you really trust the block to hold you, or a fear of falling will make you retain tension around the hips, just where you ought to be releasing it. Put the block low against the bony back of the pelvis. It can run horizontally or, for a sacroiliac adjustment, could run vertically along the sacrum.

Your feet can stay under your knees or can reach long. You might even enjoy hugging one knee in to your chest as you push out through the opposite foot. Arms can stay under the hips, can hold the block, or can elevate overhead to increase the stretch. Stay for three to five minutes.

Complement this passive backbending with some active backbends, such as Locust Pose (Salabhasana), and you’ll help balance your body, front to back.

We know the benefits of Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani), the subject of my last post, for recovery. Building on this position, there are other stretches for your thighs and hips at the wall, creating a great post-workout sequence. When you do forward folds at the wall, the floor holds your back in a relatively neutral position, which prevents the rounding that can be a way to “cheat” at forward folds, stretching the back rather than the legs.

Moving through stretches at the wall, you’ll foster recovery, increase your range of motion, and get a chance to relax into simply being. This makes a great antidote to your workout, which focuses on doing. Here are some ideas for folds at the wall, demonstrated in the video below, as well.

Hamstring Stretches
*Central hamstrings. Lift one heel straight up the wall and focus on creating a pleasant stretch in the center of the back of the leg.
*Outer hamstrings. Cross your foot over the midline of the body to find a stretch in the outer part of the leg.
*Inner hamstrings. Take your leg just off the side of your body to stretch the inner portion of the back of the thigh.

Hip Stretches
*Half Happy Baby. Bend one knee and drop it toward your armpit to release the inner thigh.
*Pigeon Pose at the wall. Cross one ankle over the opposite thigh. For more, bend the leg that’s up the wall.

Symmetrical Stretches
*Straddle. Take your legs into a wide straddle, supporting from underneath if the stretch is too intense.
*Cobbler’s Pose. Bend your knees and rest the soles of the feet together, pinky toes at the wall.

Deeper Inversion
*Bridge at the wall. Taking Bridge Pose at the wall lifts you into a half Shoulder Stand while releasing the front of your hips.
*Shoulderstand. From the wall, lift both legs into the space over the hips, or do one at a time.

Twists
*Double knees-down twist. Drop both feet to one side, using the wall to help you twist.
*Crossed-knees twist. For more, cross the top knee over the bottom knee.

Return to Legs up the Wall or choose Corpse Pose (Savasana) to rest. As you experiment with the folds, let the floor hold your entire back long so that the stretch stays in your hips and thighs and out of your back.

Sage Rountree  is a yoga teacher, endurance sports coach and athlete, and author of books including The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga and The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery. She teaches workshops on yoga for athletes nationwide and online at Yoga Vibes. Find her on Facebook [facebook.com/sagerountree] and Twitter.