Find Your Drishti

As a regular practitioner of hot yoga (note: yoga, like life, is always practice and very few of us perfect it), there are those extra-challenging moments in Tree Pose, Dancer, or Warrior Three when I get wobbly and my balance is off. The second I put my attention on myself and what is wrong, everything gets worse and I fall out of the pose. The way to handle this wobble is to focus on a point across the room, something unmoving and steady. This is the Drishti, which is Sanskrit for “eyesight” or “vision.”
This morning in my yoga practice, I realized that the Drishti is something we need to carry with us off the mat and out into the world. Things come up in our personal and professional lives that knock us out of balance and occasionally, we come crashing down. It seems, for me, like these times come up when I am feeling the most comfortable and secure, even overconfident with my practice of life. And so, in my too-relaxed state, I may lose that concentration, the focused gaze, and heightened self-awareness toward what I want my outcome to be.

Dancer Pose in yoga (Note: this picture is not me)

For instance, as soon as I thought I had perfected the Dancer pose, I would lose it again, or else, I’d have a series of bad days when it seemed that standing on one leg was just too much to ask of myself (much less tipping forward with my opposite foot extended over my head). Dancer pose is one of my favorite challenges. I am not great at it. However, when I accomplish and hold it for a length of time, I feel strong and balanced and, dare I say, elegant. And the reason I can pull it off is that I am focused on my Drishti, which in class, is usually something as simple as a doorknob or a little red light on the smoke detector. These objects change, depending on where I am situated in the studio each day. My Drishtis actually exist behind me, yet are reflected, along with my own image, in the mirror in front. Past, present and future… sort of.
Out in the world, our Drishtis are different for different people but equally as important. For an athlete, the focus might be the finish line. For a salesman, it might be reaching a quota. For a politician, it might be winning an election and for a chef, it might be mastering a perfect souffle. It is always the unmoving thing upon which to hold your concentration, to get you to a goal that ultimately reflects upon your own strength. Sometimes we look away, screw up, and fall out of balance. But if we’re disciplined, we lose ourselves in our Drishtis to find ourselves at the end.
I have a lot of metaphorical Drishtis, from yoga itself to A Course In Miracles and Buddhism. My main Drishti, I have come to realize, is my husband of 22 years (a holy number!), Tom Bramer. He is my rock, the unmoving point I can always find and lean upon in both the strong and wobbly times. The wobbly times suck, but in the shaking and unease is where the lessons are and where we build our strength.
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I know I always say this, but I am going to try to get back to a more regular blogging practice. This past year and a half have never been busier and it does feel more important to put actual flesh and blood clients ahead of this social networking world.

CONCENTRATION\, DANCER POSE, DRISHTI, FOCUS, HOT YOGA, TREE POSE, WARRIOR THREE, YOGA