Unlock the secret to a focused mind and a richer life experience with us, as we venture into the world of Dharana—the essential art of concentration in yoga. This episode isn't just another chat; it's a discussion that will guide you from scattered thoughts to a more quite mind. We examine the pivotal role of withdrawing the senses to achieve true concentration and offer practical tools, like movement and breath awareness, to sharpen your mind's focus. If you've ever struggled to meditate or maintain presence, our insights on the brain's need for safety and the use of the breath as a focal point will be the game-changers you've been seeking.
If you're new to mediation we give you small practical tools that you can begin to implement quickly. If you're more practiced, we offer cues to go even deeper with your mediative practice. Meditation offers clarity. Concentration, fixating on an object, bringing the mind back to one point over and over again, allows clarity. We will share personal stories that highlights the profound impact consistent yoga and mindfulness practices have had on my resilience and recovery from life's hurdles. Hopefully, by the end of our talk, you'll be inspired to take that first step—or perhaps the next step—toward a practice that brings you more clarity of self.
Unlock the secret to a focused mind and a richer life experience with us, as we venture into the world of Dharana—the essential art of concentration in yoga. This episode isn't just another chat; it's a discussion that will guide you from scattered thoughts to a more quite mind. We examine the pivotal role of withdrawing the senses to achieve true concentration and offer practical tools, like movement and breath awareness, to sharpen your mind's focus. If you've ever struggled to meditate or maintain presence, our insights on the brain's need for safety and the use of the breath as a focal point will be the game-changers you've been seeking.
If you're new to mediation we give you small practical tools that you can begin to implement quickly. If you're more practiced, we offer cues to go even deeper with your mediative practice. Meditation offers clarity. Concentration, fixating on an object, bringing the mind back to one point over and over again, allows clarity. We will share personal stories that highlights the profound impact consistent yoga and mindfulness practices have had on my resilience and recovery from life's hurdles. Hopefully, by the end of our talk, you'll be inspired to take that first step—or perhaps the next step—toward a practice that brings you more clarity of self.
Speaker 1:
Hello, wow, what a nice welcome.
Speaker 2:
Hello, my friends, welcome to we're excited to be here.
Speaker 1:
Can I talk, please? Sure Welcome. This is a perfect introduction for our topic today.
Speaker 2:
Durana.
Speaker 1:
Concentration. Welcome it's my favorite. Welcome to become one living where there is not a lot of focus right now.
Speaker 2:
No concentration.
Speaker 1:
No focus or concentration. Well, who said that yoga and focus and concentration can't be silly and are fun?
Speaker 2:
Right, gotta have fun.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to become one living. My name is Jody Boyzitz.
Speaker 2:
My name is Dan Boyzitz. I'm here with my best half.
Speaker 1:
Today we are moving through the limbs of yoga. If you'd like to learn more about them, you can listen to our past podcasts, but today we're going to talk about dharana. Dharana is one of the three limbs that are said to create mastery of yoga.
Speaker 2:
This is the first of three.
Speaker 1:
Yes, this is the first of the three.
Speaker 2:
Out of the eight.
Speaker 1:
So the beginning ones, the beginning limbs of yoga, very external. Then we come to the breath, which is more subtle. So we move the body, we add the breath. After that comes withdrawing your senses and turning inward. Now, once you turn inward, you have to choose something to focus on, because if you don't focus on it you can't get to know it. So dharana is about turning in and concentrating. It actually means the act of holding Holding something in your mind, holding something into focus, all your attention to that place.
Speaker 2:
So all of the prior limbs are taking us in this direction with the tools that are offered throughout them. Would you say that?
Speaker 1:
Yes, at any time you can be engaging, playing with or working on a limb, but eventually you have to go through all of them to sit still and become one with life. To get there, we have to train the unruly mind. And did you know that concentration is needed? Before one couldn't actually meditate?
Speaker 2:
Is there a threshold? Do you find with your experience that, after cultivating your ability to concentrate, that you one day start to get a glimpse of being able to sit still and calm the mind like meditate?
Speaker 1:
Yes, what I have found was I was told to sit and meditate and for years I couldn't. My mind reminded me of a pinball machine bouncing off of thoughts and stories and distractions. I couldn't calm my mind. I couldn't calm my mind.
Speaker 2:
It's not easy to do.
Speaker 1:
But that's what I thought I was doing. I'm not calming the mind. What we're doing is focusing the mind. That's what I. That's the part I missed. So here I am trying to calm. I got to calm down. I got to calm down. Focus and concentration has nothing to do with calming down. That might be a byproduct, but what it has to do with is I couldn't focus my mind or concentrate on one thing, and that takes time and practice. This meditation is not easy, and yet it's glamorized.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think it's easy for people to be hoodwinked or even challenged or their interest peaked in being able to do that without realizing that there's tools that need to be cultivated before you get to that place.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yes, and one of the tools is concentration trains the brain. Our brain is designed to pick up multi-sensory, it's a parallel processor. What that means is continually picking up stimulus as we sit here the noise, people, the smells, the taste. Our brain is designed to pick up as much information as it can in order for us to decide what is safe and what is not safe, but also in order for us to know if something's not safe, so we can protect ourselves and survive. We are designed for survival and the part of our brain in which gets signaled first, that's wired, hasn't evolved to consciousness yet. So we're wired to go to the limbic brain, where it is fight or flight.
Speaker 1:
I'm safe, I'm not safe. And let me be hyper vigilant and look out of this and this and do this and this and this to keep myself safe. To be able to move from that state into concentration, you have to feel safe. If you don't feel safe, you cannot concentrate on one thing because, my friends, you will always be looking over your shoulder, you'll be looking behind you and thinking who's coming for me, what's going to happen? When is the other shoe going to drop? If you have those thinking going on, those stories or fear of safety, you won't be able to concentrate. So we need to start to move the body, because that's the quickest way to release stress.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's like when animals get stressed out, they shake, they flap their ears and shake.
Speaker 1:
Yes, to release the neurogenetic tremor, to release adrenaline and cortisol. So, in effect, that's what we have to do too.
Speaker 1:
First we move the body to soften the muscle, release the muscle. It tells the brain we're safe. Now we're using the breath. We're another layer safe. Now we're withdrawing our senses from the outer world, from people's stories, places and things. We feel safer, and safer like we're in our own bubble.
Speaker 1:
Now we can concentrate One thing what are you going to focus on? Some of the things that you can focus on are mantra, a word, a word you can focus on. A mantra is a yogic word om ram hum. Or you could focus on the word love, love, love.
Speaker 1:
To concentrate, the easiest thing to do, in my opinion, is to focus on your breath. Follow your breath as it moves in, follow your breath as it moves out. My friends, if you're in a place where you can draw your focus towards your breath, I invite you to try that. Eyes can stay open. Just follow your breath and say to yourself breath is moving in, breath is moving out. Then to yourself breath in, breath out, and see if you can do that repeatedly for a few minutes maybe not now, but for homework, if anyone wants to try it and notice how many times you start planning, thinking, working, distractions.
Speaker 1:
One thing must be chosen and you must focus on that and it is a practice. If we cannot come back to the focus, we will never live in the present moment, which is now. So. Dharana takes you from wherever you are and brings you right here, right now, and that's so healing in so many ways, because in the present you're not recalling the past and in the present you're not reaching and wondering for the future. In the present we're meeting what is rising in life and what is being offered in the moment, and we may miss the offerings of life if we cannot learn to concentrate and be present.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, concentration is one of those tools for me that I've used, and not in the context of doing yoga and yoga asana in the breath and all of these drawing together. It actually was just something. You know, when I play piano or I've had to get something done at work, you know it requires concentration, your ability to stay focused on a task. So a lot of these tools for me translate into the real world Getting things done, not being a scattered brain. It's easy to procrastinate, it's easy to find different things to sidetrack me and sideline me, and so that's the opposite of you know, being focused and concentrating, and it yields great products or accomplishments. My ability to stay focused and concentrate I almost feel like it's my favorite limb and I get stuck there. That just has served me so well, that ability to stay focused on things.
Speaker 1:
That is your favorite limb. Every time we talk about eight limbs of yoga, first thing Dan goes to is oh, concentration, concentration. He loves it and I have watched his concentration and his focus. I want to offer you all listening. Concentration is challenging. It is a practice. Do not give up. Keep showing up for the moment, for yourself, for the practice, because the yoga sutras, the yoga sutras are a book, a guide on if you do yoga and how to do yoga, and it tells you what will happen, ways to do it and the gifts that you receive from it. Almost half of the verses are based on Dharana, dayana and Samadhi.
Speaker 2:
That's a lot.
Speaker 1:
Yes, almost half the book is based on this. That's how important concentration is, because it's asking you to be present to what's here. Suffering occurs because we live in the past and most of us bring the information from the past into the present when making a decision. Therefore, the cycles that we get stuck in are really being created from the past. We can't change what we're not willing to get to know, so we have to choose something to get to know. Concentrate on what we're not willing to know. Concentrate on one thing, and the limbs bring us to this place of such subtlety. If you can control your body or guide it, and if you don't know your body, you're not going to be able to know or sense your breath is off, then you're not going to be able to even know that you're looking outward and outward things are impacting you. How are you going to meditate? How do we skip all these steps and move to meditation and enlightenment? Everybody wants to know God, or something better than what's here, because God can be a triggering word. You could think. You want to transcend the moment. People want to transcend the moment.
Speaker 1:
The whole practice of yoga is living in the moment, no matter what the moment is so concentration. You have to pick one practice to do, because some people that I've worked with say oh, every day I choose a different word. You can't do that. Why the other one's not working? That's not how it works. Why isn't it working On board? You're in the right place. Soon as you're getting bored. That's a breakthrough, because the more shiny, the more distracting things are. Pulls you right out. Soon as it gets boring. We want to go, but it's right under that boredom where we have that breakthrough.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's a good one. It's akin to me about when it's dark in your life. When it's the darkest in your life, that's the moment when you're just about to see the light. So the importance of staying steady with the practices. So you're talking about Dharana, concentration, the importance of staying steady with what it is Now you're concentrating on. That's the whole idea. It's like concentrate.
Speaker 1:
The ability to fixate on one thing give everything your attention. I remember when we met 13 or 14 years ago. I mean, we've known each other for years, probably lifetimes but when we met, one of the things that I appreciated so much about you, dan, was your ability to concentrate on the person in front of you. Dan has this ability to fixate, concentrate and just be with you and talk to you as if no one else existed in the world. I never had experienced that before and I wanted to learn that. I was always waiting to say something. I was always looking around, never fully present, never in my body.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I enjoy humans and I enjoy interacting, and one of my favorite things to do is listen, and I've honed my ability to listen so well that when I'm interacting with an individual, I'm paying such detailed attention to what they're saying that I often find myself forgetting what comes to my mind. I feel that that's a great practice of improvising, but that improvising comes from being extremely present and focused. It's such a sweet thing to do. People through my life have commented on my ability to stay focused on them in conversation. To me, that's such a sweet thing is to connect with other people.
Speaker 1:
You just did it again. You went to the big bang. You just went to our other. Like two other podcasts, he always goes further to the bigger. What you said was you were meditating on the person and you became one with them. That's Samadhi.
Speaker 1:
We long for connection, yet we're not connected to self. We long for connection and yet we can't sit still long enough to be present for someone, whether they're in pain, they're happy. We're thinking of things to say right away. If, my friend, you are thinking about something to say when someone's talking, you're not listening. Done. The question is do you want to listen, do you want to be present?
Speaker 1:
You have to go through these limbs. This is why I personally think yoga is brilliant. These limbs say how are you in the world? How do you treat yourself? Do you move your body?
Speaker 1:
Because if your body's in pain, your mind's in pain, if your body is tight, your mind is tight, you get in your body, you get reconnected, you start breathing and then you start to withdraw your senses into what's here now. Not it's all about me, but what's here right now. What am I feeling, what's happening, what's rising? And now my body feels good enough, I can sit still. And when you sit, still the outer body and the little fidgets, the little movements. When they stop, the inner body speeds up. So the little movements that you make scratching your nose, picking your wedgie, fixing your suit, whatever you're doing disperses little energy and your mind goes to those areas. Stillness is so important because that moment you become still, all that excess energy that goes out goes in and it starts things moving, rumbling, talking and speaking. Now you have to stay so focused on one thing so your mind doesn't start to make up stories. In that concentration, dharana, something will rise.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. I love that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
If meditation is or was challenging for you. If you're listening, it's normal. Start with concentrating. Pick one thing and start three minutes a day. Start with three. When three feels easy or natural, add another three, add another three and keep adding till you get to around 20 minutes. Just don't force yourself to concentrate, don't force yourself to sit longer than you can.
Speaker 2:
It's a practice and if you think that you should be able to concentrate, think again and if you try it and it's not for you, just go back to asana and breath. You know, keep shaking it out, keep working it out. The steadiness over time yields results. So you can't use your thinking mind to say I'm going to accomplish this goal. I remember a story about two people who had agreed to be what do they call that Accountability partners for a 40-day meditation. And they did the 40 meditation and then one says to the other okay, so now what do we do? That totally misses the point of doing meditation.
Speaker 2:
I don't think there should ever be a meditation challenge for the ordinary person. You have to recognize that there are tools that will take you there. You just don't wake up and say I'm going to begin meditating If you haven't ever moved your body regularly or done some kind of bhakti or something regularly that you're immersing yourself in to be able to focus, to concentrate, use your breath, shake out the anxiety or stress in your body. If you don't do all those tasks, essentially, virtually, meditation is a long shot, a very long shot. So there's tools in order to get you there that are dialed in, that are laid out for you in the sutras and they're so worthwhile.
Speaker 1:
They are so worthwhile and they take action. Once you decide you want to concentrate, understand this. You will need to engage with action and it could be exhausting in the beginning. You're learning something new. When you learn something new, we learn from the front of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex exhausts or gets tired quickly when learning To concentrate. It is going to take practice and it could be tiresome Because it's new. It's something new whether you're learning a language or playing an instrument. Eat a little more high fats in your diet. That will support that. But also give yourself some kindness and compassion. To be gentle that this process of learning to concentrate needs a strong will and action. You have to participate in it fully in order to ever be able to meditate.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, despite our technology and ability to communicate with somebody all the way around the world, we cannot take away the requisite of doing the work. Nature is such that you need to do the work to accomplish these goals, and you perhaps, in this lifetime. Meditating isn't your thing, but if concentrating and feeling good in your body is, stick with the first few limbs. Some of this stuff could take a lifetime to do.
Speaker 1:
Meditation offers clarity. Concentration, fixating on an object, bringing the mind back to one point over and over again, allows clarity. When you hold something in your heart or in your mind, you get insight on that. May we all long or may we all want to meditate, to concentrate, to be present and to work towards that. Dharana. Concentration is something that can be used in all areas of your life. You can practice it anywhere. You can set a timer for 90 minutes or for however long, and work and say I am going to work for this amount of time, Not look at Instagram, not look at the clock. Focus on this one thing, this task. That's also concentration.
Speaker 2:
Cultivating your ability to concentrate is an advanced tool that most definitely, if you have that ability to concentrate, will help you achieve goals, will help you accomplish things you simply cannot do if you do not have the ability to stay focused.
Speaker 1:
Dan, something you said reminded me about the amount of time that it took me to have a steady concentration practice into meditation. Twenty years it took me.
Speaker 2:
That's devotion. You put time and effort and learned this technique and that technique and tried this technique and that technique and explored. You had great discipline and passion to ultimately find yourself.
Speaker 1:
I kept meeting myself on the mat in Asana, with breathing, with pranayama, with my yamas and my knee yamas, and I realized what was keeping me from concentrating, and yet I still medded. But it could take some time. It's a practice. The benefits that you get from it, from my experience, are priceless. The clarity that I have, and even when I don't get clear, I know that I'm not clear, Right.
Speaker 2:
Nothing worth truly having is gotten easily. These are accessible to everyone if they're willing to put in the time. I believe it creates a better world for people to be practicing these tasks and tools and behaviors and following these guidelines. Is it perfect? No, are we perfect? No, but moving through the limbs creates a maturation. You become more mature, you become more settled, you become less anxious, you become more confident, you become just a greater you, and certainly that's a wonderful thing to share with the world. But it enhances your own life and makes your own life calmer. It makes your own life richer, and the ones that you share, you're sharing your life with also reap the benefits, and it's such a treasure trove. It's just you have to do the work.
Speaker 1:
And please, if you're listening, keep in mind we're all at different places in our yoga practice. Some of us are just starting. Some of this may not make sense to you yet. Stay with moving your body, simple movements, simple breath. That brings you right into the moment. Concentrate on that Right. Concentrate on that and then move into your breathing. When you're driving, ask yourself am I breathing? And, if not, breathe a little deeper.
Speaker 1:
If you notice you're tired or you're running around or you feel run down, pratyahara, turn away from and turn into, and then we come to concentration, take mastery. What does that even mean? That's what it says in the yoga sutras oh, if you do this, this and this, you become a master. What I want to offer you is this Yoga has taught me how to lead my life through self realization, these practices. Concentrating has helped me and taught me how to meditate, and in that concentration, I learned so many things about myself. And through meditation and through the other limbs, through those learnings, I now have a choice on how I want to show up in the world. So, my friends, this practice is not just on the mat. Sometimes, for me, it has nothing to do with the mat. It has everything to do with my behavior, my thoughts about myself and also about how I'm affecting the world.
Speaker 2:
Pratyahara, as the person you are, being an entrepreneur in the fitness industry and watching you pursue this up and through and through, including getting through Zoom, having a yoga studio I don't believe you'd have been around still or as successful to this point without your ability to stay focused. You learned how to use camera equipment. You learned how to use Zoom. I'm not saying these are like monumental things, but all in such a heartbeat. When the COVID thing happened, you're like we got to go here to get this microphone and we got to go here to get this thing to patch this into this. We got to go get a monitor and we need this.
Speaker 2:
This is a real, practical, real-life anecdote of you plugging in or actually yielding the reward of having honed your skills to stay focused and concentrated To this day. Sure, we have our days and weeks where we want to binge watch detective shows, but you have to be able to also have some fun doing that too. Your abilities to figure out things on the computer I mean, who wants to do that as a yoga teacher? But you've done so many things again that you would not in my heart. I just say that I believe that you would not be able to do that had you've not been honing these skills over time.
Speaker 2:
When your recovery from surgery was expedited by having been through the years concentrating and meditating and breathing and shaking out your nervous system and exploring and being investigative and going out into the world and charging so hard to find information and find stuff about wellness and stuff about nutrition and all these things it keeps coming back to the yoga for you. It keeps coming back. It's really just been. For me, being your partner has been a real treat to watch you thrive in a world that's loaded with obstacles, and all of the tools of yoga are what you embody.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, that's so sweet and correct. I use these tools every day, not perfectly, because there is no such thing as perfect. I use them to the best of my ability in the moments that are here and what is happening in my life and it was what is happening around me these tools will be here for you when no one else is or no one else can help you. They will be your backbone, they will be your best friend, they're your go to wherever you are or however you want to start. Just start one minute a day, two minutes a day, or just a second of turning in and concentrating and just bringing your mind right back to that. Because, like Dan shared, I have gotten through survival and I am thriving at this point in my life due to these tools and the practice that I put into them.
Speaker 2:
And so if you have any questions for Jody, email us. We are excited to continue to share our life together, and Jody's got so much to share around health concerns and how she's used the tools of yoga to not just get through, not survive, thrive, really take on a full load, take on life and have a happy life.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, my friends, for joining us. You can follow us at Become One Living and you can email us at BecomeOneLiving at gmailcom. Be well and take care. Gabby's tongue is out. She is like completely out of it. Look at that little tongue.