A Little Mental Atrophy

I’ve been out of town with my family for the past 10 days. We spent 4 days at a soccer tournament in Maine and the next 6 days on the Maine coast. The weather was great, the beach was beautiful and I relaxed just as one should while on vacation.

During the week, I ran a few times on the beach and stepped onto my yoga mat twice. I thought it was a pretty good attempt at keeping up with my physical routine. I came home feeling slightly toxic (but well tanned).

Having returned on Saturday, I stepped onto my mat at Verge Sunday morning at 7:15 am. The body felt fine, a bit slower and softer, but not too bad. It was my mind that was a whole different story. In short, I could not pay attention. I was distracted and dulled. The “fierce focus” that I had trained and developed over the past few months was definitely out to lunch.
I was truly surprised at how weak I felt mentally. My mental muscle had atrophied as a limb does when casted for a few weeks. During the practice, my mind continuously drifted to the past, the future and to places I had never even been before!

For the most part, I am very focused during practice. I do as the teacher says. I listen to my breath, focus my gaze and listen to my body. While my mind does drift away, I am usually able to catch my thoughts before they become a story and pull me away completely.

Over the past few months I have been very focused on being focused and in so doing I think that I have actually become mentally stronger and more stable. So what astounded me during my practice on Sunday was how quickly that mental muscle had softened due to lack of practice. It further convinced me of my view that we can train our mind to be focused just as we train our muscles to lift more weight.

I don’t regret taking the time to relax. In fact, I believe that it is just as important to rest and rejuvenate as it is to train and gain strength. So now my weak mental muscle and I will get back to work on the yoga mat and the meditation cushion so that we can build up the strength to focus, pay attention to stay present for a sixty minute Stationary class.

Peace.