To achieve focus and balance during your yoga practice, it is important to pay attention to your gaze in each pose – also known as drishti in Sanskrit.
Concentration plays an important role both in yoga and in life. For yoga, breath and drishti (or fixed point of view) are the two anchor points for the yogi to achieve balance, focus, and rhythmic movement in the sequence of poses.
With the breath, most of us have heard a lot about it, but drishti or the point of view is a rather strange concept. Are you curious about the role and importance of point of view in yoga and in life? Let’s take a look at the sharing below with easyhealthylive.com to better understand this term that sounds strange but is actually very familiar.
What does Drishti mean?
Drishti is a Sanskrit word that translates to “look” or “perception”. In yoga, dirshti is an ancient technique for controlling the body and mind through the eyes. You can understand drishti as the gaze points of the eyes during yoga practice.
When you focus on a fixed point, your concentration improves. If you let your gaze wander around the room or look at other practitioners, you will be easily distracted.
Therefore, the meaning of drishti is much deeper than the sight of ordinary sight. Drishti helps you control wandering eyes, limit absorption of external stimuli, thereby easily managing your mind instead of letting the outside manage your mind.
Drishti is a technique that is particularly emphasized in the teachings of many great yoga masters, most notably Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar, Desikachar and many others.
If you only heard about drishti, one would probably think that this is something “advanced” technique only for experienced yoga masters. In essence, however, this is a multi-layered tool that can support all yogis, whether you’ve been practicing yoga for 30 years or just starting out in your first yoga class.
Meaning of Drishti – The point of view of the eyes in yoga, meditation and in life
1. For yoga practice
If you are new to yoga or if you are practicing new poses that your body is still not used to, the effect of the point of view can be exerted through purely mechanical and physical manifestations. The first thing that drishti or point of view offers you during practice is balance.
If you are doing a difficult pose that requires your body’s balance to avoid falling face down on the floor, looking at a fixed point is the best way to bring you into the deepest state of focus and achieve your goals. get balance.
Not only that, but maximum concentration when looking at a fixed point also helps you find your center and connect with the stability in your own body.
When you look at a fixed point, it’s easier to find your center and connect with stability in your body.
The next level of drishti is that you can begin to achieve concentration on the mental level. When you’re in a challenging pose or if you’re starting to get bored with your practice, your body will give you signals that you want to get out of these exercises.
One of the easiest ways to overcome this uncomfortable situation is to roll your eyes. Looking around the room to see other practitioners, looking out the window, looking at the floor for hairs and dirt, etc., all of these can help you forget what you’re doing.
Drishti is like a tool for you to teach yourself how to “experience” the things that are going on, even though these things can sometimes make you feel uncomfortable. This is not only useful in yoga practice but also useful in life. When you know how to regain focus, pay attention to the present, you will easily solve the problems you are facing.
2. For meditation
Bringing drishti into meditation is the higher level of this technique. When you focus your gaze on a fixed point, your mind will also be stabilized. You will use your physical body to tell your mind that all is well, that it can relax and let loose.
The practice of meditating with your eyes open and focused on a single point can bring tremendous power to the mind. In particular, with focusing the light on one point, you will very quickly go deep into the feeling of meditation. This is a way to help calm your wandering or strongly disturbed mind.
3. For life
The technique of focusing on one point of view drishti can also be applied and extended in life. This term can be extended to a point of view, an intelligent vision. Drishti can be used to help you create the life you want to live.
Having a clear vision, where you want to go, who you want to be is the first step to creating success. Define a goal and write it down on paper, whenever in a difficult, uncomfortable situation, focus on your goal to move forward. With just perseverance and determination, drishti will create the foundation for you to make your dreams come true.
How to determine the point of view in yoga
In yoga, there are usually 9 points of view (drishti):
- The tip of the nose: often used in sitting positions
- Between 2 eyebrows (3rd eye)
- Middle of the navel: often used in downward facing dog pose
- Hand
- Toes: mainly used in candle pose
- The right side
- Left hand side
- Thumb
- Towards the sky
To successfully perform a yoga pose will include 3 basic steps: the first is to find the position, activate the muscles; The second is to find Drishti and the last is to control the breath evenly.
Normally, in the mountain position, one will look at the tip of the nose; sitting meditation looking into the 3rd eye; inverted triangle looking at the navel; Warrior 1 will look up at the sky…
However, you do not apply a mechanical stereotype. For example, in theory, when you bend over you should look at your big toe, but if you can’t, you can locate another point of view right in front of your eyes and focus on that until you move into the pose. other.
Depending on each body movement and posture, we have different drishti. When looking up or looking away, you will have a feeling of an open, spacious body. When looking down (especially at the nose or navel) your attention will go inward and focus on stability.
Through the above sharing of easyhealthylive.com, hopefully you have gained some useful information about drishti – the secret to improving concentration during yoga practice. If you find this technique interesting or curious to learn more about yoga, don’t hesitate to download easyhealthylive.com, connect with our yoga teacher for specific instructions.
Reference source
The Importance Of Focus in Yoga (And Life) https://www.doyou.com/the-importance-of-focus-in-yoga-and-life/ Accessed date: 5/26/2020
John Alen was born in 1971 and is a doctor in the healthcare and psychology fields with many years of experience. He is currently working at easyhealthylive.com, a leading health and psychology blog. Having studied at Y1 National Medical University named after IM Sechenov, John Alen is using his knowledge and experience to help improve the physical and mental health of people in the United States.
