How Helpful is Hatha Yoga for Your Mind?

You must have heard many people ask this question on different occasions at meditation centers or yoga retreats: “How can I control my mind?” Mind is not a physical instrument, but it is still one of the most talked about subjects in the world.

So, do you wish to control or manage your mind? Well, these two may sound the same but they are different aspects. You may experiment yourself and see if controlling your mind is the correct approach. For one day, try not to remember a particular person who is bothering you. At the end of the day, you will find you have remembered that person the most in trying to control your mind to not remember the same person. So, controlling the mind doesn’t help.

Let’s talk about managing the mind. When we talk about managing the mind, we are not trying to restrict any thought process. We will engage our mind in those activities which are of much more importance to us. In doing this process, our mind will leave the grip of thoughts that bother us. A thought is an energy that can’t be destroyed but only it can be transformed into other energy forms. As per physics, it holds true for the energy conservation principle which says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed only one form of energy can be transformed into other forms of energy. So, talking about controlling the mind is restricting or destroying a thought which is analogous to destroying energy, but it is logically and universally not acceptable.  

So, talking about destroying a thought or restricting a thought doesn’t make sense but holding on to a higher purpose or transforming your thought does. So, what’s the solution?

One of the greatest visionaries and yogis of contemporary times, Sadhguru talks about Hatha Yoga as a tool to bring precision to both body and mind.

While there are many beautiful things that you can cherish but you hold on to negativity. Let’s say you are abused badly right now; you will remember it for your whole life. You have a great memory. You just hold on to bad words, that’s all. That’s the issue. So, the problem is not memory, it is bringing back certain parts of it when it is needed. You are not able to pick what you want. That’s just a question of clarity, not of memory. If we say a phone has low memory, it means it has limited capacity to record. But if you press one ‘1’ on the keyboard and ‘3’ gets typed, it is not an issue of memory, it is the issue of a keyboard. The same is the issue with you like a bad keyboard. Everything is in memory but clarity is missing. You are not able to retrieve the information when you want to.

So, we need to work on clarity of mind. What can bring clarity to mind? The simplest thing you can do to bring clarity of mind is to handle everything you do with precision. Hatha Yoga is all about bringing precision to life – how your feet should be positioned, how your hands should be put, how should you hold your head, how you move, how you place yourself etc. If you bring precision in your activities, it will bring precision to your mind. You need to practice precision in every aspect of your life. How your room should be, how should you sit while eating, how you should go to bed – everything. You need to bring same precision while doing daily activities which you do while doing Asana. You will slowly see, the mind will become clearer with time.

From this very moment, a simple practice you can do is when you stand up, when you sit down, when you walk, whatever you do, do it with precision and attention. Consciously register everything that is around you. For example, there is a neem tree, there is fan hanging from roof, there is a chair resting against the wall, there is a pond, there is a door – hall tall, looks ten feet. Just practice this with everything. How many steps from here to there? Don’t count one, two. Just walk and notice – “I think that’s 3 steps. Another three and another three. After a few days, do intervals of four, five, ten. Without thinking you must slowly know when you have walked ten steps. This is yoga. This effect will happen over time by itself.

The precision you bring to your body, bring it to your mind too. Let your mind imitate your body. You will notice, that clarity of mind with come naturally.  

At Yogic Space, our vision is to bring precision to body and mind. We are on a mission to make more and more conscious humans.

Yogic Space founded by Shambhavi Gautam, provides Hatha Yoga training for all age groups via in personal training, corporate workshops, or Yoga retreat programs globally. Shambhavi is a certified Hatha Yoga trainer from Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore. Prior to heart calling to be a Yoga trainer, she worked as an interior architect. Along with being a Yoga trainer, she is a professional Indian Classical Musician. She has recorded for India’s second-biggest music label – Zee Music Company.