How to use focus to be present
Some of the oldest techniques to learn to be present use your awareness for training. As a broad, over-generalization, there are two camps:
Using a tight, narrow focus on something specific. This helps your awareness to be disciplined.
Using a loose, broad sense of awareness. This opens you to the experience of what’s around you.
You can see these two techniques in the development of Modern Postural Yoga (MPY).
One type of MPY is devoted to precise alignment and very specific shapes for the body. This is the type of yoga I started with. I learned to be very detail oriented and precise. When I laser focused my awareness on a specific part of my body, for that moment, I was completely present. I was embodied.
But like all things, there can be imbalance. Excessive precision produced a tightness in my thinking. I was binary–there was a right and wrong way to move. Some of my fellow students became very cognitive and “thought” about their poses a lot.
The other type of yoga uses loose, soft focus. This type of yoga is all about the experience. “Trust what your body tells you” is a common cue.
When this yoga becomes imbalanced, you confuse zoning out with going-with-the-flow. Flow feels good. You move intuitively. But in the process, you neglect to see what is present, especially if it doesn’t fit with your image of bliss.
Once I observed a yoga class like this. The teacher put on music and cued the class through a yoga flow sequence.
The students got swept up in the movements. They were far away, in a fantasy fed by exotic music. It was a moving daydream. My sense is that it was quite enjoyable but not in the present moment–not in that classroom, on that day, on that mat.
Both of these types of focuses, narrow and broad, help you learn to be present. They use observation as a stepping stone to being in your body and in the moment. There’s still some separation between you and your body (the observer and the observed) but you’re headed in the right direction.
Soft and focused awareness
Taking the best from both these techniques, I like to practice soft and focused awareness. I combine light discipline with grounded openness. It’s the Goldilocks of self-observation.
In the studio, this type of observation has many roles.
The gentle focus can soothe the nervous system. It’s very likely you’ll feel relief when you’re in your body. It feels good.
It can unwind the “shoulds” of the studio. This is especially useful if you’ve heard yourself ask “is this right?” (either verbally or silently). You might struggle to simply be aware of your body and when you do, it seems too easy to be real. But once you let soft, focused awareness be your guide, you’re released from doing the movements right or wrong. It’s freedom.
Soft, focused awareness opens you to new, unexpected discoveries. If your movement has always been directed, you have a sense of where you want to go. But if your movement is observed, you never know where it will lead. This makes things exciting. You might be surprised by what you learn!
Soft, focused awareness is both simple and challenging. On most days, I swing between obsessing and spacing out. Sometimes I’ll have an idea of what exercises I want to do and I’ll drive myself to get through my list. I barely notice what I’m doing because I’m distracted by what comes next.
On other days, I’m far away. I move my body while I think about something else. I’ll even get lost in a memory of a previous workout instead of experiencing what I’m doing right then.
Note: It’s interesting to notice that as I describe these two experiences, they are actually the same. In both cases, my body moves without me being present.
But on the glorious days when I can relax and focus, movement is easy, comfortable, and grounding. I feel a sense of contentment and connectedness.
I’ve been taking these lessons from the studio into my everyday life. From time to time (when I’m aware enough to remember), I’ll try to relax into the moment. I’ll relax into my body when I’m holding the steering wheel. I’ll relax into my body when I’m stepping over an ant colony during a walk. I’ll relax into my body as my fingers press the keys of my keyboard.
Soft, focused awareness is like settling into the moment–I’m present but open.
How do you use focus to ground yourself in your body? What techniques work best for you? What have you learned from it?