Notes of practice
“Childlike, I danced in a dream;
Blessings emblazoned that day;
Everything glowed with a gleam;
Yet we were looking away!”
~Thomas Hardy
Note of practice
Not long ago I went to Centennial Park for some fresh air. It was a beautiful afternoon, I was amazed by the colors of the sunset and the view of the city buildings in the distance, so I took my mat from my backpack, placed my phone, and started recording and practicing.
After watching the recording, I saw through my movement and rhythm, a lack of attention in detail, I was just doing the sequence, so I could see the poor coordination and un-synchronize tempo, instead of being fully absorbed in every pose and the supple transition to the next one, with ease on the pace.
The reason for this disconnection were my distractions. I was operating on autopilot in my sequence, while my head was moving at the same pace and quality: rough and clumsy, but in a completely different place.
That brought me back to my last session with the hañsa training, about how distractions not only disperse and cloud our focus, they also influence the interpretation of our experience.
Our distractions are a reflection of our habits, our distractions are habituated too, we get distracted by similar “things” or things with the same nature, what we value is in there; And what we wish isn't always what we want, and what we want isn't what we really need; So this pulling condition takes us to different directions by conflicting forces or emotions.
We are our distractions, they mirror our personalities, preferences, and once again “the way” we experience.
I could see this on my video, however, I did enjoy that practice in the park, and the motivation for the recording itself still in there: the beautiful afternoon, the colors of the sky, the buildings behind, and the intention to be a part of it; Even tho my movement was sketchy; I caught two spaces at the same time.
So perhaps distractions are not really a problem, and it is more about the attitude towards them, after all, they are a tool to “Self-Unseeing” and the potentiality to became inspirations, as the French semiotician Roland Barthes once said: “To be with the one I love and to think of something else: this is how I have my best ideas”.