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Once you start yoga, you realize that it is much more than an exercise system. The movements are quite intricate and this necessitates that you give full attention to what you are doing. By concentrating on the movement you are totally involved in the present moment and your mind is given relief from your normal day-to-day activities, so helping it to clear and giving it a rest. This means that after a yoga class your mind is calmer and much more able to deal with everyday problems, and your workload will seem easier. The balances of yoga necessitate total concentration and by focusing on a spot to help us balance physically we calm, clear and balance the mind.

Ayurveda, the holistic medical teaching of ancient India, says ‘What you see you become.’

One of yoga’s ancient texts puts it this way:

You are what your deep driving desire is. As your desire is so your will, as your will is so is your deed. As your deed is so is your destiny.

BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD IV.4.5

What you see, feel and take in from your environment is a huge amount of stimuli. Your mind cannot possibly take in all this, so it filters out all but a small amount. Your personal selection is very individual and controlled solely by your way of interpreting the things around you. For example:

Two people are on holiday abroad together and they go on a tour to see an ancient architectural site. They have to walk about a mile from their coach stop to see this building. It is hot and the road is dusty and dirty; the site, however, is magnificent. On returning to the coach, one person is overjoyed, as the ancient building was bigger, better and more beautiful than her greatest expectations, whereas the other grumbles about the heat, the dust on the road and the dirty, dishevelled appearance of the villagers pestering them to buy souvenirs. She hardly noticed the incredible architecture.

This is just a small example to show how different people can interpret the same experience totally differently. This extraordinary ability of the mind has an incredible effect on our lives, especially with regards to ageing. In his brilliant book, Grow Younger, Live Longer, Deepak Chopra tells us of the following experiment.

Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a fascinating experiment. She took groups of men in their seventies and eighties and encouraged them to think, act and be as if they were 20 years younger. After doing this for only 5 days these men showed a number of physical changes associated with age reversal. Their hearing and vision had improved, they performed better on tests of manual dexterity and joint mobility had improved.

This goes to show that how we think has a huge influence on our body.

Back to the power of focus. If we continually focus on something and keep it in our mind it will grow stronger, whereas if we take our focus away it will gradually wither and disappear. Here is another simple example:

Say you wanted to change your car, and fancied a dark green sports car. You had always wanted a car like this, but only recently felt you could afford it. Every magazine or newspaper you pick up seems to have a dark green sports car in it that catches your eye. As you drive you notice the green sports cars coming in the opposite direction. In car parks you will automatically be drawn to green sports cars.

Now, these cars were there all the time, but you never noticed them because your mind can only take a small selection of the vast amount of stimuli around you. Until you concentrate your mind on something, it does not grow in your consciousness.

We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.

THE TALMUD

How does this relate to our bodies? Enormously. Every day, focus on excellent health, a beautiful body shape, your body radiant with energy and your life filled with exciting new ideas and projects. See yourself as happy, beautiful, young and vital. As you step into your shower imagine you are stepping into the fountain of youth, which will renew and refresh you daily. Do this every day for a week and you will feel the difference.

Life is the movie you see through your own unique eyes. It makes little difference what is happening out there, it is how you take it that counts.

DENNIS WAITLEY

THE WINNER’S EDGE