A Life Without Respite
Our brain consumes about 20-25% of our body's calories, despite making up only 2% of its total weight. Unlike muscles, which relax after exertion, the brain never stops. Even at night, while we sleep and our metabolism slows, the brain continues and even intensifies its incessant work of archiving and cleaning.
Do you want to give it some respite?
Try to stop thinking for ten seconds.
Did you succeed?
There are two possibilities: either you answered "no," or you lied.
The Vritti: The Waves of the Mind
Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutras, defines yoga as follows:
Yogas citta vritti nirodhah (Y.S. 1.2) (Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind)
But what are these fluctuations? They are the waves that the mind continuously produces (those that burn a large part of our energy). Patanjali lists five:
Pramana – correct knowledge, that which you perceive clearly.
Viparyaya – incorrect perception, wrong conviction.
Vikalpa – imagination, mental narrative, hypothesis.
Nidra – sleep (which for yoga is still a movement of the mind).
Smriti – memory, traces of the past that resurface.
These fluctuations are not "bad" (klistha) in themselves. The problem arises when they dominate us. When they become too strong, they drag us away and prevent us from seeing the ultimate reality of things.
Sprouts of Waves
Is it really possible to suppress these vritti to give the brain peace? No. However, they can be quieted, but not by "fighting" them directly.
In our subconscious (chitta), an enormous quantity of seeds (samskara) accumulate over time: habits, reactions, emotional memories. As soon as they find fertile ground, they sprout in the form of a vritti: a wave that ripples the mind.
As long as these seeds find fertile ground in our reactivity, there will be no respite for our restless minds.
Burning the Seeds and Filling the Furrows
How many times, while we are on the mat, does our inner voice say: "My muscles hurt," "How much longer until the end?", "Today I'm better than yesterday"?
These automatic thoughts are the fruit of old mental habits (neuroscience calls them hebbian circuits): they are like deep furrows where water always flows in the same way.
The secret lies in the "space" between stimulus and response.
If we observe these fluctuations without giving them energy, that is, without transforming them into actions or judgments (karma), we remove nourishment from the seeds. This is how the old furrow, no longer used, slowly fills with debris and closes.
The seeds, deprived of water, dry up and finally stop sprouting.
The Universe on a Mat
Let's return to our mat. We are there, afflicting ourselves because in Adho Mukha Svanasana our shoulders are tired. Our brain is swirling, its surface full of waves.
Let's take a breath and observe our mind. Without identifying with it, but looking at it as a tool that is currently focusing on the wrong inputs. Let's focus on it, rather than on physical fatigue.
Our shoulders will continue to feel tired, but they will not monopolize our mind. Our brain will swirl more slowly and consume less glucose. Above all, practice after practice, observation after observation, our mental attitude will change. And effort will become effortless.
Further Reading:
Commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras by B.K.S. Iyengar
The Heart of Yoga by T.k.V. Desikachar
