There are 4 Concepts to practice understanding (until you fully experience) for greater Self Awareness, a more productive class, and a happy life.
1. The Egoic Mind.
This part of the mind is where your preferences live. If you are always in your preferences, easily offended, get your feelings hurt, think it's always about you, have lots of fear, and live in your emotions: you are living in your ego mind. When we are young we live there but as we age the egoic mind lives in its 5 year old and we begin to live in our observer presence. We come to understand our emotions are just signals in the body, simply dynamic energies passing through, and we can observe them as temporary.
As we age we will only be blindsided by our emotions over and over if we are living in our 5 year old mind.
To learn to live in a greater level of self awareness, the present moment, and in a Western Society as a civilized human being, we practice disciplined breath control and mental focus to see where and when we are slipping in and out of our observer presence. We need a point of reference. So we FOCUS. BREATH. & SWEAT.
2. Intellectual Mind.
As you hone your practice by simply showing up, rolling out your mat, and seeing what shows up for you, we are working a disciplined focus on the air moving in and out of the nostrils to create a point of reference. Now we know when we become distracted. This is a simple task and a 5 year old can do it so we give it to the Ego. Now the Intellectual Mind is free to create shapes, control internal environment, protect the vehicle, and LEARN about movement entering, existing in the body in a dynamic state, and exiting the body.
3. The Observer Presence.
This is the Heart. The Soul. The Whatever. It's That. Move from here. The body LOVES the movement and the joints are lubricated by movement, so get invested... in articulation, fully experiencing the movement and the moment, have fun. Don't forget to have fun.
4. Breath.
The breath should be linked to the movement. There is an organic flow to life. If you have not fallen into the flow, connect inhalations to open, expansive movement, and the exhales to contractions and closing the body. As you practice, lengthen the breath as much as possible: scrape the fabric of the lungs; the body can hold so much more air than you think. Keep the tongue on the roof of the mouth, and the breath in the back of the throat. Only Nose breathing. With every breath start again. Start everything again. Everything is born again in every single breath.
Practicing disciplined mental single point of focus, a discipled breathing system deep, deep, deep in the back of the throat and connecting breath to movement:
The Full Experience Will Make You Stronger Than You Ever Thought Possible.
It will change you from the Inside Out. Once we fix the mind, the body fixes its' self.