The Magic in the Mundane

As I walked through the park this morning I was taken by how striking and different the colours appear when set against a morning sunlight - a good reminder that sometimes the magic of the mundane can be hidden until certain conditions remind us to see it. The reds and yellows of these branches must have been there each time I passed, but only today did I notice. 

Noticing the magic in the mundane is something that we do in our yoga and meditation practice, bringing to the foreground of our attention aspects of our experience that would normally lie beneath our awareness, such as the felt sense of our body against the earth, how it meets the space around us, the subtle sensations of our heart beating and our breath flowing. 

It is understandable that such things normally fall beneath our awareness, our brains have an important job to do, that of keeping us safe, resourced and alive. I loved how a friend's therapist once phrased it, that our brains are concerned with keeping us safe, not with making us happy. This is so true. 

As we move through life we meet things with different 'feeling tones' (known in Pali and Sanskrit as Vedana) whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Our brains are designed to respond to these 'feeling tones' in different ways, primarily to: 

·         Desire and move towards that which is deemed pleasant, as it is likely to resource us. 

·         Notice and pull away from that which is deemed unpleasant, as it could reflect danger and harm us. 

·         Ignore and brush over that which is deemed neutral as it has less impact on us. 

This makes sense from a survival perspective, after all if we were continually aware of each breath, each footstep, each leaf or branch we pass by, it would be overwhelming. This selection process is helpful in restricting our attention to where it is most needed, however, much is missed if we forever fail to notice that which is normal or neutral. 

Tuning into these more neutral aspect of our experience in our practice supports us in many ways. It helps us notice and be grateful for these bodies that we move through life in and the breath that sustains us. It helps us tune into subtle sensations, rather than always seeking bigger experiences or stronger sensations in order to feel anything. It brought to mind a quote by Fritz Perls the founder of Gestalt Therapy that "If you're bored, you are not paying attention". A reminder that in cultivating a beginners' mind (in our life and practice) we create the conditions to both perceive and marvel more at the beauty in the familiar.