“Mind controls the body.” “The body is limited but the mind is infinite.” “Once you control the mind, you can conquer the body.” “The body achieves what the mind believes.” These are all some common things we would have heard. Some of us might have even experienced the effect of mental grit helping us motivate ourselves to do more and push our limitations.
Off late, I have been thinking of the reverse. I feel like I use my body to train my mind. And some introspection has had me go back to the essence of Indian Art Forms (the ones I practice are Bharatanatyam and Yoga) I think this could probably apply to any art form. But I can only speak for what I have experienced. I feel elated when I dance or amazing after an asana practice session, and have often pondered over why this is. It cannot be as simple as “Dancing makes me happy”. Or maybe it is, haha.
So today, I was thinking about this again and then I had an epiphany. When the body is idle, the mind is hyper active. If an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, then an idle body is like Aranab Goswami’s talkshow. There is just so much noise. Our minds being infinite is filled with all kinds of junk. Thoughts, Facts, Information, Names, Dates, Images, To do’s, Goals, Anxiety, Stress, Anger and an endless flow of “matter”. And our attention and thoughts keep going from one matter to the next. There is no space for the mind to be blank. For us to see beyond the human boundaries. To ever be able to discover more.
When my body is in motion, it almost feels like there is a remote that turns down the volume of my brain. Quietens all the thoughts and lets me get a tiny peak into something bigger than my world, bigger than me. When the mind is quiet, I can really begin to let go of past and future and just be more present. And this is what elevates me. Makes me feel the happiness that only my practice brings me. My body takes control of my mind. And for a moment after my practice, this state of mind lasts. And then back to chaos 🙂
I hope that one day with consistent practice, there will be a mute button on my remote. To allow me to truly find myself.
This is definitely a unique way to look at it.. the thought process is beautiful…
To think about it now.. I feel its a delicate balance of mind and body..the mind having the capacity to push the body to and beyond its limits…that initial push to take up something by the body, still rests with the mind!
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I completely agree with you. The initiation has to come from the mind.. it should be ready to let go 🙂
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I went through your articles and there’s a quite a correlation between dance and human psyche or the mind.
Is that something inherent in dance or do you add these things in your practice.
Just, because I have seen dance just an art, is it that deep?
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Thanks for reading 🙂 These things are actually inherent in indian classical dance. Not too many people know or practice it that way these days.. But most serious dancers would know the connection. The art came into existence as a medium to help people realize themselves.. So it’s grounded on human psyche.
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Yeah, that’s not a well known fact. I always believed that classical songs or dance have some psyche in it, its great you are doing it, these days there’s growing influence of Bollywood dance that we have somewhat lost our heritage.
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