Reframing my internal conversation by “thinking in paths” opened things up for me, and allowed me to participate in the chanting in yoga. In yoga, the chants aren’t about the literal meaning of the words/sounds. The sounds themselves are intended to connect you to the world.
In a non-yogic sense, this made sense to me. One of my favourite TED talks is by Jill Bolte Taylor, where she (as a brain scientist) describes her first hand experience of a stroke. She describes the bit of the brain that allows you to realise that you are separate from everything else. She describes how her stroke stilled that part, and how she had a magical moment where she felt deeply connected to everything and everyone. Which is basically what yoga is about. Our interpretation of reality is both the way we connect to people, and what separates us from people.
I had fond memories of all the songs and singing at church even though I didn’t believe the words. I like the sound of the Sanskrit chants and I was able to use the music rather than thinking about it. That allowed me to go deeper into my yoga rather than feeling like a spectator because of a niggle. I was working long hours. I would get home from work just before the yoga class started at 8pm. After the 90 minute class, I would finish the day with some yogi soup.
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