Is my brain a muscle?
I don't know if the brain is really a muscle or not (or, at least, if it functions in the way that we usually think of muscles). In this third month of meditation, however, I have often felt like my brain is a muscle. Like, with continued attenuation, my focus becomes stronger. It becomes easier to find stillness and I want to sit longer.
It also feels like my brain, like the muscles in my body, sometimes just wants to shake around like an uncontrollable Jell-O mold.
Do you know how your legs get around the time that second minute holding Goddess pose comes around? Or any of the Warriors? That shaking is your muscles constantly reaching the point of fatigue, moving the responsibility and work from one fiber to the other. It's not controllable, really, and you shouldn't try. It's also release: shaking legs during deep hamstring stretches, hands shaking after a rush of nerves.
So, sometimes my brain feels that way, too. Not quite the monkey-like mind, jumping from subject to subject (nonlinear and how-did-that-lead-to-that?) More... vibratory. A mixture of strengthening (second minute in Goddess) and release (second breath in Camel).
This is a new part of my yoga practice and I am finding myself surprised and interested in what comes up. So, my answer to the question "Is the brain a muscle?" is that mine is sure acting like one. Just like figuring out that you can do chaturanga for the first time after slowly (and patiently!) building up arm strength, it's a nice surprise.
What's your brain? (Fried, ps, is also an okay answer. For me, you needn't go back father than March to find that answer)
It also feels like my brain, like the muscles in my body, sometimes just wants to shake around like an uncontrollable Jell-O mold.
Do you know how your legs get around the time that second minute holding Goddess pose comes around? Or any of the Warriors? That shaking is your muscles constantly reaching the point of fatigue, moving the responsibility and work from one fiber to the other. It's not controllable, really, and you shouldn't try. It's also release: shaking legs during deep hamstring stretches, hands shaking after a rush of nerves.
So, sometimes my brain feels that way, too. Not quite the monkey-like mind, jumping from subject to subject (nonlinear and how-did-that-lead-to-that?) More... vibratory. A mixture of strengthening (second minute in Goddess) and release (second breath in Camel).
This is a new part of my yoga practice and I am finding myself surprised and interested in what comes up. So, my answer to the question "Is the brain a muscle?" is that mine is sure acting like one. Just like figuring out that you can do chaturanga for the first time after slowly (and patiently!) building up arm strength, it's a nice surprise.
What's your brain? (Fried, ps, is also an okay answer. For me, you needn't go back father than March to find that answer)