Even though I’ve only been teaching Mindfulness Yoga for a few years, I’ve actually been teaching mindfulness yoga for much longer than that.

What?

I know. This sounds a bit like a logic problem:

If a yoga teacher leaves on a train headed due east at 50 km/hour, and he drops his yoga mat and it rolls on the floor of the train toward the west at 3 km/hour …

Don’t worry, I won’t make you solve that one.

The truth is that I’ve only started calling my yoga classes Mindfulness Yoga recently. But in reality, mindfulness has always been a key part of how I teach yoga.

In fact, mindfulness is integral to yoga — although this often gets lost in the shuffle of yoga poses, trendy yoga clothing, and debates over whether we should practice yoga when it is super hot, super cold, or somewhere in between.

Those debates, however, are for another time.

Instead, I’d like to focus on one simple question: “What is mindfulness yoga?”

Let’s break it down.

Mindfulness is more than awareness

First, there is mindfulness.

Mindfulness has many definitions. Here are a few, all taken from PositivePsychology.com.

• “…a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.” ~ American Psychological Association
• “The awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” ~ John Kabat-Zinn, who developed the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program.
• “Mindfulness shows us what is happening in our bodies, our emotions, our minds, and in the world. Through mindfulness, we avoid harming ourselves and others.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk
• “Mindfulness isn’t just about knowing that you’re hearing something, seeing something, or even observing that you’re having a particular feeling. It’s about doing so in a certain way — with balance and equanimity, and without judgment. Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in a way that creates space for insight” ~ Sharon Salzberg, a teacher of Buddhist meditation practices

When I read these quotes, a few things stand out.

• Mindfulness is awareness … of your body, feelings, mind, and the world around you … and, importantly, awareness of these things in the present moment, not the future or the past.
• Mindfulness is intentional. You can choose to place your attention on your breath, a sunset, or the sensations of washing dishes. But your focus can also be drawn to things without you wanting it there — like when you get a text message while driving and your attention shifts from the road to your cell phone.
• Mindfulness is a state of being, not a trait. You aren’t born with mindfulness, but you can experience it during your life. This state can be achieved through meditation, yoga, and mindfulness training. But it can also happen in other ways, such as being fully present while hiking or listening to a friend.
• Mindfulness is non-judgmental. This is awareness without criticism, but also without labeling. When your attention is focused on your breath, can you notice it without comparing it to your breath yesterday, or labeling it “good” or “bad”? Sharon Salzberg refers to this as “balance and equanimity” — your awareness rests somewhere, but without the mind providing a running commentary.

Yoga is about mindfulness

Next is yoga.

The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, a traditional yoga text, describes the eight limbs of yoga. These are:

• Yama (observances, or how you interact with others and the world around you)
• Niyama (disciplines, habits, behaviors, and observances)
• Asana (postures or yoga poses)
• Pranayama (breath control or breathing exercises)
• Pratyahara (control of senses)
• Dharana (concentration)
• Dhyana (meditation)
• Samadhi (absorption)

The eight limbs are usually listed in this order, but they don’t always happen like that. Sometimes you will jump from one to the next and back again (hopefully making progress along the way).

The first four limbs are not directly related to mindfulness, but they can prepare the mind and body for mindfulness practice. For example, if your mind is restless, it can be difficult to focus on an object. However, after doing a few yoga poses and breathing exercises, you may find it much easier to keep your awareness in one place.

To me, pratyahara is where mindfulness starts to really kick in. It is sometimes referred to as “drawing in the senses or awareness.” This doesn’t mean tuning out the world completely. Instead, you start to be more intentional about what your senses pick up.

Think about where your awareness goes throughout the day.

It may flit from your morning coffee to a baby crying upstairs to your cell phone ringing to a video on social media to the rough feel of the carpet beneath your bare feet to the pounding in your head from too much wine at the bar last night to worrying about what your coworkers thought about you drinking so much wine …

Now think about how many times you chose to bring your awareness to those objects, thoughts, or feelings. Chances are, a lot of it was not intentional.

With pratyahara, you start to take control of your your senses.

If you are reading a book and hear your cell phone go off, you are able to notice the ringing of the cell phone and go back to reading your book — without part of your mind getting stuck on your cell phone.

Going deeper into mindfulness

The next three limbs — dharana, dhyana, and samadhi — involve how your mind interacts with an object. They differ mainly in the depth of the connection between your mind and the object.

With dharana, your attention is on the object, but you are still aware of the object, your own self, and the environment around you and the object.

For example, you notice your breath, you notice yourself noticing your breath, and you notice the Frank Sinatra music playing at the Italian restaurant across the street.

With dhyana, the connection between you and the object grows stronger. You are aware of the object and your own self, but the environment has started to drop away. You and the breath are still separate, but you don’t notices Ol’ Blue Eyes singing anymore.

Samadhi is the closest connection between self and object. Your attention is on the object, but you no longer see yourself as separate from the object. In a sense, you have become the object.

In yoga class, we often choose a simple object to focus on. This can be something real like a candle on the floor or a leaf in your hand (or your hand itself). Or it can be something less solid, like your breath. Or even the visualization of an object in your mind, like a mountain, ocean, or tree.

You can, of course, choose things from your everyday life, like washing dishes, driving a car, or the game of tennis that you are playing. However, I find that it is easier to practice mindfulness with a single, simple object.

Putting yoga and mindfulness together

As I mentioned earlier, the poses and breathing exercises prepare your mind and body so you have an easier time focusing your attention on an object.

But these activities can also be the object that you are focused on.

For example, while doing a yoga pose, try keeping your awareness on the sensations in your body. Do you notice when your mind has drifted somewhere else? If so, bring your attention back to the sensations in your body.

During your next yoga class, pay attention to how often your awareness is on something other than your body and breath. This is a lot harder than it seems. Sometimes we are not even aware that our mind is somewhere else.

This “coming back” to the object is the true essence of mindfulness. The point isn’t to force your mind to focus on something, but to relax into it. With regular practice, it becomes easier to keep your awareness focused where you want it.

As you can see, mindfulness is a big part of yoga, or at least traditional yoga. So if that’s true, why even bother calling my classes Mindfulness Yoga?

I guess I could have called them Mindfulness Mindfulness or Yoga Yoga. Or even just Yoga.

But I think emphasizing the mindfulness aspect highlights what I hope my students will gain from coming to my classes — being able to “[pay] attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”