Featured Teacher: Rebecca Soule, PhD
Use Drishti to Advance Your Yoga Practice
Sometimes after years of practicing yoga asana it can seem very routine, and we begin to look for another challenge, a bigger pose, or another form of physical practice that can bring back the “new love affair” feeling that we had for so long in our yoga practice. Can you see the irony that we can literally LOOK in order to re-engage and ignite our practice? Gaze into yourself and take your practice to another level. (Okay, no more puns and dad jokes!)
Drishti, is a sanskrit word (drsti) that simply translated, means “gaze”. Our drishti, or gaze, is how we focus, how we experience different focal points, in our yoga practice.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, our drishti is part of the eight limbs of yoga, with respect to the withdrawal of our senses (pratyhara). The practice of one-pointed focus with our internal eye, our inwardly directed drishti, increases mental acuity. We developing clear thinking and seeing and a conscious, awakened thought process.
In our asana, or physical practice, there are nine focal points for our drishti. We can gaze at the tip of our nose, our third eye point above and between the eyebrows, our belly button, thumbs, hands, the right or left side, the toes, or skyward! Each is a specific drishti that you can take as you practice. Your asana practice becomes a moving meditation.
Learning to see clearly within gives you the opportunity see the world around you without the filter of our prejudices and past experiences. We develop greater discernment. This way every decision begins to be made with keen insight and good judgment.
Try these techniques to get started, and then make a combination of them for yourself. Notice how it effects the way you see yourself, and the world around you.
Quality of your gaze:
Begin in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) and close your eyes. Begin to slowly scan your physical body from inside- feet upwards. Watch the thoughts that come up and the quality of your gaze. Is it critical, or kind? Do you see “flaws” or “need improvement”? Can you see the incredible body that holds you upright in the world?
Flow and blinking to soften the gaze:
Move through a Sun Salute series A with eyes opening and closing, deliberately.
1. Begin in tadasana (mountain pose) with your eyes closed
2. Inhale and lift your arms by your head, taking your drishti skyward (urdhva or antari drishti)
3. Exhale, and fold forward, close your eyes as you go downwards.
4. Open your eyes to see your toes (padayoragram drishti), inhale and lift to half fold.
5. Exhale and step to plank pose, stay for an Inhale and focus at your nose (nasagram drishti).
6. Now close your eyes as you exhale and lower to chaturanga dandasana or the floor.
7. Breathing in, lift upwards to cobra or upward facing dog and look towards the tip of your nose again.
8. Exhale, close your eyes and move into adho mukkha svanasana (downward facing dog).
9. Stay in downdog for 3-5 breaths. Open your eyes on your inhale, focus at your navel center (nabhi chakra drishti) each time you open your eyes.
10. Eventually make your way back to the front of your mat, playing with the opening and closing of your eyes with each in- and ex- hale, respectively.
Take a specific drishti throughout your practice:
Choose one of the nine drishtis and maintain it (as much as available) throughout your practice. For instance, if you choose the tips fo your toes (padayoragram drishti) you would look at your toes in forward folds, down dog, and so forth but not in warrior two.
Here are the nine drishtis:
1. Nasagram drishti—tip of the nose
2. Ajna chakra or bhrumadhya drishti—between the eyebrows
3. Nabhi chakra drishti—navel
4. Hastagram drishti—hand
5. Padayoragram drishti—toes
6. Parshva drishti—far to the right
7. Parshva drishti—far to the left
8. Angushthamadhyam drishti—thumbs
9. Urdhva or antara drishti—up to the sky
