Attention

Wherever our attention is, that is where we are.  Our attention, our awareness, breathes life into that which it rests upon.  Place your attention on something, and it grows in your life.  Take your attention away from something, and it fades away.  Hence the power of yoga poses... the bringing of attention to our bodies, to the state of our minds, to the moment at hand.  Alive in the presence of an unwavering attention, our bodies achieve their profound potential.  Alive in our unwavering attention, anything can become like the bucket and broom in the tale of the sorcerer's apprentice.  Work, money, worry,  shopping, exercise, lip balm, Twinkies... the list is endless.  None of these items have power in themselves; their power is derived from the power of our attention.  There is a momentum to our habitual thought patterns.  Tie your attention to the solution and not the problem.  Shift your focus.  If you have a bad habit from 6 to 7 pm., find a good habit with which to replace it.  Every day we practice is an opportunity to observe this process.  I can view my practice as a tedious obligation and go through the day dreading it.  Or I can shift focus and see my time on the mat as an opportunity to experience the power of the universe, to tap into my potential and end the cycle of suffering in my life. The joy of that possibility  can fill my day.  In the end, it is all a matter of where I place my attention.

                                                          From the book, Meditations from the Mat by Rolf Gates

I say it all the time... ATTENTION and INTENTION is all you need to practice yoga.