Concentrated Focus in Groups
BY JODI FISCHTEIN
“Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.” Carl Jung
Let’s look at the way we integrate our minds and bodies within fluid yoga. Carl Jung, the pioneer of analytical psychology, spoke of our concentrated focus to support connectivity. We have an innate ability to mirror movements and emotions within seconds. Synchronized patterns adapt within other species for protection. If you’ve been mesmerized by a murmuration of starlings in the sky, or schools of fish, then you have witnessed nature’s endless shapes, spirals and patterns.
Do we sense how well we synergize with other yoga practitioners? Even if you prefer to practice yoga alone, or seek the solitary pleasure of great literature, you still sit amongst great minds. You take refuge within their headspace, the written word, hence not alone. We are designed to connect.
Our yoga practice reveals itself in contemplative meditation, movement and breathing. There is a sublime level of synchrony within the yoga realm, through the lens of social intelligence. This concept of sociability unfolded for me during an hour long yoga sequence with a good friend. We had decided to film our session moving under a warm sun, mildly preoccupied from previous late night festivities. Within this unrehearsed filming we noticed synchronized harmony. I attributed our rhythmic movements to our close kinship. Being able to mirror each other with little calculation remained a touchpoint for observation.
Afterwards, I spent time reading Daniel Goleman’s Social Intelligence. Goleman expanded on our ability to move with resonance. Our uncanny pacing was more than friendship. Indeed, we engage a series of synaptic connections in our mind, that fire over and over like a most watchful clock. These innate abilities can be referred to as micro-meshing.
In Social Intelligence, neuroscientists refer to our neural systems as internal clocks, or oscillators. Our impromptu yoga practice had us moving as coupled oscillators. Our internal clocks respond rapidly to any incoming signal. So even though we remained a bit languid, our neural systems remained on point. We echo the rate at which we were moving so as to synchronize.
On a grander scale, we arrive at these yoga festivals such as OM.TO. and Wanderlust as seekers. We connect in mass oscillation, moving in synchrony, and it looks similar to the murmurations of the starlings. We witness a mass neural link up. Our attention is no longer split; we have what psychologists referred to as a concentrated focus. I have heard the 1-2-3 dictum loosely spoken in meditation circles, “I notice you. I feel with you. And so I act to help you.” Yoga is a conduit for this expression.
I leave you with another extract from Goleman’s research, “A mood can sweep through a group with great rapidity, a remarkable display of the parallel alignment of biological subsystems that puts everyone there in physiological synchrony.’
Jodi Fischtein is a mixed lineage yoga teacher, loving the many aspects of Ashtanga, Prana Flow vinyasa and Yin yoga. When I often doubt myself, I reflect on this quote : “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” ~Rumi
This article appears in the Summer 2016 issue of Tonic Toronto
http://www.tonictoronto.com/Summer-2016/The-Syncronicity-of-Yoga/
Posted on October 14, 2016