Thread: SzuruDusk's YOGA PUNCH workbook.

First, I'll note that I'm a nightowl. Extreme nightowl.

My first conscious attempts were as follows:
I was restless around 2AM. I walk outside and decide to take a twilight stroll through the neighborhood.
(I have a safe, peaceful, small-town neighborhood, so this really isn't that odd.)

(My first goal was to just relax and stay self-aware. )
I rounded the corner and headed down a dim street.
The sky was illuminated by a peaceful glow of the moon. A moisture ring circled the waning moon and only a couple bright stars were visible.
I used my eyes to observe the scenery. Dark twisted trees, misleading cacti, quiet porch lights. Bushes rustled nearby and my survival instincts took over:[DISTRACTION!] I dropped my self-awareness completely and focused solely on this noise.
I could feel my subconscious using hidden archetypes to play with my mind like the crew of a theater pulled the strings of their show.
I relaxed further when I realized that nothing would hurt me, save for me tripping over a curb.
( It would seem this would be the first obstacle: Overcoming Fear and Distractions.)
(I couldn't rely on the symbols that my mind had already given all of these things. I have to observe the things as I saw them, as if I were witnessing them for the first time. I had to know that I was safe too- so my survival mode didn't kick in.)

I walked down the street and took another turn. Now that I'd calmed down, I could objectively observe all of the noises around me without focusing too much on one at a time. I closed my eyes and shuffled down this new street.

The first noise I took into account were my footsteps. I focused on this sound until I could hear the shuffling of my soles on the asphalt and the clothes rubbing on my legs as separate sounds. (For convenience's sake, I counted them as one.)
I held them in my mind for awhile before adding a new one: Crickets.

By this time, there were 2-3 noises being processed, but I had lost my self-awareness. I patiently brought it back and retraced my awareness steps. I was aware of myself, my foot shuffles, and the crickets now.
I waited until I had all three of these down pat. (It took a few minutes to get used to it, but I realized it was a bit like diffuse vision... just with sound. I had to be able to hold awareness on the individual sounds, but also the entire canvas of sound as well.)
I then dropped my diffuse awareness and felt through my sounds again. The crickets were replaced with different lower sounding crickets. I also picked up on far away cars and nearby air conditioners.

Now, my list went: Self-awareness, foot shuffling, crickets, cars, and air-conditioning. It was getting increasingly hard to maintain more than 3. I could listen to everything with diffuse hearing-
but it was just too hard to be able to FOCUS individually AND together. I started over, from my self-awareness up. I would get to four sounds and then lose my awareness.

By this time, I was passing by some old memories. This is where I used to walk to school. It's been years- [DISTRACTION!]. I let my mind wander on accident. I brought it back.

I felt through my awareness and sounds and decided it was time to feel for my "feels". I dropped my awareness of sounds to an extent, by keeping them there- just with out intent focus.
The first thing I felt was the cold. It was a comfortable-cool, still air. I felt it on my arms and face mostly. I felt more and picked up on the feel of my feet pushing against the asphalt, bringing me forward. I felt my expanding and contracting lungs... and then I could feel my clothes hanging loosely off my body. My shirt on my chest and shoulders... my over-shirt blowing open slowly against my arms. My pants wrapped snugly around my legs, and I felt almost constricted for a moment. I pondered what it must be like to live naked. [DISTRACTION!] I lost my awareness.

Now that I had a taste for self-awareness, sound, and feeling- I decided to try and mix them. First I became self-aware, then I felt all of the above and added in my footsteps as a sound. Then after a moment, I added crickets. That would be my stopping point. I held these things in my awareness for a couple minutes. (I noticed how at this point, I stopped viewing sounds and feelings as different things. It was more like observing sensations all grouped together in the same category. I counted 5 total general sensations besides my awareness.)

And that's when I arrived back home. It had been a good 20 minutes of a walk.

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I sat down on the steps in the front yard and decided to try again with sounds, without the distraction of vision and walking.
(It was MUCH easier now- almost to the point that I got excited! )
I listened to crickets and air-conditioning first. I held those on top of my self-awareness for a minute before moving on. I could hear distant cars and owls now. I was moving too fast though, and I lost my focus. I tried again and held all 4 for awhile.

Just then, I heard a car growing louder. It was driving this way and would pass soon. (This would be a challenge not to focus directly on passing cars.)
I dropped everything and then picked them all back up, this time trying not to focus solely on the car. I failed as I opened my eyes as it passed. [DISTRACTION!] Dammit. Once it rounded the corner, I resumed.
Self-awareness, air conditioning, crickets, owls, cars. I had to swallow, and I noticed that my inner sounds were loud enough to me that they eclipsed everything else!
(Huh, funny. Sounds and inner monologue that originated from ME always seemed to be the loudest. In order for this to work, I had to become silent. Or maybe I had to view myself and my thoughts more objectively?)

The sound of a car entered my array of sensations. It was coming closer. I held onto everything, but then I panicked as it was going to pass right by me this time. [DISTRACTION!] I didn't want to seem like a creep or a stalker just sitting here. I ducked out of sight. They didn't actually pass by me though... they pulled into their driveway where I couldn't see, a little further up the road. I closed my eyes and resumed listening. I heard them open the doors and listened to the footsteps and shuffling. There were two of them! I heard whispers and more shuffling, then closing of car doors. They walked inside and I heard a front door close. Minutes later, their AC shut off-

I pushed them out of mind and listened again... Self-awareness, crickets, owls, cars, a dog barking far away... I held on for a few more minutes before I picked up on some faint rustling far away. There was an animal somewhere in the distance. I added this to my awareness.
Just then, something in the tree behind me almost grabbed my attention- but I had conquered my fear and I added it too objectively. Leaves moving.

A total of 6 sounds was quite an accomplishment for me! My mind wasn't used to this though, and I didn't hold it for very long at all. I figured it was time to go inside anyways.

WOW! What a great read! Welcome to the class.That was an awesome first day.