Training Days 14 & 15: Drishti in Action

These past two days I've kept my runs pretty flat in the surrounding neighborhoods because I haven't yet read the chapter on hills in the ChiRunning book and I want to know what that's all about before more hill training. Also, given the fact that I have the big 9 mile run scheduled for Saturday, I want to keep my muscles as fresh as possible. Yesterday I did 4 miles, today 3.

One of the things I've been working on over the past couple days is keeping one steady point of visual focus during my run. In yoga this is called drishti. In Jivamukti Yoga David Life and Sharon Gannon describe drishti as follows: "Specific gazing points--such as up, down, left, right, tip of the nose, navel, third eye, toes, fingers, or thumbs--are recommended for certain asanas. Actually these points are not directly looked at, but rather are gazed beyond and used as a sort of aiming mechanism... Gazing is a fascinating, helpful method for intensifying concentration... By maintaining the appropriate gazes during asana practice and breathing steadily, you will develop the ability to detach from your efforts and from the fluctuations of the mind and the body that occur as you practice." So using drishti during yoga asana allows the practitioner to find more perfect alignment, quell mental noise, and enter more deeply into the moving meditation.

Interestingly, Dreyer's ChiRunning philosophy uses a very similar concept called y'chi: "When your mind is used to direct the energy and movement of your body through your eyes, you're using what the Chinese call y'chi... it happens when everything is aligned: your body, your vision, your forward movement, your mind, and your heart... When you can maintain unbroken visual contact with an object or goal, it leaves little room for your mind to be doing any of its normal antics of following every thought that comes into your consciousness."

I have found that using a single point of focus during my runs energetically draws me forward. If the point is at least at eye-level, it keeps the spine long and heart lifted. Generally it helps the whole body stay aligned. Please see the above photo for one of my favorite gazing points. This is a straightaway in the La Cienega Park track. See the little white sign way down at the end? I swear it has energetic powers. When I am locked into my gazing point, much of the mind's yapping falls away. Reminds me of when I learned to ride horseback. Always gaze straight ahead between the horses ears--especially when jumping. Your forward visual intention will keep the horse moving, if you drop it you might get dumped.