Drishti: Where Insight Emerges
We all look, but do we really see?
I have the distinct privilege of working in a profession where I serve as a witness to the joys and devastations (and all the points in between) of our human existence. As I expand professionally, the more strongly I tether myself to yogic philosophy and allow my yoga practice to inform my work and my work to inform my yoga practice.
Doggy-paddling upstream in the frenetic chaos of daily life, it is remarkably easy to lose connection with others and ourselves. This fraying of the chords between our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits manifests in a myriad of physical and psychological issues, only adding to the tyrannical cyclone.
Yet, every day, all around me, I experience minute-by-minute miracles, someone deciding to value their wellbeing over title, another courageously facing their addiction, and another sliding their chemo kerchief from their head in savasana.
These life-changing decisions are made in a moment of true yoga, whether the person has ever found themselves in down dog or not. In that moment, a person becomes superhuman, as they answer the call of their hearts to align their mind, body, and spirit as a divine life compass.
This union is what we all seek, but how can we discover, harness, and remember the roadmap to our exquisite humanity?
Did you have any doubt that yoga would be the answer? Of course, not.
This ultimate translation of yoga can be diminished in different translations to merely a physical practice. However, as we all have experienced in one way or another, yoga offers us the means to widen our eyes rather than to narrow our vision, so we can discover and cultivate this connection. And this can permeate our lives, as perhaps the best antidote to the modern disease of detached observation, one which has produced only chaos, death, destruction and suffering.
And what might be the most direct way we can begin to explore this connection, however weathered it may feel? The answer lies in the mirror.
Drishti.
"Find your drishti gaze," is a common cue heard as we're settling into dancer pose.
It makes sense. Where our eyes go, our bodies follow, given sight is a direct gateway to how we experience the world and our neurologic postural system. Our brains treat sight as the master of our spatial reference and movement planning. The eyes truly command where our body goes.
Additionally, our systems for gaze and focus share the same neural hardware, and the part of the brain that directs gaze is also engaged in higher-order cognitive functions. When the gaze is fixed, our pupils dilate, in a fascinating example of how our mind can override our reactive nervous system. The magnitude of dilation serves as a real-time physiological index of the depth of cognitive engagement, which is precisely why the yogic drishti gaze, through sustained anatomic fixation of our eyes and mental focus, becomes a visible index of our internal cognitive engagement. This aligns with the yogic principle that Drishti is a gateway to Dharana, or mental concentration.
Our fixed gaze acts as an anchor for our attention that first narrows our brain's focus to a single point. Through the resulting sustained mental engagement, our pupils dilate, which opens the gates for richer sensory information to flood into brains to maximize how much information we can gather from this point of focus and our context.
Thus, through this beautiful physiological paradox, by voluntarily narrowing our vision, we transition ourselves from scattered, less meaningful engagement to optimum perception and mental clarity. Our brains amplify our capacity to process the present moment we've created. Drishti does not limit but rather expands our awareness and our ability to notice.
The eyes narrow so the mind can widen.
I must admit, I indulged in a research safari as I love expanding my understanding of the mind-brain-body relationship from a neurophysiological perspective. But sharing the knowledge I return with is my ultimate joy. Strap on your yoga mats and water bottles, here we go, yogis!
Functional MRI studies on focused attention meditation found that three key brain networks are consistently engaged: the Default Mode Network (DMN), Salience Network (SN), and Executive Control Network (ECN).
The DMN generates our ongoing narrative of "who I am," processes autobiographical memory, and supports introspection and theory of mind. Ego dissolution and the experience of connection result from a quieting of the DMN, which can be cultivated through meditation; yoga being a kind of moving meditation.
The ECN supports goal-directed behavior, working memory, and critical thinking. The top-down regulatory capacity overrides our automatic impulses and enables intentional decision-making.
The SN sits at the crossroads of thought, feeling, and action and allows us to switch between our internal and external processing systems. The SN is specifically activated during self-recognition.
Focused attention meditation also attenuates DMN activity, the network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential rumination, suggesting that single-pointed focus quiets our inner critic.
Taken together, the neuroscience literature supports several yogic intuitions about drishti:
- Sustained visual fixation engages prefrontal executive control networks that suppress mind-wandering.
- Gaze direction powerfully modulates self-referential processing and self-awareness.
- The coupling of visual focus with interoceptive attention, as practiced in yoga, may produce synergistic effects on the insula and salience network.
- Long-term contemplative practice reshapes the structural and functional architecture of brain regions governing attention, self-regulation, and embodied awareness.
This brings us to the true brilliance of the mirrors in Inner Fire Yoga's studios...
When we look at ourselves in a mirror, we engage all three of these three main brain networks. The salience network also processes the interoceptive signals that arise when we look at ourselves in a mirror such as a quickened heart rate, a flush of discomfort, and the urge to look away, to create our embodied experience of seeing oneself. This is why looking into a mirror feels so viscerally intense from looking at a photograph, the SN marries real-time interoceptive feedback with our visual image in the mirror.
Then the SN switches the brain from DMN-dominant rumination to ECN-mediated regulation. Under normal resting conditions, the DMN and ECN demonstrate reciprocal activity, meaning when one is active, the other is suppressed. In situations including addiction, depression, and self-doubt, this switch is disrupted so the DMN is hyperactive, driving ruminations, cravings, and negative self-talk. All this while the ECN is suppressed, which weakens self-compassion and emotional regulation. Mirror work, by generating a powerful salient stimulus through our reflection, forces the SN to switch from the inner critic of the unchecked DMN to ECN-mediated regulation and introspection.
In the therapeutic mirror gaze, the DMN does not shut down so our monkey mind continues its assault. But with the ECN engaged, we can access our wise mind to gain perspective on our experience. This is precisely what mindfulness cultivates: "metacognition," or the ability to watch one's own thoughts without being captured by them which dampens the DMN's chatter.
Big breath in, long exhale out. We made it!
Now, returning to our drishti conversation, let's connect the dots between how drishti ultimately helps us remember our true Selves.
Fixed gaze (drishti) → creates focused arousal
Self-directed gaze (mirror work) → SN detects our reflection as maximally salient which allows the SN to switch from DMN-dominant rumination to ECN-mediated regulation
Sustained mirror gazing → encourages activation of our rest and digest nervous system so we gain control over our inner critic/monkey mind (DMN)
ECN oversight of DMN → allows us to pause before we react to a stimulus
Pause → awareness of our physical and emotional state interoceptive allows us to become self-aware to allow for self-reflection
Insight → increases our interest and perceived accessibility of change
Finding our drishti gaze in the front mirrors is uniquely powerful because it simultaneously activates all three networks in a manner that allows yogis to harmonize their mind, body, and spirit.
This is the union that allows for everyday miracles.
All from being courageous enough to peek at our beautiful selves in the mirror and stay.