Drishti (focus) is something people often forget about. Not just in yoga, but in life generally.
Anyone who's ever done board sports knows that where you look, you go. I found this out one too many times by surfing straight in to someone because I was looking at them rather than my escape route. I'm still learning, it's OK...
Focusing the eyes on one thing or point of focus calms the mind and body. I've talked before about how the brain gets bombarded with around 2m bits of information a second; it's not wonder we feel stressed!
It's the focus that gives us a break from the relentless chatter inside our heads. That's why activities that bring us into a state of 'flow', like yoga can, are so satisfying.
In yoga, we call the focused gaze 'drishti'. We call the focus of the mind 'nirodhah'. Fancy Sanskrit words aside, those two are pretty much the same thing: where your eyes go, you go.
Excerpt taken from Melbourne Mobile Yoga.
This is a purposefully short post because, although I could spend hours talking about it, I don't need to.
Next time you do your yoga, or take some time for yourself, sit quietly and focus your eyes softly on one thing - maybe a candle, your finger tips, toes or the space between your eyebrows, but let the mind settle there, blinkered from all the other stuff going on around it.