Neophilia is the love of the new. It’s not so much focused on love for brand-new, straight-out-of-the-box things, but much more on the seeking out of new experiences. Neophiles are people who love novelty, who seek the thrill of doing things they’ve never done before. And they’re not necessarily adrenaline junkies; you can be a neophile reading a novel you’ve never read, going on a walk somewhere new, or simply approaching your yoga mat from a different perspective.
In literature (where the term first sprung up, thanks to cult writer Robert Anton Wilson), neophiles are usually rebels and rule-breakers, but in reality they have a lot more in common with yogis. More to the point, here’s how embracing the new can deepen and enrich your yoga practice.
Staying in the present
Atha yogas anushasanam, says the first of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: now is the time for yoga, with the emphasis being on the now. The present moment is always new, and in that sense, so is good yoga practice. Keeping things fresh can be hard, given how life – and our notion of a disciplined yoga practice – revolve around routine. When we want to spruce things up, we often lack imagination as a result of having become stale – it can be a catch 22. Of course this applies to life in general as well as to yoga: it can be all too easy to get stuck! So, as a first step towards welcoming neophilia into your life, here are
4 Easy Ways to Make Your Yoga Practice Feel New
- Bring a Beginner’s Mind to the mat
Get curious and approach each pose as though your body had not encountered it before. Search for new areas of sensation and tune into the things you routinely ignore. If you know you’ve neglected your breath, for example, focus on that in more detail than your alignment, or if you’re normally preoccupied by pranayama, work with greater attention to your spine. Allow your practice to be a space for including new sensations. One way to make your practice new is to pretend to be a beginner again. Think you know everything? Begin anew with a two-day Foundation Course.
- Practice in a different space
Usually practice inside? Then weather permitting, take your mat outside. And if the weather isn’t on your side, move your mat to a new spot, or if you’re pushed for space, even facing the opposite way from normal to make your brain work differently, which is what this is all about.
- Change what you hear
If you regularly listen to the same playlist, change it up, or go silent. If you normally practise silently, try moving to music. Notice the differences in how you feel, get quiet and curious within yourself as to how sound affects your experience.
- Go to a new yoga class
Challenge the power of habit by attending something different! Place your emphasis on experience rather than result – the point is to do something new and learn in the process, not necessarily to like it. If we only ever did things we liked, or thought we’d like, we’d live much more boring lives!
Practising a different kind of flexibility
The point is not to change your practice permanently – far from it. The point is to make adaptability part of your practice, just as it has to be a part of life. Science is full of evidence suggesting that new experiences keep us young, mentally as well as physically, and can also have a dramatic effect on our mood and general wellbeing.
Keen to put this to the test, I set out to find a way to introduce more new experiences into own my life.
An Experiment For The Intrepid
There are of course all sorts of ways to try new things, but key to all of them is a shift in mindset, and that can be hard to muster up in the throes of a busy everyday life. So, why not make a commitment to get you going? Nothing like a good challenge to get you going…
A couple of months ago I read an inspiring Facebook post from a friend who who is currently working overseas for the British Government in Pakistan. Seeking a way to make the most of living in a foreign country and not letting the richness of that slip by, she pledged to do a new thing every day for a month, and to track her progress online as a way of making herself accountable. A seriously interesting series of posts followed, ranging from mountain explorations to new dishes sampled and new languages spoken, and it occurred to me that I could benefit greatly from doing the same thing. I had recently moved to the other side of the world, and so I set about to see what novelty New Zealand could bring each day, for a month.
Six weeks or so after I began this journey, although my Facebook documentation of the process has been a little lacking, the reason for that is that more has changed than I thought possible, and in a very exciting way – I simply haven’t had time. It’s been a brilliant experience. What it has highlighted has been just how much opportunity can turn on what can feel like a relatively minor decision. On Day 1 of my challenge, despite feeling a little ambivalent about it, I dragged my cousin along to a Slam Poetry event, because I’d never been to one before and had been meaning to for about six years. It seemed like the ideal first new thing, and it was.
Not only was it a great night, but the people I met there have become friends, and have gone on to totally transform what I’m now doing in Auckland. This has become a journey of new things I had been wanting to do for years including going on a road trip, taking a play on tour, writing and putting on my own, and developing my yoga practice towards what I have long-since wanted its focus to be: yoga for performers.
I’ve met a whole new community of people, moved forward with more of my creative ambitions than I ever could have hoped to, and become (a bit) better at day-dreaming less and doing more. Highlights were gazing at the Milky Way and capturing it on camera lens at 1am on a deserted beach, making my own pasta by hand, going rock climbing, and buying my first car, finally, at the grand old age of 26.
Just like my friend found in Pakistan, the pressure, which at times it was, to try to experience something new each day meant that I dithered less, and seized the day – even if it was at 9pm, doggedly kneading pasta dough. Doing new things forces you to let go of old stories, and helps you to realise that there is so much possibility all around us – all we need do to tap into it is adjust our perspective.
And this, of course, is yoga at its best.
