Mindfulness is the practice of descending deeply and non-judgmentally into the “just-so,” or “what-is,” of moment-to-moment experience. It is a wonderful adjunct to analytic depth work because it strengthens our capacity to sit attentively with whatever arises, no matter how discomforting, unexpected, or otherwise loathsome it may be. It's like adding a zoom lens or slow motion camera to your ordinary way of looking at things. Mindfulness practice augments depth work, and it also works the other way around. Learning psyche’s symbolic language inevitably deepens mindfulness practice. Viewing thoughts, feelings, images, and bodily sensations—all of which are psyche’s messengers—through the lens of symbolic awareness allows your messengers to radiate their wisdom.

          The yoga of working with psyche then unfolds as we take what arises in our work with the unconscious, and use mindfulness to stretch into unfamiliar (wiser and more compassionate) pathways of action and behavior. Stretching into our suppressed unconscious aspects unites (yokes--yoga) the energy and wisdom of the unconscious with our conscious awareness and action.This kind of yoga brings active care to lifelong neglected, bullied, walled off, rejected or otherwise unconscious, and hence unseen, aspects of ourselves.

         The unconscious has so very much to teach us. Understanding of psyche’s symbolic language—as it bubbles up in the dynamic display of all that arises both within you and around you—fully allows your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations to radiate the unconscious beneficent wisdom that otherwise remains encrypted within them.

© Suzanne Szalay, M.D.