On Granularity
“Every moment is a fresh beginning, every blink of time an infinitely divisible layer of light and shadow, where we touch something endlessly deeper.”
Dear Friends,
This extract from Virginia Woolf – To the Lighthouse, invites us to explore subtle shifts within each moment, allowing us to cultivate a finer awareness of our daily experiences. It’s a skill that deepens as we slow down and take time to observe with care.
Granularity, or the ability to differentiate between subtle variations, is gradually withering from our common language. We often use broad terms like ”fine” or ”great” to describe a wide range of experiences. In contrast, some other languages like Icelandic have more than 40 words to describe snow alone, such as: Snjór – the general term for snow; Mjöll – soft, powdery snow; Krap – slushy, wet snow; Fönn – snowbank or snowdrift; Hjarn – hardened snow; Skafl – snow pile, drifted snow.
This kind of refined nuancing is something I notice fading in the ever louder roars of extreme yoga asanas. To hear the subtle messages of our body and energy systems, we need to regain our capacity for deep listening.
“Hearing the quiet whispers from our body’s deepest layers, depends on an inner silence that is not crowded by an endless array of complex, end-range movements.”
Something profound is lost when we lose our granularity, our ability to intimately perceive intricacy and nuance. When we swiftly pack and label experiences, people and phenomenon into good and bad, right or wrong we end up ignoring the complexity, ambiguity and interdependence of our lives. We become defensive and resist opening our hearts to multifaceted ideas or different perspectives.
Rather than striving for “how far, how much”, we could approach our practice as an opportunity to refine our specificity so that we can learn to distinguish between all the variables. Not in order create a separatist view, but to grow a wider heart.
“A practice that embraces paradox and celebrates our uniqueness and differences, while continuously seeking common ground.”
Considering the state of the world, qualities like genuine interest, open-mindedness, and curiosity may be among the most important we can deliberately train through our yoga practice.
Taking time each day to pause and notice the extraordinary within the ordinary can deepen this capacity. Here are a few simple things I like to do every day that you may want to try:
Reflect on your own state: Before practice, take a few minutes in a neutral Savasana to move through each layer of your embodiment with non-judgmental curiosity – from the physical structure of muscles and bones to the fluid nature of organs, the movement of your breath, your emotions and mind-states. See if you can find a word or sentence to describe your experience using colour, texture, and detail. For guidance, you can use this recording: Body Scan for an Attuned Practice
Mindful coffee or tea making: Pay attention to how the texture and aroma of your coffee or tea shift as the water steeps, savouring each nuance as it deepens, and the sensation of your first sip. Can you feel the hidden flavours behind the first obvious taste?
Observe the sky: Every evening, Magnus and I (and sometimes Devi & Uma! :) spend a few minutes hanging out of the window of our apartment noticing the sky, its fading light, distinct colours, the movement, shape, and pattern of clouds passing…
Engage with others mindfully: When talking with someone familiar, observe them more closely – notice the light in their eyes, the melody of their voice, their energy. How have they subtly shifted since you last saw them?
Let me know how you find these practices, and I’d love to hear about your own ways of cultivating richer, more detailed experience of life!
With Love and Blessings
x kia, paris november 2024