For many years, I have been a yogi from afar. I have studied it, subscribed to yoga magazines, went to classes sporadically and even prescribed it to patients. It has been the past year that has gotten me to really live yoga.
Most people think of yoga as a form of exercise. It is that but so much more. Yoga is a way of life. The exact origination is unclear but the earliest evidence points to the East, around 3000 BC, in India. At first, it appears that yoga was a more outwardly focused mental and spiritual practice which looked outside the self and at understanding the world. It later changed to more of a focus on the self and self enlightenment through the transcendence of the ego. Later, the postures and stances that we have come to identify as 'yoga' were added as a vital part of a practice. Today, it is most commonly found that a yoga practice encompasses three components:
-breathing
-meditation
-postures
I like to draw the analogy between these three components and the three distinct parts of us: body, mind and spirit.
- Body- of course, this would be the postures. Like the body, or vehicle through which we are experiencing life, the postures are the only way a lot of people experience yoga. Although life changing for most, this is a very limited experience. It would be like training for a marathon without doing much stretching. Having trained for a marathon like this in the past, I found the experience was wonderful but again, very limited. I see us as spiritual beings having a physical experience but to only experience the physical part of something like yoga so limits us and the experience.
- Mind- I would analogize this part to the breathing part of yoga. Most people I have spoken with experience an ongoing mental dialogue, most of the time. Although necessary at times, it can often be confusing and limiting. When focused on optimal breathing- expand belly on inhalation, press belly button toward back on exhalation while inhaling to a count of 4 and exhaling to a count of 4- it is difficult to do much of anything else (especially think) at the same time. Try it. You may not be able to do it at first but you will be able to - with practice. AND You can always return to it to quiet your mind, if you find yourself all stressed out.
- Spirit- this I would link with the mediation component of yoga. People have many excuses for not attempting to meditate - it is too hard, takes up too much time, it is too religious or we just don't know how to do it. Meditation, to me, is a focused awareness of nothing. This state can only be reached with a quiet mind- which the breathing helps us to attain. I like small, practical, attainable steps as measures of progress. Try focusing on nothing for 2 minutes a day, around the same time every day. If you can do it consistently for 5 days, add 1 minute. Keep adding 1 minute for every consistent 5 days and you will be meditating for 20 minutes before you know it!
Two wonderful things about yoga are that your yoga practice is perfect wherever it is today and the process is often more important than the final goal because that is where you are today. With the ultimate goal of a yoga practice to become aware of nothing we, in the 21st century, have quite a job ahead of us if we decide to seriously practice and live a yogic life.
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