Yoga and Its Benefits

The aim of any true spiritual path is to raise our awareness to allow us to directly perceive the spiritual dimension. Being spiritual means to recognize one's own spirituality and recognize the transcendental essence of ourselves and others. It also means to see that we are all connected to God and to respect each other in that regard. That is one of the objectives of Yoga. But how can we be sure that there even is a God?

This comes through a reawakening of our higher sense of awareness and the knowledge of our spiritual identity. It is through the process of yoga and the path of Sanatana-dharma that we can reach this higher awareness and comprehend exactly who we are. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali make up the basis of yoga practice. However, yoga itself is a deep and serious practice, and there are a variety of forms of yoga that can be performed. There are four main types of yoga depending on the yoga positions. There is:

Jnana-yoga is the path of intellectual growth and understanding the nature of reality.

Karma-yoga is the path of right action, detachment from the fruits of one's labor, and dedicating our activities for a higher and spiritual purpose. Astanga or Raja-yoga is the path of inward meditation and the achievement of higher states of consciousness through various different practices. Bhakti-yoga is the path of raising our consciousness, developing our devotion and love for God and decreasing our attachment to the various aspects of the temporary material energy.

There are additional forms of yoga, but they are usually considered branches of these four pathways.

However, in the preliminary stages, yoga is, essentially, for controlling the flickering nature of the mind, and for promoting the growth of one's finer qualities and expanding one's awareness from material to spiritual awareness. It is explained that Yoga is the process of calming the movements of the mind, which include imagination, sleep, memory, perceived knowledge, and misconception. When these are stabilized, then it can be called yoga, which provides the chance for the seer to become fully conscious of his own essential and fundamental nature. Yoga is the attempt to realign our Selves with the Supreme Self, God.

When you make progress in yoga you can feel the undesirable burdens of the mind fall away, such as envy, anger, anxiety, hate, greed, discontent, etc. Then other qualities like blissfulness, contentment, peacefulness, and tranquility will be felt. These are qualities everyone is trying to find and are some of the many things that can be accomplished with yoga, at least on the elementary level. As you make further progress, you may enter into the deeper levels of awareness and transcending the mind and gradually go so far as to attain realizations as to what your own spiritual identity is and what your relationship is with the Absolute. Becoming free from material life and regaining one's spiritual identity is the goal of all forms of yoga.

But in spite of all these benefits, people frequently find it quite difficult to follow this path. This is due to the fact that they lack the motivation to exercise. But once you start performing Yoga on a regular basis, it can itself keep you motivated. The benefit of motivation from Yoga practice is what makes Yoga unique among health maintenance systems. Yoga can become a part of your everyday life because there is no discomfort involved.

Why do most diets fail? Why do most exercisers quit? Lack of motivation is the reason for diet and exercise failure. People already know they should eat better, walk more, exercise, and drink more water, but they need to maintain their level of motivation without "burning out."

In Yoga, positive energy is all around the classroom. Positive energy creates exercise motivation and creates moving visions of success. The next step is to believe the powerful visions of success, which form a mental picture. Some people have a fear of success. Maybe they inherently feel a lack of self-worth, but Yoga also works on improving one's self-esteem. It is normal for people to feel apprehensive about change, but change is often one of the gateways to success.

We can say that consistency acts as the key as far as the benefits of yoga are concerned while we have to take care of the yoga positions. We can't benefit from yoga if we are not consistent with our routine. If we fail to be consistent, then it is hard to get the positive results and yoga can't be blamed for this. Another beneficial technology is hypnosis i.e. Hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis therapy has proven to be extremely helpful in getting and keeping us motivated. Self-hypnosis is based on the formula of auto suggestion and visual imagery, and it works on deeper unconscious levels than one can imagine. Self hypnosis for motivation engages with your unconscious mind, and urges it to positively enhance your sense of self-image and self-perception.

The unconscious mind is largely responsible for the way we think and react. If we train it to think along a different line, your corresponding behavior will change as well. You will have the desire to understand the true potential that lies within each of us, and by using hypnosis you can tap into that potential. Through positive affirmations such as "I can do it" along with positive visual imagery, motivational hypnotherapy can recondition your mind into believing that everything is possible, and nothing is impossible. This means that yoga combined with motivational hypnosis can help us to achieve success more quickly.

Alan B. Densky, CH established his hypnotherapy practice in 1978. He offers a wide range of hypnotherapy programs for all aspects of neuro-vision.us/Products/AudioStressRelaxationAdancedHypnosisTapes.htm self-development, including neuro-vision.us/Products/ExerciseMotivationHypnosisCD.htm self-hypnosis for exercise motivation.