WHAT IS YOGA?

So a lot of new people in yoga class lately and its really hard to define yoga and explain when only having a short time with you..... so i wanted to do a blog to cover it a little bit deeper than a short statement or theme through my classes. So here goes....x

Yoga can be approached in many different ways for many different reasons. You may find yourself that you have taken on yoga for a certain reason may be it is the physical rewards of the bodies shape, ailments that you may have, breathing, a spiritual reason, relaxation or may be you are doing yoga out of pure enjoyment. There are many more reasons that we come to yoga these are just a small few to mention. But regardless of all these reasons there is still a real meaning that lies behind yoga and what it does and if we are going to practice such an ancient practice the least we can do is learn the real meaning and aim of yoga. 

Let me explain more about what is yoga....And let me be clear it can be explained in many ways as stated in The Heart Of Yoga "Many different interpretations of the word yoga have been handed down over the centuries. {....}....There are many ways of practicing yoga, and gradually the interest in one path will lead to another." p6 The Heart of Yoga

In Hatha Yoga, Yoga starts with the physical body.
In 'The Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali' Patanjali says "If you can control the rising of the mind into ripples, you will experience Yoga". P4 Meaning if you can control the mind then nothing within the world can bind you. Yoga beings with the Yamas in Patanjali's yoga sutras. 

No matter where you start you are aiming for the same outcome with yoga, and this is Samadhi. Let me use a wonderful quote to explain what this Sanskrit word means "Once we give everything to God/ ....{Humanity}...we are renunciates; we have nothing to possess. And when we have nothing to possess, we have nothing to worry about. All worry is due to attachments and clinging to possessions. The attachment I mean is a mental attachment. What we want is a mental, rather than a physical, detachment. We can even possess things physically if we are mentally detached. This is continuous samadhi." Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, P150 

The teachings of Hatha Yoga allow you to start this journey towards union of the mind, body and spirit by beginning with the body. We begin with the body so we can cleanse and purify it so that we can create a pure mind.

Shatkarma (six yoga cleansing practices of the body) is the first step, followed with Asana practice then Pranayama. These stages of yoga require self discipline and it allows us to create discipline without trying to fight with the mind that is constantly trying to fight with itself and split into two. 

Many yoga masters studying the mind could see that when we try to control the mind the part that doesn't want to be disciplined and the part that does want to be can split so far apart that mental illness is created. 

"You have no power to wrestle with the mind, yet you wrestle with it, thereby creating a pattern of animosity towards yourself" p6 HYP. This is why Hatha Yoga starts with the body rather than the mind.

Ok so summing up the above What is Yoga? It is a system that allows us to create absolute balance of the physical body, mind and energy. We do this by clearing all the impurities, "the entire nervous system and the various secretions in the body should be properly maintained and harmonized" p6 HYP. In order for the energy to move like "waves frequencies throughout the channels within the physical structure, moving up to the brain" P6 HYP.

"Yoga is evenness of mind": detachment from the duality of pain and pleasure, success and failure, and so on. Therefore "Yoga is skill in action," because this kind of detachment is required if one is to act in freedom, rather than merely react to events according to his conditioning." P 58, The Bhagavad Gita, Eknath Easwaran 

I hope this helps to understand more about yoga my lovely people....

:-)
This is a huge topic and will do a part 2.

Any questions please leave a comment below or email me....always happy to hear from you!!! 

Namaste