Yoga
Ah, what is yoga? It’s a big question. Countless books, articles, documentaries, films, blogs… all asking this question, all giving slightly different answers. Ask any of the millions of yoga practitioners and you’ll again get different answers.
The physical asanas (postures) that we all think of when we think of yoga, is actually only a small part of the practice. There was some discussion of them in scriptures from thousands of years ago, but not really in any great detail. It was only with BKS Iyengar’s hugely influential “Light On Yoga’ that was published in 1966 that the physical postures of yoga were codified. Yoga exploded in popularity from then on, with many different styles, different yoga teachers and approaches born.
With so many different styles, approaches and beliefs, it is understandable that its is hard to define ‘what is yoga’.
This is because yoga is personal. It’s individual. Yoga is a vast subject with so many different layers and avenues of learning. It will mean different things to you, at different times in your life.
But for me, in it’s essence, all of the different paths of yoga lead to the same destination: inwards. The methods of how we do it or what we do, is just window dressing, surface details. What matters is what is our intention when we practice. Why are we practicing yoga? How is our practice impacting our life.
For me, my intention with my practice is to go inward and connect to my deeper self. By doing that, by connecting to myself in this way, I feel a deeper more solid connection to the people around me and to the world itself. The rest of my day when I am not practising, I try to come back to the stillness and connection that I get from my practice. If in a stressful situation, I intentionally slow down, step back and breathe. It doesn’t always happen that way, but I know without doubt my life and my relationship with others is enriched from yoga.
