About Yoga

Personal transformation and union with the divine self have always been Yoga’s directives. The Sanskrit word "yoga" is derived from the root yuj, which means to yoke or join, just as oxen are yoked. They are separate but walking in the same direction, on the same path. Thus, yoga joins our mind, body and spirit with the world around us.

In a physical sense, yoga brings the body into natural alignment, extension and compression to optimize overall health and wellness. Though, yoga goes much further than this, it teaches mastery of the mind.

Yoga helps us realize the spirit of self. This is beyond body and mind, beyond personality and ego. A reporter once said to a yogi, “I’m interested in the mind-body connection.” "The mind and body are intimately connected," the yogi replied, “they were both born, and both will die.” What will not die is the soul or the higher self. Yoga helps cultivate the realization of the higher self. It seeks to merge our own will with that of the higher self, which is Divine. This ancient practice helps yoke our individual experiences in life with the source of our being or existence. This allows us to overcome the illusion of separateness in regard to the source of life.

Yoga is not a religion, rather a practice to awaken our connection and identify with the source of life within your religion or spiritual belief system. In the Western world there is a tendency to separate or fragment things in order to yield truths. In yoga, this approach is comparable to denying a person from the entire experience. Lying to one self to avoid admission of weakness or fault. The true practice of yoga is to unite and understand all aspects of self.

The practice of yoga will help maintain calmness in all experiences in life. This will be attained by teaching you to become transparent and allowing emotions, both happy and sad, to flow through you without destroying your peace of mind. Yoga means eternal happiness, bliss, joy and unconditional love. Yoga is who you are in your natural state. Yoga teaches you to know your intentions and motivations, to cultivate spirit of honesty and self-realization.

Within the practice of Hatha Yoga (yoga using movement or physical yoga), the emphasis is placed on coordinating, synchronizing and uniting our breath with our movements. Hatha is understood as a conjunct of "ha" (sun), and "tha" (moon). Therefore hatha yoga can refer to the union of opposites, such as the sun and moon, masculine and feminine, hard and soft, mind and body, right and left, passive and aggressive, known and unknown. Yoga means union or uniting, and hatha yoga means union or uniting of opposites.

Yoga reunites all polarities, reconciles opposites, and recreates a state of oneness and connectedness with where we originated. Yoga is the joining of the absolute and relative, unlimited and limited, whole and part, infinite and finite, light and dark, stillness and movement, expansion and contraction, masculine and feminine, and being and doing. Yoga creates a state of balance. While practicing hatha yoga we are open to the flow of divine love and we are in the flow of grace. The breath (prana) should flow through the body deeply and without strain.

The breath is used as a direct feedback to the practitioner. The breath is a tool to work with the mind. The quality of the breath is used as a guide or barometer as to whether we are straining or calm.

Long ago yogis discovered that the breath controls the mind, and the mind controls the body. The breath is a direct reflection of our state of mind. If the breath is bearing calmness, the mind is calm and quiet. The body is a direct manifestation of the mind. Our thoughts and experiences are stored in the body in the form of tension. When practicing hatha yoga, we look to place ourselves in the now, wholly present with the flow of breath. This creates a state of deep relaxation and allows us to release past experiences, emotions and blockages stored in the body.

During the practice of yoga, we practice breath control (pranayama: a regulated, even flow of breath) and sense withdrawal (pratyahara, as described in the eight limbs of yoga). To control the senses we fix the eyes on a set point, called a gaze or dristi. Done together, these two techniques are medicine to your nervous system. Your nervous system will receive fewer messages and will become restored, relaxed, and calm by using a regulated breath and remaining consciously aware its flow. You must also funnel your energy inward by controlling and relaxing the eyes. This will build focus, concentration (dharana), and will help to place the mind into a present state (a state of "now"). The moment is pure. This is the technique of yoga: to continue to bring ourselves into the moment, back to the breath, where no tension occurs.

In the present moment we are able to experience the truth of who we are, which is a loving vibration. This is where healing begins to take place. It is important to remember that the practice of yoga has no goals. The only goal is the journey, the process. The beautiful thing about yoga, as in life, is that it happens to be a journey, an exploration, not a destination. Yoga has no goals, there is no destination. Yoga is not a competition, sport, or performance. We are free to express ourselves in our own unique way. Hatha yoga is a vehicle flowing with grace along this pathway that is infinitely wide. This is the process of self-discovery, self-realization, and total oneness with the self (spirituality). Yoga teaches us about ourselves and about kindness.

Yoga teaches us how to become involved and present in our lives, to increase our awareness, broaden our consciousness, eliminate fear and become kinder, happier, more stress-free human beings. And above all, yoga is highly enjoyable. Yoga calms and controls the senses (i.e. the nervous system), and enhances your appreciation of life. And if you allow it to, yoga will enhance the quality of your life. It is fun and exhilarating. Yoga helps you rise to the challenge of living. It keeps you from being ground down by circumstance.

Yoga is known to bring freedom to the body, clarity to the mind, and leads the student to balance and wisdom. Yoga is rich in benefits for the body and mind. Thus, it is no surprise that people in the West are now discovering that it makes a lot of sense to practice yoga for peace and longevity.