What is yoga?
Yoga is a lot of things to a lot of people, right? Depending on who you ask, you may get a different answer. But are there core, fundamental views we all share in this yoga community? Many discussions circling around this lately and I’d love to hear what yoga is to you, so let us know by using the “contact us” tab! And if you’re wondering what yoga means to me? Well, it’s a little bit of a mix between appreciating and respecting the philosophical and spiritual aspects, while keeping a curious and open mind. And speaking of the mind, we should seek that space between comfort and exploration of the unknown in order to keep building our brains because our brains are shaped by what we require them to do (but I’ll save that for another day - stay tuned!)
Each limb of yoga (8 in all) allows us to go deeper into own lives to help us realize our path to the origin, and how we choose to embody that all depends on our level of mindfulness in our everyday moments. If you look at yoga as a way to combine our thoughts and actions and words to find the interconnectedness of those aspects, then yoga in turn is a tool to help you align your way of being. By exploring that, you naturally create room for yoga to be a path that helps you find contentment with what you have. Yoga asks us to try to be truly present in the moment. Yoga allows you to get behind the thoughts and the monkey mind so that you can quiet the mind and find ways to learn about yourself and see things more clearly. Yoga is a way of life and and it helps us accept we are all part of something bigger.
The 8 limbs of yoga: yamas, niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dhrana, dhyana and samadhi all offer us ways to be. The first 4 limbs apply as our external work, which the second 4 limbs apply to our internal work. To be able to work with these limbs as tools, as a means to get to where we are going (samadhi), we need to apply these to our lives, not just on the mat, but our lives as a whole. We are all part of something bigger, as I said before, and what that is is super intimate as it is different person to person. Our final goal/stage where union with the divine is attained is samadhi, but we need to figure out how to put it all together in order to get there. The 8 limbs are a great representation of tools to do just that. My personal yoga teacher training in Ashtanga yoga works with the 8 limbs, and they inform not only our practice, but our lives. And keep in mind too that yoga asks us to look at your attitude towards things as the entire outside world is based on thoughts and mental attitude. The outside world is like a projection of the inside world and your thoughts, actions and values can change moment to moment. That is why yoga asks us to control our minds and when you figure that out, there is nothing that can bind you. When the mind quiets, the waters still and our pure mind becomes present... So what happened to our “practice”? We still need that to get here. You need to put the effort in in order to reap the benefits, so I’m not saying to ignore the other limbs of practice as they all speak to each other in an effort to get to the profound meditation we find connection to something bigger than ourselves in. There are many analogies you can find on this. Yoga asks you to inquire within, explore, learn and ask questions. It asks you to be humble too and honor each individual’s journey. We are all just taking small steps in our journey, so having understanding, respect and reverence for what we are practicing not only impacts our body, mind and spirit, but gives us opportunities to achieve yoga’s aim of enlightening our body, mind and spirit.
And now, what yoga isn’t… Yoga is not a workout, although it’s great for enhancing body awareness. This is great because it allows you to pay attention to the sensations and things going on inside you, which may improve how well you take care of yourself. Yoga is not a way to “wring out the toxins”, although it may help stimulate peristalsis and even reduce inflammation in the body, which can help stave off chronic disease. Yay! Yoga is not about external validation that feeds into consumerism and trendy marketing and surface level representation.
“Yoga is not now, nor has it ever been, a practice aimed at physical mastery for its own sake. Nor is it aimed at “stress reduction” so we can function as better producers and consumers in a capitalist society. Yoga was originally intended to prepare the body as a foundation for unity with the spirit. The limb of asana aims at strengthening the body. Asana, along with dhyana or meditation, aim to harmonize body with breath in order to attain deeper and deeper states of meditative awareness or samadhi. The purpose of this kind of meditative awareness is to experience, practice, and live oneness of mind, body and soul with the divine. This kind of freedom is called samadhi or liberation. It is ironic that practice meant to free us has become so confining…” -excerpt taken from How to Decolonize Your Yoga Practice by Susanna Barkataki
Just dipping my toes in the water here as so much of this (and more) is out there and it casts a big shadow on those that recognize and acknowledge the roots and history of yoga and embody that through how they live and practice on and off the mat. I encourage you to seek out practice with those that share in a way that honors and understands the impact they have on their community through their practice. Seek out teachers that share all aspects, not just the asana, and embrace that we are forever students, regardless of how much we study, learn, practice and evolve. Keep an open mind and stay curious.
XO- Stina
