The reason you are reading this write-up is because you were always meant to. Why? I’d like to congratulate you for the depth within you and your realization of why you need a phenomenon like YOGA!
In the hustle, and bustle of the modern world, we are all seeking for a moment of solace, some looking to trim their waistline, some to get into fancy poses, but it’s all a road towards the same destination. Maybe, I’m not sure what the destination is (PS: Nobody is, god always has different plans) but what I’m sure of is the likemindedness all yogis have and its power to bring balance to this world.
What is Yoga?
An ancient practice that has endured for thousands of years, if not more. Flexibility, mental clarity, and improved performance in absolutely everything are some of the benefits of practicing Yoga. There are multiple other benefits and it’s something everyone needs to practice to a certain degree.
Today we try to bust a few myths about yoga and its practice. I Yash Chhabria, a certified yoga therapist, with 1500 plus hours of training will guide you through this process.
Why Should I practice Yoga?
Yoga is not practicing asanas. You heard it right, at least asanas are not more than 5% part of it. An asana is a posture but I like to call it a seat. A comfortable pose where you can sit without any discomfort for super long periods. (sounds easy on paper). Why should you do that? The reason to stretch or practice asanas is… drumroll, to be able to sit in meditation for long periods.
According to the philosophy of yoga, every disease begins in the subconscious mind and the only way to grab hold of it from the scruff of the neck, to get to the root of the problem is to change the subconscious. Meditation is the pathway to making a change in your subconscious mind.
Basics of Yoga
Asanas
Practiced to improve the flexibility of muscles and release toxins from the body. Imagine a cloth full of water being twisted, stretched, and squeezed upon in a variety of ways to release the water, now replace the cloth with muscles and water with toxins.
Fun Fact
It’s proven by science that flexibility decreases as we age so there is an inverse relationship between the two. No wonder, kids can get into all sorts of yoga poses effortlessly. The good news is, that flexibility can always be worked upon and improved at any age. Yoga is for everyone!
Meditation
Meditation is not the process of thinking. It’s absurd when people try to do that. Can you stop your heart from beating? Can you stop your lungs from breathing? Or can you command your kidneys to stop filtering? It’d be foolish to think that you can stop your mind from thinking. It’s the nature of the mind to think like it’s the nature of the heart to feel and the nature of the mother to love. Coming back to the question, what is meditation? It’s the art of watching your mind without judgment. Again, easy on paper. A wise man once said your mind is a drunken monkey, it’s best to ignore what it says and not take it seriously.
Breathwork
The Sanskrit word for breathwork is Pranayama, which is another really vast topic to deal with. Breathwork is optimizing your breathing pattern to give the mind what it really needs to function at its best levels. Sitting in a yoga pose with a straight spine and breathing deeply is what basically breathwork is. Add to it creative, different pranayama practices under the guidance of a yoga teacher.
Kriya
Kriyas are practices that help clear toxins from the body. A different definition of yoga is to also clean the mess inside of you, the process of constant purification. Kriyas are generally old practices not practiced often in the modern age, but a few easy-to-practice kriyas still exist in modern-day Indian households. We will cover this topic in another article in depth.
Philosophy
Yoga is a way of living that teaches us a variety of ways to think and philosophies to follow. But the fact that it gives you the flexibility, pun intended, literally to do what you want. Some famous yogis like Swami Vivekananda ate meat. Guru Rajnish Osho, put it beautifully when he said Swami Vivekananda was a great soul, but he could be greater, more conscious if he didnt consume meat. The choice depends on us.
What is the best time to practice yoga?
While Yoga is a way of life, having a dedicated practice that allows you to go deep within, and prepare for the day is a wise thing to do.
Morning practice:
A morning yoga practice sets you up for the day. With the right instructor a morning meditation, breathwork, and asana class will put you in the energy that you seek. A typical morning practice should include, pranayama because the oxygen levels early morning are typically much higher compared to later during the day. Light asanas combined with meditation to calm down the mind is a good routine.
Evening Practice:
Visualize you coming back home from a tough day at work, picking up something from the fridge, hitting the couch, and watching Netflix to recover from the day. That is how the average person chooses to recover. But to your surprise, you are worse than you felt last night. Your sleep quality is bad and you have another bad day at work. The cycle continues and slowly you see the weighing scale going up each day. Why? It’s not the hard work that makes the difference between what you are doing and what someone else is doing. Everyone works hard. But the difference between someone who achieves more, in the long run, is not the amount of work they put in but the quality of rest they get. An evening yoga practice will take your stresses away, emotionally reset you, and put you to sleep like a baby.
It’s not wrong to practice yoga two times a day as well. Makes perfect sense to relax, rest, and be at your best.
In conclusion, yoga is a holistic, wellness tool gifted by our ancestors for mental, emotional, physical, and social (take a yoga course and you’d know) well-being. It’s much more than flexibility and getting into pretzel-type shapes. Yoga is a pathway to connect with yourself. Yoga reveals yourself to you, and trust me it’s beautiful.