YOGA
YOGA
The word yoga means to yolk, or union. The rich history of yoga began more than five thousand years ago as an oral tradition. Outlawed by the city-states because of the astonishing power it was believed to transmit, yoga was practiced in secrecy. The tradition was handed down individually from master to student underground, often in the privacy of a sacred cave. Today, yoga is captivating millions of Americans realizing their need to create mental clarity and physical balance. Yoga restores peace of mind to stressed out westerners.
External results - aspirations for a better body - is often what draws most people to do yoga at first. Unmatched inner strength, deep flexibility and improved posture and poise are all rewards of disciplined efforts to achieve the perfect pose. But what compels one to continue is something deeper inside.
Yoga is simplicity of mind. At its core, yoga is stillness that brings peace where chaos exists. Erich Shiffmann, international master yoga instructor and co-star of the Yoga Mind and Body video, says it best: "Stillness is like a perfectly centered top, spinning so fast it appears motionless ... Stillness is not the absence or negation of energy, life or movement. Stillness is dynamic. It is unconflicted movement, life in harmony with itself, skill in action ... Our lives are more like a top in a somewhat wild, erratic and chaotic spin". We are not chaotic because we are spinning too fast, but because we are not perfectly centered.
Yoga creates centeredness of mind. It promotes proper body alignment and the release of body tension. The postures, called asanas, and focused concentration on the breath together create a framework of drawing one's energy in toward the center of the spinning top. Subtle body adjustments, created both phsycially and mentally, release surges of energy in the body and mind, not by increasing it, but by releasing the constriction that is blocking its flow. Though it takes time to develop, enthusiasts of yoga report an inner harmony that has no apparent external source or basis.
The rewards of inner harmony. Yoga promotes centeredness and peace are a natural result of poses mindfully developed from yoga's sacred ancient roots. The peace and union of yoga are eternal.