Finding Out What Yoga Is About

I used to think that yoga was attending a yoga class to learn poses from a yoga instructor. 

Then I learned that yoga is more than just learning poses. It is about learning to breathe properly and slowly and meditating so that we quiet our minds so we connect to ourselves. 

Basis

Last year, 2019, I began practicing yoga on a consistent basis. I practiced yoga as a way to relax and let go of things that were happening in my life. 

After my sister-in-law passed away from her 17-year battle with breast cancer and my mother had two cancer surgeries, I immersed myself into yoga and meditation. 

I even joined an online wellness retreat. In fact, joining this wellness retreat helped me practice yoga on a daily basis. 

Yoga

Regardless of where you live in Canada – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Halifax or Montreal,  St John’s – yoga is about learning how to do the poses (asanas) correctly and taking our time to move through the poses. Yoga is learning not to rush through poses. 

And, yoga is about being consistent with our practice to get the most benefits from it. 

History of Yoga 

Since yoga is a mind, body, and spiritual practice with a long history that originated from India, yoga provides us with tools that empower ourselves. 

Yoga is a combination of physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. When we balance these things, yoga can foster harmony in our mind, body, and our environment.

Benefits of Yoga 

Yoga poses can help increase our flexibility, strength, mobility,  and balance. Yoga offers the space to slow our mind down and  restore a sense of balance. 

Yoga is learning how to center ourselves which lets us relax. Yoga helps us release stress and tension. 

Yoga helps us sleep better. Yoga teaches us patience. Yoga teaches us to quiet our mind and observe the present moment so we can hear our inner voice. Yoga is a tool to find peace, calm, energy, strength, and clarity. 

Yoga is the disconnection of the fluctuations of our mind or it is  the restraint of the modifications of our mind. 

When we control the  rising of our mind, we will experience yoga which means union.  The union happens between individual consciousness and universal consciousness. 

Yoga is a form of action that brings us  into a unified state of consciousness. Yoga aims at changing us  as individuals.  

Conclusion 

Yoga is the synchronizing of breath with movements (poses or  asanas); therefore, yoga is a practice that consists of asanas,  pranayama, chanting, and meditation. Yoga is uniting all of these  elements together. 

Yoga provides us with a combination of techniques that brings a  pure heart, a strong body, and perfect health. 

Yoga is boundless  joy. Yoga expands our heart and gives a sense of wholeness and  peace.

As Gandhi would say we need to be the change we wish to see in  the world since we cannot change the world. 

Yoga is selfless  service to others. Yoga is being part of a whole community where  we receive and give support. 

Yoga is a means of harmonizing the mind, body, and spirit and is