What is yoga? Is it only asanas or postures to keep your body and mind healthy?
No, yoga is so much more than that. Yoga is essentially an ancient practice that aims at liberating your tangled mind and soul from the years of conditioned thoughts that eventually started affecting your work, life and relationships. Yoga asanas are just a step in realising this goal.
Many a time, the residue of certain experiences makes our minds distorted and prevents us from seeing or realizing things as they truly are. Also, in a world where attachment to materialistic possessions, education, prejudices, belief systems, occupation and loved ones are too vivid, our rational mind often fails to recognize our true selves. This is where yoga helps liberate our minds and soul.
The Science of Yoga
Maharishi Patanjali, in Yoga Sutras, has defined yoga as “the complete cessation of all active states of mind”. Does it mean yoga makes us discard everything in life? No. Many texts fail to comprehend the true meaning of the Maharishi’s approach in Yoga Sutra. Cessation of all active states of mind does not mean abandonment or condemnation of the world but it means that yoga enables a person to live fully without being attached to worldly identification.
Yoga is an ultimate liberating tool that connects you with universal reality, creating an expanse to breathe and space to understand who you are, what you want and how you can achieve it. When you start practising yoga, you will tread the path of self-realization and start enjoying the journey. The illusions of everyday life will not distract you anymore.
Experiencing the Feeling of Self Transformation Through Yoga
When a person sincerely practices yoga, he or she will start experiencing positive changes in the mind, intellect, emotions, Prana, etc. The mind doesn’t limit itself to any object, organs, desires, attachments, cravings or ego. Freedom is attained when your mind sets itself free from all sorts of attachments.
For the Body and Within
At the physical level, yoga makes your body active and lean. The enhancement of the physical capabilities of the body is the step to mastering the higher possibilities of overall well being. To put it simply, the contorting of your body in various yoga asanas help you retain a sense of calm amidst the frantic surrounding, delve deeper into the silence and connect with the universe.
At a deeper level, yoga activates your chakras, which are the storehouse of your willpower, intellect, self-identity, love and creativity. When these chakras get activated one by one, you start connecting with your true self and potential.
Being ‘You’ in the Truest Sense of the Term
Yoga breaks your perceptions of perfections and you start acknowledging that being imperfect can be perfect as well. It puts an end to the self-sabotaging you were trapped in for long. It teaches you to accept your imperfections and blemishes as you would embrace your blessings.
Our Parting Thoughts
By and large, yoga liberates you from the shackles of ideals and myths, extremes and excesses and complexities and distractions. It helps you attain a state of equilibrium, nurtures your body, mind and soul and navigates you, your life towards the path of transformation and even transcendence.
