In recent years the popularity of yoga has skyrocketed and yoga studios and classes bearing fancy (albeit sometimes confusing or intimidating names) are popping up all over the place. In light of this yoga-craze, and to shed some light on what we will be doing in the upcoming Mind, Body, Breath Series at MTN LAB I figured we’d dive into the question of what is yoga? This will be the first in a series of write-ups to give you a sense of what yoga is and some of the concepts we will be exploring in this series.
So, we’ve established that ultimately yoga is the quieting of mind stuff, but how does that work, how does one get there, what does yoga in practice look like? In today’s world, especially in the west, the word yoga carries with it connotations of exercise, stretching, flexibility. Occasionally connotations of meditation and spirituality creep in as well, but for the most part, the word yoga is associated with a physical practice. While there is truth behind this association between yoga and a physical practice, the reality is that there is so much more to it. This physical practice, traditionally called Asana, is just one piece of a complex and multifaceted system that makes up yoga. In our upcoming series, we will focus on three important facets of this system, all aimed at increasing your steadiness, building your center. These three practices are Asana the physical practice, Pranayama the control of the breath, and Meditation the control of the mind. Each of these are crucial pieces in building a steady and true “center,” of increasing our personal awareness and of tuning in to our highest potential.
To sum it all up… Yoga is a series of practices including Asana (physical practice), Pranayama (breath practice), and Meditation (mental practice), among others that are geared at helping the practitioner build their center, ultimately becoming steadier in his or her daily life. Obviously, there are other benefits as well, and we’ll explore those in subsequent posts. Stay tuned to dive a little into these three fundamentals practices of Yoga.
