The Benefits of Yoga

Find a style that suites your needs

Whenever one reads an article on yoga, it starts off with the root of the word yoga, being yuk, meaning to yoke, to illustrate that yoga is a bringing together of body and mind. Which it is, of course.

Many of us come to yoga with purely physical goals in mind, and as these are realised we enjoy the benefits of greater flexibility, muscle tone, alignment and increased stamina and strength.

We find that we can focus and still the mind, we have a greater awareness of our own bodies and of the world around us, we find out how to breathe properly and learn the benefits of complete relaxation. Whilst all this is happening, there is a subtle shift in one’s consciousness, and if you are not looking for it, you may never even realise it is happening!

Yoga of course, was never meant to be a purely physical practice. Patanjali wrote about the eight limbs of yoga, which include moral restraints and practices, breathing techniques, the physical practice of asanas (postures), which all lead to concentration, withdrawal of the senses, meditation and eventually, a state of bliss. The wonderful thing is that by starting with the physical practice of asanas, all the other aspects can be incorporated and learnt. For example, the practice of non-violence can be applied to how you treat your own body; the principle of truthfulness practised by accepting your physical limitations. By learning to focus on balance or alignment we learn to withdraw from other thoughts.

Yoga was a system developed hundreds of years ago, without the benefits of modern day scientific knowledge. I marvel at it’s wisdom, at the way the physical practice alone can create a sense of well being.

There are many different ways of teaching yoga, but the essence is basically the same. The modern trend is to attach labels and categorise yoga into different “systems”. My advice is to find a teacher who can give you a solid grounding and then find a style which suits your needs, always remembering that yoga is so much more than physical exercise.