Why choose Yoga?

There are so many ways to get in shape, keep fit and stay healthy. Today we are bombarded with gyms, running clubs, sporting activities, various dimensions of yoga classes and other forms of exercise. That being said, what makes yoga stand out and why choose yoga? Well allow me to share my own journey to yoga and how the practice has helped me.

Let me being by saying that yoga is so much more than a means of keeping the body strong and flexible. When I first began practicing yoga, I thought it was just an exercises class. Yes, yoga has elements of strength training and exercises/poses that will increase your flexibility, yet there is much more to obtain through regular practice of yoga. I wanted an exercise that helped support my back and spine. Being a tall guy, I suffered with back ache quite early on in my life. I tried various forms of exercises to subdue to aches and pains, but nothing seemed to gel or actually cure the problem. Then I discovered yoga and although my journey with yoga has been rocky from the start, I knew this was the practice. When I say rocky, at the beginning I just wanted to learn some exercises to help my back. I wasn’t interested in the meditation side, in fact I would often say that my mind was too busy to meditate and I had no patience for the breathwork side of things. Years later, I now realise that it is all one thing. Yoga means union and although you can focus on different aspects of the practice, when you unify all the properties of yoga, then you are in yoga with everything. More on this later.

So yoga became a building block for me toward health. It help subdue my back aches and build muscle around the spine to keep it supported. As some of you may have experienced, when you start build a habit, it’s difficult to give it up. Yoga was my habit and as I began to practice more often, I began to go deeper into the practice. I began to focus on the meditative side of things. I began to realise that the postures were there to give you strength and flexibility, yet also keep the mind focused and induce deeper breathing in order to hold the poses for a longer duration. Yoga taught me how to breath correctly (deep and slow). It taught me how to find stillness in my mind. It gave me clarity, subdued my fear, anger and anxiety.

Yoga is a tool to be used to bring you into a state of balance. Going to a gym might give you increased strength and stamina, practicing yoga will give you this and more. Yoga don’t even need to practice asana (postures), you can simply pick a portion of yoga that interests you. I have a friend who meditated for 2 years before even holding a pose. The great teachers of yoga have all moved on from such physical practices and focus on the subtle practices, which needn’t come later. If you’re interested in energies, chakras (meridians), scriptures or even the Yamas and Niyamas (the do’s and don’ts of yoga), these are enough by themselves to help health the body-mind system and bring you into a state of balance. This is why I choose yoga now and continue to practice every day. It is a well rounded practice that gives us everything we need to be in balance. If you want more strength for whatever reason, then a gym/lifting weights might be more suited for you. That said, yoga has been the way for me and has helped me so much, that I now teach the practice to others. If you are interested in finding out more through the practice of asana/pranayama (breathwork)/dyhana (meditation), then you can attend one of my classes here.

I hope this writing has help clear up a little what yoga is and what is can potentially do for you and for others. It is my wish that everyone finds balance in life, so that this life my be in balance.

Namaste