Why Practice Yoga?
Yoga is an ancient human development practice — it works as well now as it did 5000 years ago. The word yoga is Sanskrit, meaning "to join". In yoga we work to bring the body and mind together in a single experience, connecting all of one's being in a path towards wholeness.
Connecting Body
The body is the primary instrument that enables us to work and evolve in the world. It has wisdom to inform and help us navigate our lives. Being in your body can help quiet the mind and turn down the noisy chatter in your head. Many students come out of a class commenting on how they feel taller. It's not like they've physically gained inches of height — it's their mind being re-set that provides the experience There is an immediacy to the feedback available through the body. We have learned to use this in our modern/Western Hatha yoga practice to initiate further investigation into knowing ourselves on deeper levels.
The posture work in yoga is called asana in Sanskrit. This is the physical element of yoga that involves the three components of fitness: cardio, strength, and flexibility. A regular asana practice provides all the benefits of optimal health: toned muscles and correct posture, increased agility, vitality and normalized blood pressure. For overall wellbeing, the practice turns down the sympathetic nervous system (the stressful and instinctive "flight-or-fight" response) while stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (which regulates body function and restoration). Activation of the glandular/endocrine systems boosts the immune system and helps the body's efficiency.
Connecting Mind
The breath work practiced in yoga is called pranayama. There are different techniques available to activate our prana, or life force, that also initiate a variety of responses in the body. As an example, a fast breath heats the system, while a slow one can cool the system. Whatever the method, we bring mindfulness to the patterns of breath.
We also practice while maintaining a gaze — much of yoga is done with the eyes open and this is called drishti. By fixing the eyes in a single direction — either on a tangible object or one visualized in the mind's eye — we give ourselves a rest from darting the eyes about, which causes the mind to race. We ratchet down the activity in our heads and this allows for rest.
These practices — controlling breathing and gaze — when combined, have the effect of helping us focus. We can tune out the unchecked "monkey mind" of uncontrolled random thoughts that can be about anything and everything. By concentrating and not being distracted, in the resulting silence we achieve calmness, clarity and a sense of well-being. A meditation is created in the process of cultivating stillness.
Linking breath pattern to body movement with the eyes steady creates "meditation in motion".
Connecting Spirit
If the body is our physical carrier and breath is the source of life in the body, it's the spirit that leads us out into the world. This is the force that transforms our thoughts into action. When we set our intention we take control of this energy and live our lives on the outside in accord with what's happening on the inside.
In exercising the body and breath we become relaxed and still, while fully alert. In this grounded harmony we are allowed to further.