Yoga, as it is traditionally practiced in India, and the East, comes primarily from a place of awareness, or mindfulness. It is a way of life and more than just an hour or so stretching once or twice a week, or the “workout class” we do here in the West.
One of the reasons yoga was originally practised is to ultimately enable the practitioner to comfortably sit still for longer periods of time, to essentially meditate. And in addition to this, gaining all of the benefits of keeping the physical body strong and supple.
This meditation (awareness, mindfulness) is worth taking some time to explore, because there is nothing more important than your mind- it’s all you have! It’s the mechanism by which you experience absolutely everything in this world, and therefore worth taking a little time to make sure this “consciousness” we have is healthy, and in good working order.
So it really doesn’t matter how flexible you are, how “good” you think you are at yoga, or at any physical activity. Indeed, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how big your house is, or how many friends you have- you are potentially not going to enjoy any of it if you are constantly distracted by a continuos, non stop stream of thinking that propels you either forward into the future, or back into the past. A monkey mind that simply can’t stop moving from one (worrying, anxious, angry, repetitive) thought to another- a mind that is essentially a neurotic voice in our head that we seem spellbound to listen too without question.
This is not new information by any means, and the benefits of mindfulness are well documented- possibly one of the more appealing of these being stress reduction. So we can use a yoga practice as time to explore the benefits of a quieter, calmer mind in the stillness of the yoga postures themselves. Here in the various yoga postures we can focus in on our breath as a way of keeping the mind (if only for a few moments at a time to begin with) in a more aware and present place.
I would love you to try a yoga class from this website, and if you have any questions feel free to use the contact page opposite or if you’d prefer to email me directly, it’s: jason@onyouryogamat.com
See you on your yoga mat!
