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What is yoga?
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Although yoga is very mainstream now, people may ask you, or you may be asking yourself, what yoga is. Even yoga practioners have different opinions and views on what yoga means to them.
First off, a few words on what yoga is not. It is not a religion, though it can be used to heighten personal religious devotion. It is not all flexibility or about turning your body into a pretzel, although certainly some people strive for using yoga to accomplish this.
Yoga, ??? "yui" in Sanskrit, literally means "to yoke" or "to unite." The generally accepted translation yoga is "the yoking of body, mind, and spirit." For some, yoga is simply a physical practice, gaining strength and providing flexibility. For some, it is a restorative meditation, and yet for others, yoga is a spiritual pathway to god. All these are "correct" ways to experience and practice yoga.
Personally, yoga means strength, flexibility and stillness in the physical, mental, and spiritual self. It is only truly met when you meet yourself as you are, right now, and not how you want to be or were. To meet each new day with joy and desire to practice, and to practice when joy and desire are absent. To make time to listen inwardly in vapasana meditation, and to listen to what the body and soul are trying to say, while silencing the mind for once.
Most importantly, whatever the reason you're drawn to yoga, that can be what it is to you. You may come looking purely for physical therapy, and find through time that mentally, you've become more calm as well. Anyone can do yoga and find one or more of its benefits if you're persistent.
What does yoga mean to you?
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