Today, many people are taking up yoga techniques for physical exercise, and most don’t know the history of yoga.
They believe there is nothing wrong with implementing this form of exercise into their daily regiment to promote a more healthy body while not understanding the true purpose of yoga.
The practice of yoga is much more than just a physical workout. Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth and self realization. The practice and goal of yoga dates back between 1000-5000 BC and yoga arrived in the United States in the 1800’s.
Yoga has many great health benefits including physical as well as emotional. Yoga is anti-aging because it helps to detoxify your body, lubricates joints, ligaments and tendons, and massages the organs and tones muscles. In addition, yoga balances your emotions by becoming more aware of yourself through the synchronization of breath and posture.
One may ask how does this exactly happen? When you are attuned to your own breath you can only pay attention and concentrate on yourself. It is through this concentration on self that you begin to become AWARE of situations that may be disturbing you. Situations such as chronic nagging low back pain, you may become aware that your body doesn’t move in the way that it should, you begin to notice how calm you are after a yoga class and realize that it’s been awhile since you felt truly relaxed. You may learn that a negative situation that you thought was resolved still haunts you and is affecting you currently. It is through this awareness that you begin to see what parts of your life need to be healed and need attention and what parts are working for you and making you feel good and alive. Once you can identify with what is working in your life and what is not and are ready to take responsibility for yourself and work on healing you will notice that your life will begin to change in many positive ways. Remember these words “you must feel it to heal it”.
Taking a yoga class for the first time can be very overwhelming and at times frustrating. You don’t know what sun salutations are, you don’t know what Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog pose) is and at times you may feel embarrassed because you can’t do what your neighbor is doing next to you and because you don’t know what the proper alignment of the pose should be you can risk injury to yourself. I encourage all of you who are interested in starting a yoga practice to find a teacher who focuses on form, who is engaged in his/her class and makes hands on adjustment.
If you live in San Jose/Los Gatos areas and are interested in taking a yoga class and are a bit hesitate to do so then I encourage you to take our Intro to Vinyasa flow. Our Intro to Vinyasa Flow is designed for the beginner and is taught at a slower pace. You will be taken through each asana slowly, to help you learn the proper alignment of each pose and the synchronization of breath. You will build strength and flexibility that will prepare you for higher level flow classes. In this class we also discuss the philosophy of Yoga that will help you with every day life challenges. Our Intro to Vinyasa Flow class runs every Sunday morning 10:15am-11:15 am at ABS Fitness, 15690 Los Gatso Blvd. Los Gatos, CA
As once stated by Iyengar, “When the restlessness of the mind, intellect and self is stilled through the practice of yoga, the yogi by the grace of the spirit within himself finds fulfillment.
Namaste
