If you close your eyes and picture “Yoga”, what do you see? Do you see someone doing a pose, an asana? Or do you see someone in a cross legged seat with their eyes gently closed? Do you picture a man, or do you picture a woman? Are they tall, short, long hair, short hair, ethnicity? Are they outside, or inside? Is there plenty of space around them, or is the room packed with things? What are your preconceived ideas of yoga?

“Yoga is just stretching.”

“You need to be flexible to do yoga.”

“Yoga is only for women.”

“Yoga is only for relaxation.”

“Yoga is a religion.”

“You need fancy gear or a certain body type.”

“Yoga is easy.”

Maybe these misconceptions are things that move across your mind when you think of yoga. Yoga is practiced, understood, and perceived in different ways by each of us. For some, the practice is exclusively physical and brings balance and ease to the body. For others like myself, it is a philosophy of a body-mind lifestyle where the body and mind interact to develop physical, physiological, psychological, and emotional or spiritual changes and growth.

Yoga comes from the sanskrit word “yuj” which means to unite. There are many meanings of the word yoga and the one that I have found to encompass the practice is below.

Yoga is a philosophy (or discipline) that serves to unite the mind, body, and spirit.

This might sound like yoga is a religion. It is not. The reason being is that yoga does not insist that a specific God exists. Yoga can be practiced by people of any belief. This is not to say that yoga is not spiritual. If one chooses to move in that direction, yoga can be a very spiritual practice and can enhance religious traditions. Yoga can be a state of being, enhancing the experience of life. Yoga is an experiential practice. Once you start to experience yoga, how you define it may evolve. But yoga in itself is not a religion. Some may say that yoga is a philosophy where art and science meet. And since yoga is a philosophy, you get to decide what pieces of it enhance your life and which parts do not.

There are many different paths to yoga. This does not mean different types of yoga classes that you go to at a studio, although it can. What we are saying here is that to get to that mind-body connection, there are multiple different ways to get there. Keeping in mind that yoga at its core is not defined as movement, but by union. So while we may see yoga as a style, such as Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, etc., the actual yoga concept here is to unite. The intention for these practices is to connect or bind our mind to our bodies.

“Both the body and mind harbor tensions or knots. Every mental knot has a corresponding physical, muscular knot, and vice versa. The aim of asana is to release these knots. Asana releases mental tensions by dealing with them on the physical level, acting somatopsychic, through the body and mind.” -Swami Satyananda Saraswati

While yoga is a philosophy, the asana (movement) practice can help us get to that space of union.

Though many women practice yoga, this practice is not solely for women. Yoga has deep roots in traditions practiced among men. Many male athletes and professionals incorporate yoga into their routines to experience the benefits of the practice such as enhancing lung function, relieving pain, enhancing focus and concentration, deepening self-connection, and developing discipline and patience to name a few.

Through the asana practice of yoga, we build strength while working on flexibility. There are many different types of classes that serve different purposes. Some classes work on releasing the connective tissue while others work on strengthening the deeper muscles and ligaments in the body. Becoming clear on what your intention is with yoga will help you discover which classes are better suited for you. Most of us have exactly what we need to get started with a yoga practice right in our own homes! 

When practicing through the physical body with asanas at studios, you may have access to blocks, boulsters, yoga wheels, and straps. Most studios will have mats for you to borrow if you do not have one. You do not need to have these tools in your homes to get started. When practicing at home, you can get started with a towel over carpet, or a blanket on wood to give you a little more cushion. For a strap you can use a necktie, a belt, or even a strap from a robe. For boulsters you can use pillows and for blocks you can use books.

There is so much more to yoga than the physical. Through this blog I will continue to share aspects of the philosophical yoga practice. In my next blog post I will discuss one of the many paths to yoga called the Eight Limbs.

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