Yoga is a practice, which indicates that it requires action, commitment, and repetition. Since yoga applies to various aspects of the human being, it becomes a lifestyle.
There are questions that have no answer or could have many. Some believe it is a physical activity for gaining flexibility, others see it as an acrobatic practice, a meditative practice, or a spiritual practice, and so on.
What is clear is that it is a practice, which indicates that it requires action, commitment, and repetition. Since yoga applies to various aspects of the human being, it becomes a lifestyle. This doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from it if you start by focusing more on the physical aspect; in fact, many of us discover it this way. However, the reality is that the purpose of yoga is not to make us more flexible or stronger on the outside. It is of no use to train the physical body if we let our mind control it.
Through conscious movement, we access the mind; the asanas or postures are tools that act in a psychosomatic manner: from the body to the mind. In yoga, we work on the body to be able to endure the physical, mental, and emotional discomfort that the present often brings, generating stability and self-esteem.
Yoga requires action, commitment, and repetition.
Eight Steps of Yoga,
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
(1) Yama: contains ethical principles and rules for living in society.
(2) Niyama: describes individual disciplines and attitudes towards oneself.
(3) Asana: body positions to balance energy, generating physical, mental, and emotional stability.
(4) Pranayama: breathing techniques to access deeper states of consciousness and regulate the nervous system.
(5) Pratyahara: involves withdrawing the senses from external objects, depriving them of what nourishes them, to assist the mind in its internal search.
(6) Dharana: a concentration technique focused on a fixed aspect.
(7) Dhyana: meditation without a fixed aspect, where the mind observes its own behavior.
(8) Samadhi: the object of meditation absorbs the meditator, leading to a loss of self-awareness, generating the union of subject and object, and ceasing the fluctuations of the mind.
