What Is Yoga? The Answer Might Surprise You

What is yoga? When people find out I teach yoga, I always hear "oh I'm not flexible enough for yoga!", "I'd love to get into yoga but I just don't have the right body for it", "wow, you must be so strong" and many other things. I still haven't figured out a short response to really hone in that yoga is for every body and is far more than what the western world has understood it as. Sitting down for 2 minutes, taking a deep long breath, deciding to not react, practicing gratitude is all part of the journey.

In this blog, when I use the word Yoga, I mean it in the context of "unity with self". The movement aspect of yoga is called Asana.

Where to start?

“Yuj” is the Sanskrit root of the word Yoga, this can be understood as to unite or to connect. Yoga is about much more than just movement and practicing asana, it’s about creating unity between mind, body, breath and soul. Yoga is a disciplined path to self-realization and inner peace, moving beyond distractions, such as anxiety and ego, to deeper integration with Self. It's about finding the ultimate freedom which is known as Moksha. Moksha is the final liberation of the spirit, freedom from the physical world and illusion.

Not quite the expected answer and it got a little deep, right? 

This is barely the tip of the iceberg. In fact, learning and understanding yogic philosophy I believe is a life long study, it is endless!

I will be publishing a monthly blog and we will go into this question far more deeply, I'm hoping one day they reach the people that say "I'm not flexible enough" and realise there is so much more to their Self than their physical body and hopefully inspire an interest in finding out who that is.