Yoga

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“I just want to get more flexible, I don’t want all that mind stuff.”

This is what we hear from many people. Does this sound familiar?

Yes, practicing yoga will make you more flexible. Yoga includes one of the most effective flexibility enhancement systems in the world. Western experts like physical therapists, chiropractors, and doctors, all prescribe stretches that are variations on yoga postures.

Yoga has taken the Western World by storm. This is due in large part to pioneers like our teacher Beryl Bender Birch. Now every gym has a yoga program. Every celebrity says they practice yoga. But, as our teacher would say, very few people even know what yoga is.

Most of us only know the physical practice of yoga, a serious of postures strung together in a variety of orders. In the Yoga Sutras (considered by most experts to be the most authoritative documentation of yoga), the physical practice of yoga is called Asana and is only one of 8 parts (or limbs) of a full yoga practice. What are the other parts (or limbs)? There are many but they boil down to learning how to regulate the fluctuation of the mind, minimizing external and internal distractions, and focusing on reaching a blissful state of existence. Wow, that sounds good to me.

In a time when Hypertension, ADD, and Autism have become household names, and over-medication has become the “solution,” we need to first get back to the basics.

We must first get back to the basics and do the physical work with our bodies to clear our minds. And then we must do the mental work to become more self aware. And then, maybe, we can all live a more blissful existence.

If you would like to live a more blissful existence 🙂 please contact me, I would love to hear from you.

If you would like to improve your flexibility, with or without all that “mind stuff,” please contact me, I would love to hear from you too!

And, as always, if you have any questions please let me know.

-Japheth