What Yoga Means to Me!

I have been practicing the art of yoga for about 8 years now. Granted I haven't been a full fledged livicated yogini the whole time; I have gone in and out of it...at the worst case not practicing for almost 8 months..but always coming back to it. Like a lost child finding her way home.

Recently I caught myself telling a few people in conversation that if I had it my way I would make the whole world practice yoga.

I try to not preach; I try to not rant and rave about the absolute beauty of this physical, mental and spiritual art form even though I don't think I could live my life without practicing it anymore.

Yoga is the love of my life.

It is my medicine, my life source.

The deep focus and meditation practiced during yoga carries through everything I do in life. My creativity blossoms and my spirit soars! It gives me the strength to stay true to myself and fight all my battles.

Yoga is a science coming from Ancient India meaning “Union”. Union of the spirit and body. The physical body becoming one with the spirit is the ultimate achievement in yoga.

When I first started practicing yoga I did it primarily to be physically fit. I needed to lose some kilos and other forms of exercise didn't appeal to me. I hate going to the gym; I get totally bored when I have to do some mindless repetitive thing. I have never been good at sports and I despise running. So the only options left for me was dance or yoga. Living in San Francisco at the time, yoga was everywhere. Since it is a big part of my tradition and culture I decided to check it out and see if I would like it.

Amazingly, since the first day; I fell in love with it. I am a fickle minded person generally that gets bored of things and people VERY quickly. I am quick to learn something and very quick to leave it as a thing of the past and move forward. But yoga draws me deeper and deeper into it each day. I realize how little I actually know and my desire to learn more gets stronger.

After 8 years I have now finally realized how basic the “asanas”or postures in yoga are. This is only the doorway, like a child learning how to crawl. I'm not trying to underestimate the power of the asanas. They are extremely difficult and challenging to master. I have spent many many years working on the same postures and still have a hard time with them. Every person's body has certain strengths and weaknesses. Its up to us, through self research in yoga to find out what these are and keep working hard on them.

There are some days when it flows naturally and some days your body just doesn't do what you ask it to. Training your body through repetition is how you make your muscles remember each asana. Still there are some; like the shoulder stand; that I cannot do without support.

But this is only the first step.

The aim of yoga is to purify the body so you can purify the mind. So postures, cleansings, eating a proper diet are the basic steps to developing your yogic mind. Ultimately you create an absolute balance of the body, mind and energy flow.

Asanas should be done with a spiritual realization; chanting mantras to yourself as you go through the pain. My personal one given by my guru is “I am not a body. I am a soul”. This helps me shoulder any burning, hurting and wanting to give up feelings.

Doing the postures this way is the next step to spiritual unity.

And this prepares you for the next step of yoga; “Pranayama” or Breathing.

Pranayama can be broken down into its two root words from Sanskrit; “Prana” meaning the most vital energy that every life force breathes and “Ayama” is the storing and distribution of the energy throughout our body.

Breathing is so natural to us that we don't really think about the power it has. Prana is our life force. It affects our mind, body and spirit.

Pranayama is one of the most important things in Yoga. Without it, there is no yoga. It is the pathway to the final chapter of yoga; “dhyana” or meditation.

There are many different forms of breathing exercises ; “kapalbhatti” which is the ultimate detox, it gets rid of all the excess carbon dioxide in your body when done everyday; “anulombha bilambha” balances your left and right side of the body, it is also a form of meditation through which it is possible to reach “samadhi” or supra consciousness; “vastrika” which stimulates your internal organs, specifically the fire in your belly etc. etc.

As I said before; besides the obvious physical benefits of pranayama; it also leads us to meditation. While I practice it I am so focused on my breath that the whole world ceases to exist. I turn within myself and try to understand what is happening in my body. When I practice Pranayama correctly my mind is quietened. Normally the mind is hard to control and concentration on one thing is extremely difficult.

Slowly but surely; in good time; with deep focus during pranayama my mind was lifted to a new state of consciousness where I was finally meditative. I am still not capable of being able to meditate without the help of pranayama but I know it will happen. There are many many steps to reach there and I am only crawling right now.

Of course I cannot talk about yoga without talking about the obvious health benefits of it. Yogic practice requires more time and effort than regular medication but the effects are much more permanent and worthwhile. Yoga teaches us to treat our diseases using our own strength and proper food. Health benefits of Yoga works on the principles of harmony and unification with our bodies and with nature. Understanding that we are made up of 5 elements of nature, working on the body as a whole instead of trying to fix a small part of it, balancing the positive and negative energy poles in our bodies(left/right, ida/pingla, yin/yang, male/female, shiva/shakti etc etc) and purifying our bodies is essential to yogic practices.

Yoga today has been commercialized, water-downed, co-opted and turned into a fashion statement. It is like the image of Che Guevara that has been made so common that it loses its revolutionary meaning. It is like my hero; Arundhati Roy being on a list of Forbes magazine's 30 most inspiring women of the year; alongside the likes of those who she stands up against; Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton and the head of Pepsi!!!!!!

In this age of commercial capitalizing of all that is sacred, meaningful and true it is important for people like us to remember and remind others of the roots of it all. The depth of life. The meaning of love and struggle.

The union of mind, body and spirit.

All photos by Martin Travers.