Why practicing Yoga?

Yoga means “union”; union of the body, the soul and the mind.

Thus he aims at the physical, spiritual and mental development.
The real purpose is being able to manage the feelings, to live in the present moment and to achieve a profound self-knowledge.
We so start from the body because it is the only one who is “here and now”; but if our practice stays at this stage, it is not yoga.

For allowing the yoga to happen, the postures must be accompanied by our controlled breath, by the relaxation,  by the food choices and by the meditation. The objective is facilitating the improvement of the physical and mental health, reaching the goal of  the peace of the mind and an experiencing the deep consciousness of ourself.
Yoga  is grouped in three “aspects”:

1 the physical aspect, which tends to improve the flexibility while offering a good balance; it amplifies our energy; it improves the breath, which relieves the pain by increasing the vitality; it makes us able to manage our “mental control”.

2 The mental aspect which is based on the decrease of the stress, and aims at acquiring a peaceful spirit and at improving the concentration.

3 The spiritual aspect, which  favorites the consciousness of our feelings, the body and the environment.
The benefits of Yoga are felt both on the physical plan, as on the mental one, towards a better psychic balance; and with regard to the individual’ stage of life.
There is, any time, a big difference between the sport and the yoga:

at the physical level,  the usual physical exercise, such as the gym, the fitness activities, the races and so on, develop the superficial muscles. These are  the muscles that we can contract voluntarily, which are powerful but which don’t have much endurance.

Yoga concern all the deep muscles, the inclusive deep muscles, the ones which  can remain contracted for a very long time, without fatigue and which allow us to maintain a straight posture naturally.

Furthermore, the exercises of yoga also have an action on the endocrine glands, the nervous plexuses, the internal organs and the subtle energies.

Because of the movements soft and friendly,   Yoga can be practiced at any age, whatever are our physical abilities and in the respect for our own morphology.
In  the today’s time, there are a lot of disciplines which claim to be yoga but they are not; quite a lot of time it happens to me to hear that  yoga” hurts, makes back pain, it is a contortion “.
When it is like that, it is beacuse quite a lot of people do things which do not so look like yoga.
And the acrobatics is not yoga; to manage to carry out the more advanced and “spectacular” postures, it is necessary to practice daily for years,  with an high understanding of our body, our breath and our limits.
That can’t be reached  in some month.

As it became high fashionable,  the practice of the Indian philosophy attracted towards her more and more people. Today, in France, 3 million people declare to practice yoga. As much as the tennis.
In the United States, the New York Times tells, in its article, an increasing  from 4 million followers in 2001 to 20 millions today.
The yoga, it is not a sport. It is never a question of competition in  yoga. The body should have “more space” in it  to reach the meditation, which has to be the final goal.
To practice yoga, we don’t need anything apart from our body and our breath. 
My some reasons for practicing Yoga:

1) a regular practice, even if it is only once a week, eventually solves the tensions in a sustainable way. Or, at least, gives you the possibility to take care of you to the everyday life and to gain  flexibility.

2) According to a recent scientific study, 20 minutes of Yoga practice have a strong positive effect on the functioning of the brain. Compared with a practice of aerobics of the same duration, the  Yoga practitioners excelled in term of capacity of concentration, capacity to learn and to restore information in a effective way.

3) Yoga is for a big part of the beginners an opportunity to be  attentive to their body, that for someone can be a weird experience! Our body that, by becoming an adult, we learn to check, to silence, to subject to a daily schedule which does not always matches its true needs……..

When we practice  Yoga, we are completely concentrated on what is going on right now, we let the body just being.

Yoga is now very rich and various in its  physical styles so that eachone can find what he is looking for.
And it is according to these moments dedicated to ourself, when we live completely in the present moment, that we learn to leave the rest in the cloakroom, the wonderful capacity which we are then tempted to apply to all our daily life! We become more concentrated, we loose less energy, we are more quiet and close to ourself.

4) For the sensation of pure happiness which we feel by practicing a Yoga course.
It is necessary to try for knowing it! But it is the first thing about which the Yogis shall speak to you if you ask them why they love Yoga. Certain people compare this sensation with the state in which we can be after a sport session with high adrenalin. Personally, I don’t know what to tell you, being neither a fan of extreme sports, nor hazy of cannabis. And nevertheless, I can guarantee you that every  Yoga class gives you a sensation of profound alignment with yourself, a soft harmony and a good mood. 

5) To finally breathe! It is during your first Yoga class that you fast realize that you knew nothing about your breath.  While we all agree that the breath is the foundation of the human existence and being interested in it can really help us. The way of breathing determines the available energy level in the body.
6) To offer yourself the opportunity just ” to be ” for an interval of 60 or 90 minutes!
Your  Yoga class  it is the unique opportunity just “to be”.  Nobody expects anything from you, nobody disturbs you, you don’t have to think about anything you just have to listen and to execute at the beginning and to be amazed by yourself at the end!

The post Why practicing Yoga? appeared first on BBYoga.