Yoga so much more than stretching

Yoga, it is so much more than just moving the body in weird ways. Yoga means union. A union of the mind, body and spirit. When we take the time to slow down we can find that connection.

We now live in an incredible busy world. With smart phones, and Iwatches, we are constantly bombarded with speed. When we get on our yoga mats, we are giving ourselves the gift of time. The time to slow down and reconnect with ourselves.

I always start my classes with a few minutes of meditation. When we rush in and are still speedy it is very easy to hurt ourselves. When we start by sitting we are just feeling our bodies in the room, feeling our breath in our bodies and slowing down. We are in the present. We are connected to our bodies.

When we start moving through the asanas this gives us a greater chance to connect the mind and spirit with the body. So much of the time in this modern world we are moving at three different speeds. Our minds our racing, our bodies are doing something else and we often forget about our spirits. When we are on our mats mind, body and spirit are moving together. We reconnect or are joined in a union. We leave the speediness behind.

When we move into a more challenging pose it is often easy to forget our union. Our breath becomes heavy and often our minds get in the way. We either say this is too hard, I can’t do this or what a dummy I am, I will just push past the pain. When we do this we are no longer honoring our union. Fear is a natural reaction but does not always need to stop us. What are we really afraid of? Are we pushing past the pain to impress others? Listening to the mind, being compassion with ourselves. What is going on behind that fear and coming back to connecting our minds, bodies and spirits.

As we move through asanas we often find things coming up for us. Emotions we did not know that we had, memories that we had forgotten about. These are all part of making that connection, making the union. When we take the time to slow down we have the opportunity to reconnect with this.

This is why yoga is so much more than just a work out. It is a work out for the mind, body and spirit. The more we train ourselves to connect the three aspects of ourselves to easer it becomes. Just like a muscle, we need to work on building our ability to connect. The more we are able to do thin on our mat the more we are able to do this in life. Keeping that connection when things get hard, when life throws us curve balls. When we keep that connection we stay true to who we really are.