Yoga

discipline

In the Oxford dictionary yoga is described as A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practised for health and relaxation.

It is important to realise that yoga is in fact not a noun but instead a verb. It is something that we do, we practice yoga. In the time of Patanjali (the author of the yoga sutras) Yoga became a noun and meant union of mind body and spirit, which is not wrong but does not capture that yoga is a discipline something we need to work hard at, daily, to receive the benefits. 

Yoga as a verb, as it was described before Patanjalis time means:

• To Engage

• To Get Involved

• To Participate

• To Connect 

And this is done through physical posture, breath and meditation. The asanas (poses) are a tool to help us pay attention.

If you were to break down the process of “doing yoga” it would be:

• Act, Engage, Create Yoga by getting involved.

• Pay Attention

• This will give you choices.

• Make a choice.

• Learn from that choice then repeat 1

If we view and understand yoga in this way we can see that the principles of yoga are similar to the way we approach our sessions in clinic. We encourage our clients:

• To engage with the practitioner

• To pay attention to where the thoughts/emotions are coming from

• Once we are aware of the triggers we now have a choice

• To learn from our behavioural pattern and make better choices moving forward.

Combining yoga and kinesiology gives us more opportunities to listen, observe, feel and understand ourselves, our patterns. Through understanding, without judgement we can grow. We accept that this journey is one for life, there is no beginning nor end, as everything is forever changing and everything is impermanent, however we are equipped to fluidly move and adapt, with a calm and peaceful heart.