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Writer's pictureAbbie Jones

For the love of yoga

Updated: Jul 1, 2021

“Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are. The practice of yoga is the practice of meditation – or inner listening – in the poses and meditations, as well as all day long. It’s a matter of listening inwardly for guidance all the time, and then daring enough and trusting enough to do as you are prompted to do…” Erich Schiffmann, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness.


The comment of one person years ago has stayed with me. I remember her words and message so clearly;


“What’s the big deal with Yoga? I don’t understand how one type of exercise can be that good or why everyone raves about it so much.”


I did not answer her with my insights on that day. How do you put such tremendous experiences into a short reply? But I always knew I would write to this at some point, and that point is now!


Firstly, yoga isn’t exercise.


Are you exercising your body? Yes.


Do you improve strength, stability, flexibility, and balance? Yes.


You do become stronger and more supple in a physical sense. Absolutely. And you can improve your fitness and achieve superb physical training results from the practice of yoga.


But it is not just that, nor was its intention to be just that.


If this is what yoga is for you, I say fabulous! Enjoy it, take what you will and need from the physical practice of yoga. But this is not why it is such a big deal!


The physical movements on their own could just be exercise, however it is the practice of aligning movement with breath and movement with intention that creates a different type of practice.


And have you noticed how yoga teachers call it ‘practice’. That is because it is seen as a daily discipline, a commitment, something that takes time, investment of attention and energy. It doesn’t end and it is always changing. You are always practicing the art of yoga, deepening and integrating it into life.


When we align the breath with our movement we become in sync with our bodies, and we cultivate presence.


How does yoga help us to get in sync with the body?


Most of us live in the gross and superficial. We don’t notice the small things, the subtle and refined.


As we practice more and more deeply, we can become aware of sensations and tension in the body, big tensions to begin with and then smaller and smaller areas of tightness and resistance.


As we focus on the breath and moving with it, we become clearer of mind. The mind becomes quieter, and we tune into the sensations of the body. We start to notice how the shapes and poses of yoga open the body, create space, and release tightness. We notice how the breath makes subtle changes to the pose.


We become adept at hearing the body. We can now tune in and listen, hearing the subtle messages so you no longer are ignorant of pain before it gets bad and persistent.


Yoga also enables us to practice true presence.


When in our modern life do most of us really get present?


We are inundated by advertising, selling, notifications, news, opinions, noise, requests, information and responsibilities. We live in an age of distraction and most of us wear it as a badge of honour to be busy, multitasking and fully scheduled.


What does it feel like to be truly present?


Yoga through its connection to breath and meditation techniques allows us to relearn the lost human faculty of focus and concentration. On one thing. Only one. To let the mind become clear as a result.


With this practice we remember our ability to focus on one thing. Listening to the loved one talking to you. Watching and appreciating the sunrising. Feeling the touch of your beloved.

When we are present, we leave behind the memories of the past and let go of projections of the future. We learn to accept the moment as it is right here and right now.


Suffering eases with presence.


When it goes beyond the body…


As our practice advances, we start to notice that what holds true on the mat in our poses, our breathing, relaxation and meditation, also holds true for our minds, our thoughts, our emotions, actions and life.


We notice tension in the mind, waves of thought, memories arising, emotions fluctuating.

We see resistance in our personalities, rigidness in our attitudes, tightness in our relationships.


All in all, we become the object of our own self study in Yoga. We learn to observe our bodies, our minds, our emotional patterns and responses. We become as they say; our own witness.

It is from this witness consciousness that we are able to create space and detach from our habits, addictions, patterns and choices. We can see them clearly. We can then see that through choice we can choose again.


Choose another action, choose another new thought, a new possibility. We try these new thoughts and actions on in life and practice those. We carve out new neurological pathways because we can now see more clearly.


We can also learn to respond instead of reacting.


The transformation of yoga practice then begins. The focus on the physical practice is less important now. It is your ability to tune in, get present, clear the mind, witness the self and become quiet and still that matters. You learn to connect to yourself and the life force within you and the life force beyond you. You are now in Yoga. In union with the self.


How does this happen?


Yoga teaches us so much. The spiritual teachings and philosophies are aimed at building character and allowing us to live from a place of our true essence instead of our personalities and egos. We can learn to quiet and train the personality and mind so that they are not our master but our co-worker so to speak!


It may seem a mystery, too good to be true, but it is a carefully curated set of instructions for living a whole, good and true life.


You start moving the body and you discover yourself on the mat, using disciplines of character, ethics for living, presence and awareness, breathwork, physical movement, focus and concentration, and what blossoms is the realisation that you are much more than what you thought.


Once you know that you recognise that in everyone else, life around you, you see the reality of the universe.


There are many other paths of devotion and spirituality, but they all have one thing in common. A knowledge of a greater power bigger than our small selves. We are part of this and born of it. The life force that lives in us is in all things.


Yoga is one path to becoming a better human for a better world.

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