The Peaceful Yogi
Practicing yoga will help to increase awareness of self, improve brain function and facilitate balance within the body. On the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects: practicing yoga can enhance the ability to have greater empathy, love and virtue towards self and others.
Relationships in our lives will and do make the biggest impact in our lives; whether it is past, current, or future. How we relate to ourselves and others matters in the standpoint of quality of life, in the ability to see opportunities and to attract either what we want or don’t want just from the influences around us.
Patanjali is considered the “Father of Yoga”, he taught that through the practice of yoga, the practitioner can achieve profound spiritual awakening, attain self-realization and realize their true nature; to realize pure consciousness beyond the ego.
As self-realization is achieved, we can help foster deeper and better relationship to self and others. Fulfillment, peace and bliss can be attained as we have more charity and virtue in our lives and towards humanity as a whole.
The saying, “all you need is love,” by John Lennon, is a powerful truth; and I would also add a pathway to that course is by practicing yoga.
There are very specific ways that practicing yoga has enhanced self and relationships to others, there are five main effects: self-control, faith, will power, concentration, and self-confidence.
Self-control: Due to the heat in the yoga room, the practitioner is pushed to stay focused and let go of reactions, emotions, and impulses. The repetition of the 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises allow students to focus and become more patient and persevere. The discomfort and delaying of gratification helps to bring awareness to self. Awareness helps to have patience with self to choose how to respond or react to situations and others, which carries over when outside of the yoga room.
Faith: Practicing 90 minutes in the heat and humidity of the room, builds faith in self, the strength to overcome, resilience and capacity to handle challenges. As progress happens with consistency, trust is built with mind and body. The practitioner learns to surrender control, by not forcing through the postures. Practicing with others helps to foster belief in self and support for and by others.
Will-power: The yoga is practiced in a controlled, methodical, and predictable fashion. The commitment to stay in the room and not quit, strengthens the fortitude of will-power through the practice of 90 minutes. The challenge to look in the mirror at oneself, confront personal limits, excuses or inner dialogue, and choosing to stay in the room. The room becomes a training ground to recognizing that you can do it, recognizing that change takes time.
Concentration: The instruction helps to know where to focus, so that each student is fully in the moment. The practice of focus helps with self-awareness. Focusing under pressure helps outside of the classroom as well. The distraction free environment helps the brain and nervous system to calm down. The yoga practice helps the mind to stay mentally engaged, present and relaxed at the same time, as in meditation.
Self-Confidence: Proving to self that you can do challenging things by practicing in the heat for 90 minutes builds confidence. Learning to trust the self in the practice, by feeling the body and paying attention to the breath, recognizing you can do it; and learning to accept oneself by looking in the mirror. Coming to attend class, especially when one is not wanting to, or when there are challenges to attend, will build self-confidence.
The over 5,000 year old practice of yoga postures has benefited the practitioners’ quality of life, ability to improve health and vitality. To current day, it is wonderful to be able to dip into the fountain of youth and reap the benefits of what has proven over time to work to enhance the experience- love of self, love of others, improving our relationships and happiness overall.