Yoga is a an age old practice of joining body and mind, and our attention to this moment. As my teacher’s teacher, TKS Desikichar said “Yoga is relationship”. As we go deeper into the practices of yoga, we can see the quality of those relationships we have with our self, each other, and our world deepens and improves as well. How is it that yoga does this? The answer is at the heart of the philosophy of yoga.
Yoga is a lived philosophy, and we must practice it to truly understand it. The practices help us to gradually shed the conditioned filters that cloud our perception and keep us from remembering our true heart and seeing the world clearly. As we do our practices, linking our breath to our movement and our attention to our breath, our nervous system calms and our body systems enter a state of coherence, wherein our hearts and minds can align. It is here in this state that we can see most clearly, and hear the voice of our own inner guidance and wisdom.
Yoga brings us to the love and the harmony that is our heart’s nature. In our world sometimes we get distracted from that, and it’s easy to forget when we are stressed. Yoga helps us remember who we are and get better and better at choosing the thoughts, words and actions that are aligned with what is best in us. Our practice helps us to remember that we are all connected and we can choose each day to truly live from the heart. Live Aloha!
