October 26th, 2020

Pic: Sage Glow Studio

THE GOAL OF YOGA

We can see many people do yoga activity nowadays either indoor in gym or yoga studio, or outdoor like in park. People do yoga for many reasons, such as keeping their body healthy, reducing stress, being suggested by health professionals after experiencing injury, or they take it merely as physical activity because they get addicted to the sweat and its challenge. That's what creates common statement in public that in order to do yoga you need to be very flexible. For those who think that their bodies are stiff, they become reluctant to do yoga.
The reasons above are partly true, that yoga is great to maintain health, focus, and the body BECOMES FLEXIBLE. I said "become", not a pre-requisite (a must). With consistent practice, flexibility can happen on its own as our body is getting used to be opened.

Getting back to the goal of yoga. Essentially, there is only one goal, according to "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", the holy book of yoga practitioners. Sutra means threads and yoga means union. Therefore, Yoga Sutras means "Threads of Union".
It is stated that the goal of yoga is yoga citta vritti nirodha meaning "a state of mind that is calm (non-fluctuative)"

There are four parameters to check our current state, whether we are heading to disturbed or undisturbed state:
1. Heart:
Check-in with your heart space. Do you feel constricted/heavy/closed or do you feel your heart is spacious/open/expanded/light?

2. Mind:
Do we overthink? Often think of something negatively before knowing the truth? Are we in depressed, feeling anxious and having brainfog? Or the opposite .. we feel light, joy, passionate, positive and get clarity in thinking?

3. Body:
Do we feel painful/achy/stiff/discomfort/trembling or do we feel at ease and steady within our body?

4. Breath:
Do you feel disturbance in your breath of any kind, such as short/shallow/ jagged/irregular or is your breath smooth/long/regulated?

One parameter will affect the other three, for example if you feel angry, your chest (heart) is heavy, you can feel heat and tremble in your body, your breath becomes short and irregular. In order to return yourself back to balance, you can start by regulating the breath. Take a long inhalation and exhalation, and continue to make the length of the exhalation longer than the inhalation. And then notice what happens to your body, mind, and heart. Everything becomes ease, calm and relax.

This practice can be done anywhere and anytime. It does not have to be on the mat. Therefore, we can do yoga at every minute and to achieve the calm state of mind involves the aspects of us as human being ... physically, energetically via breathing, mentally, and emotionally.

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