What is Yoga???

It's always good to begin at the beginning. If I'm writing about children's yoga, I should at least start with what yoga is and isn't. Yoga is not a religion. Yoga is also not a weight-loss method although that can be a perk. Yoga is a way of life. The literal meaning of the word yoga is "joining". It is the joining of the individual self with pure consciousness. I think of it as a way to live more in truth and with deeper meaning. Surely you must be asking yourself "how does all of this happen in my 45 minute class at the YMCA?" Well it doesn't. A part of it happens there, but a small part. Most people practice what I call fast-food yoga. Just like fast food that has the apperance and smell of real food, and maybe even a few sprinkles of vitamins that haven't been fried away, we all know it doesn't really count as real(whole) food. Yoga is the same way. Most of us are practicing fast-food yoga. It has a little bit of the true yoga in it, but most of the wholeness has been stripped away. We all know about going into yoga and doing some meditation and some Asanas (poses). But did you know there are 6 more parts to a complete yoga experience. What the what? I know. Let me break it down for you. Yoga has 8 aspects.

Yamas: 5 moral restraints
Niyamas: 5 observances
Asanas: postures/poses
Pranayama: mindful breathing
Pratyahara: turning inward
Dharna: concentration
Dhyana: meditation
Samadhi: union of self with object of meditation

I've seen these illustrated in the form of a ladder starting with the yamas at the bottom and samadhi at the top. I like it better illustrated as spokes of a wheel. Continually going around. I don't think we ever get to a place in our life journey where we've reached the top of the ladder and can stand there and say "yea baby, been there, done that." We are all works in progress aren't we? Some days we are better, smarter, faster and more enlightened than other days.

For the next few blog posts I thought I would take one or two at a time and elaborate more fully on each aspect. It's Friday folks, have a fab weekend. Until next time, love and lollipops.