To yoke or Unite

When you ask anyone what Yoga is they often reply with all the physical descriptions of Yoga.  I often hear things such as: “it’s a class that gets you out of breath”, or “it works your core” or “you need to be really flexible to do Yoga”.   I’m really passionate about changing peoples perceptions of what Yoga is and taking the practice right back to its founding roots.  There are eight limbs to Yoga, Asana, the physical postures, are but one of the limbs.

When I did my teacher training one of the aspects of my reading that captured my interest the most is what the word “Yoga” actually means.  It is, like many words used in a Yoga practice derived from a Sanskrit word.  It means “to unite” or “to yoke”.  When you take this true meaning and study the 8 limbs as a whole it is clear that the union being referred to is that of the physical body with the mind, or as we often say in Yoga, the consciousness.

This is at the heart of a Yoga practice, learning to still the mind and bring it back into your physical body.  We do this by following the 8 limbs.  Over the next few blog posts we will explore these limbs and how I interpret them in MalaMoon Yoga classes.

The most important message to convey in our opening Yoga blog is that Yoga is for everyone whether old or young whether you have physical or mental challenges.  Everyone can take part in a Yoga practice.  Yoga has been proved to help ease physical symptoms and calm the mind, a regular practice helps you to develop the tools needed to manage everyday stresses.  We hope you will join a MalaMoon class soon and in the meantime do read on through our blog for more detail on the 8 limbs of Yoga.

Namaste

Selina