Why Yoga is essential and more than a physical exercise

Why Yoga is essential and more than a physical exercise

Many people still see yoga as some type of “sports” but with lots of “strange” spiritual people following the yoga path.

Is Yoga sports?

Yoga is so much more than sports and it is accessible for everybody. Truly everybody, there is no reason why not to start yoga.

For me it is a holistic way to create more balance, a healthier lifestyle and a positive mindset for myself but also for the people around me.

We only have this one body, so we should take care of it in the best way possible. You don’t need to over-do it, nobody has to bend into the most complicated yoga poses. It is not a competition, it’s a way of life. Your way to live.

I promise you, it can make you a better person, it’s a way to walk and you need to be consistent, but it works.

Why am I so sure?

Because, if you decide to include yoga in your life you will quickly realise that you change, for the better.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a big topic – cherishing the moment, being grateful for what you have, all the important thoughts which make you happier with less. Striving for more and more is not the way, it’s rather being happy with where you already are and working on your happiness on the inside instead of the outside.

Balance

Another topic is balance, a balanced lifestyle. Instead of rushing through everything you learn to stop and just be quiet. Let all the input we have daily settle and then sort and let go. We carry so much emotional luggage, who is able to cope with so much weight? Almost nobody. 

Detox

Detox your life but also what surrounds you. Do we really need stack over stack of magazines. Will we ever read them?

Rather go through them and rip out what seems interesting, you will have one file left and read it because that’s all what’s of your interest. 

Social Media detoxification is also great, I just went through my instagram and unfollowed step by step – we collect and collect and in the end we spent our time with watching other people cook their dinner?

I’m cleaning up my life and you wonder, wasn’t this article about Yoga?

Yes, and it still is! All of this is part of a Yogic lifestyle. Constantly balancing out and letting go of what you don’t need any longer.

Breathing

Breathing is a very important practice in Yoga and you can work with your breath. We breath through stress, we can calm our central nervous system during a panic attack with long deep breathing. Pranayama, the breathing techniques in yoga, have many benefits.

If you want to read in more depth I can recommend this book to you written by the wonderful teacher B.K.S. Iyengar:

Awareness

Yoga is being aware, aware of all that is and all you are. Meditation is nothing else than being an observer of your thoughts, becoming still in a world louder than ever before.

We hear so many noises each day and expect our brain to cope, so it’s on us to become still and breathe and give ourself this time of peace.

All of this and more is yoga

I left aside the physical practice for a reason. All until now is yoga and many do not recognise it as yoga.

We need to erase this picture that yoga is all about the poses and preferably perfect and posted on instagram because it is not.

Not every yogi is flexible, we all carry our own deficiencies and if you are good, then you don’t see it as a deficiency but as a chance. That’s the mindset I was talking about.

Not one of the yoga teachers on this planet is perfect, not one of the students is perfect, not one human being is perfect – and that’s why yoga is so wonderful, it can be adapted to your very own unique needs.

I hope you have now a better idea of yoga. And this is just the surface, there is so much to discover and learn that we can spend a lifetime exploring the beauty of yoga.

Namaste