More than just asanas.

When we hear "yoga" most people think of the asana practice, the physical practice of yoga postures, but to limit yoga to only the asanas is to miss out on the wisdom and happiness yoga provides us.

Pantajali, often seen as "The Father of Yoga", laid out The Eight Limbs of Yoga in his sutras - these are guidelines to unify us with ourselves, with each other, with creation as a whole and ultimately with the divinity that resides in each of us.  To practice yoga is to quiet our restless minds, remove our egos and open ourselves to the divinity that surrounds us allowing ourselves to travel down the path to happiness, peace and contentment. 

Yoga is something that we practice on and off the mat.  Many, including myself, begin their yoga journey with asana practice and find themselves wanting to learn more once they see the change the asanas bring to their lives.  Asana is a great place to begin your yoga journey because it helps to cultivate awareness within the other 7 limbs of yoga even though we may be be conscious of it.

My blogs in the following weeks will dive a little deeper into the 8 limbs of yoga, but following is a brief description of each:

1.  Yamas - these guide us in our interactions with the world around us, they teach us that we are compassionate, generous, honest and peaceful by our very natures:

• Ahimsa (nonviolence)
• Satya (truth and honesty)
• Asteya (non-stealing)
• Brahmacharya (sense control)
• Aparigraha (nongrasping/nonposessiveness)

2.  Niyamas - these are guidelines in our actions toward ourselves, our personal disciplines, and include:

• Sauca (purity)
• Santosha (contentment)
• Tapas (right effort/austerity)
• Svadhyaya (self study)
• Ishvara-Pranidhana (dedication to the divine) 

3.  Asanas - physical postures
4.  Pranayama - breath control
5.  Pratyahara - withdraw from the senses
6.  Dharana - concentration
7.  Dhyana - meditation
8.  Samadhi - enlightenment

We are all born with a bright shining light inside of us, an innocence and magnificent wonder about the world that fosters love for ourselves and each other, that bonds us to each other, the universe and the divinity present in all of it; as we grow older this light can grow dim, getting covered with figurative dirt and debris left behind by our experiences - yoga can help us clear all of that away so that our light again shines brightly.