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Thursday, March 24, 2011

What is Yoga?




So you have started a yoga practice I hear!

FANTASTIC!

I'm excited! Ecstatic! Love love love that you are exploring a new terrain! Yoga can open new paths in your life you never thought possible. It has for me, over and over and over again. I started practicing about 10 years ago and haven't looked back.

In the beginning it was just a "condiment" to my fitness routine. I would take a class maybe once or twice a week, to undo the damage I was doing in the gym with weight lifting and running. Eventually I "awakened", and I mean that in a literal and figurative sense. I literally felt more connected to my own intuition, and the process of unraveling years of "stuff" just began to happen. Not always pretty, and for the greater part very very rewarding.

For me Yoga allowed me to step out of my mind, and into my body, and further on into deeper realms of my essence. Again, it's a process. It never really gets done, and the magic, the beauty of this thing we call Yoga is that every single time you come onto your mat, you experience a whole new practice. Even if you did the exact same class, with the exact same sequences, it never ever is the same!!!

I just love that! So for the ADD kid in all of us, this is a god send :)


Yoga means "union" in the broadest sense of the term.

You are "yoking" the Self in you with the Self of every other thing, person and place in existence. Ok perhaps that is a little hard to wrap your mind around right now. Let's just start with the union of You to You.

Essentially yoga nurtures the "Core Connection" we all are capable of. Yoga is thought to be only the physical practice of the asanas (poses) on the mat. However the real yoga is in every single moment, every single experience and every single breath. So what we learn on the mat, is useless if we are not bringing that "union" or "Core Connection" further into our daily lives.

Once we engage that Core Connection I so often talk and teach others to do, we initiate a very profound process that enables us to release stress, focus, and participate from a place of presence. The chaotic mind recedes into the background, and you essentially become free to feel and live at your highest level. You come to learn how being present, in this moment, right here and right is true liberation from suffering. It is our attachments to our past, our future, and ultimately the identity we have created about ourselves.

So Yoga allows you to let go, and let go, and let go some more.

If you can take one thing away from this today, please let it be the following. The only thing you have that is real is this very present moment. What happened this morning, doesn't exist. What you may think will happen in 2 months from now doesn't exist. Only your thoughts create this things, and they appear to be real for you. They appear to be your "reality". Why hang on to illusions, or things that don't exist? When you can be here, right now, enjoying what is.

To your health always,

Namaste

Piera


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