Discover Yoga's Deeper Essence

Discover Yoga's Deeper Essence

When I talk to someone who looks down upon the deeper teachings of yoga, it’s usually because they haven’t been educated about its full scope. It reminds me of a person trying to describe the taste of chocolate without ever having tasted it. It doesn’t make much sense.

I want to save people time wandering aimlessly in search of philosophy and purpose in life by making it clear what yoga can be and do for you. Let’s start with what you’re familiar with: people doing exercises on a mat, making shapes with their bodies. Some shapes require flexibility, some strength, others balance and concentration. Some shapes teach us to relax, become aware of specific muscle groups, and strengthen them. These shapes help us become familiar with our bodies, and some do all of this simultaneously.

An advanced yoga teacher emphasizes the importance of focusing on your breathing as much as on the poses. The science behind this is that thoughts and emotions are energy. Distracting thoughts can block the transmission of energy to and from specific parts of the body and the mind. Some postures require so much focus and concentration that we lose balance if our minds wander. When we connect our breath to the sensations in our body, we stay in the present moment. If we have a thought that takes us away from the present moment, our breath becomes sporadic, our heart rate remains high, and our brain stays in a state of mild panic. While the word 'panic' may seem drastic, it describes our body's response when things go wrong. Humans often normalize anxiety to the point where it becomes a constant, subconscious state.

Yoga practice is designed to help us relax deeply. As we surrender to the practice, we don’t need to spend hours to achieve relaxation. In a hot yoga room, for instance, you can learn to surrender to the heat rather than resist it, finding it relaxing over time. This takes years to accomplish but is valuable. The mind initially resists because it senses discomfort and raises the heart rate, but it can be trained to find relaxation in the practice.

Historically, yogis were often misunderstood. People thought yogis were conjuring spirits or practicing magic because they seemed to understand the connection between internal consciousness and the universe. They had insight into what was then the unknown. Even today, there are those who don’t grasp this, but many conscious individuals are slowly awakening, blossoming into a beautiful understanding of yoga’s deeper teachings.

Just because someone places a sign over the door that says Yoga, does not mean they are teaching yoga, or anything valuable at all. There are bad tailors, poor musicians, terrible chefs, horrible house painters, and not-so-good yoga teachers. Every discipline humans have invented has an abundance of unskilled practitioners. The difficulty when seeking excellence is always in finding skilled craftspeople. To find a great teacher or craftsperson, it's usually trial and error.

The ultimate purpose of practices like Yoga and Tai Chi is to lead the student to the deeper philosophies of mindfulness, presence of mind, relaxation, self-realization, peaceful non-violent coexistence, self-care, parenting, ethics, leadership, farming, leisure, compassion, care for the world, happiness, empathy, and so on. Yoga can help us develop these qualities quickly through practice. Therefore, $35 for a class is one of the world's most underrated bargains.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.