The point of yoga is to develop a level of clarity and self-understand ing so that when we’re done doing our yoga practice we make really good decisions, because that will determine whether we’re fulfilled. Not the quality of our poses. But really the yoga is what happens when we’re done practicing yoga.
In fact, many people, including some who practice yoga, assume that yoga is nothing more than a form of exercise, or they believe that only the physical aspects of yoga have relevance to their lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
It is important not to abandon the practice of yoga because we believe it is driven by the wrong motivation. The practice of yoga itself transforms. Yoga has a magical quality.
Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are. The practice of yoga is the practice of meditation-or inner listening-in the poses and meditations, as well as all day long. It's a matter of listening inwardly for guidance all the time, and then daring enough and trusting enough to do as you are prompted to do.
We cannot expect that millions are practicing real yoga just because millions of people claim to be doing yoga all over the globe. What has spread all over the world is not yoga. It is not even non-yoga; it is un-yoga.
What kind of Yoga do you want to practice, the Yoga of getting or the Yoga of giving?... One enslaves, the other liberates.
I really think there's an evolution to the practice and the individual no matter what brings you in, whether it's wine and yoga or chocolate and yoga or surfing and yoga.
Yoga has been something that's always there to take with me and practice throughout any journey. There's no place I've ever been where yoga hasn't fit itself in. I currently work on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska and I am still able to find time to lay my mat on the deck and practice what makes me the best me I can be, thanks to yoga.
The awareness that we cultivate is what makes yoga a practice, rather than a task or a goal to be completed. Your body will most likely become much more flexible by doing yoga, and so will your mind.
It is very important to understand yoga philosophy: without philosophy, practice is not good, and yoga practice is the starting place for yoga philosophy. Mixing both is actually the best.
I think the advantage I have with yoga is that it is something I can do on my own and can't make excuses that I don't have a place or the time. One can practice yoga anywhere, anytime. You don't have to worry about what you're wearing. For all of these reasons, yoga works for me.
Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevent all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Yoga cannot know a barrier of East and West any more than does the healing and equitable light of the sun.
I practice yoga on a regular basis at my gym and when I travel. Yoga not only keeps me flexible, but I feel it enhance the quality of my blood cells through deep breathing. I also feel energized when I practice yoga, which helps me cope with my demanding schedule.
Nowadays, the practice of yoga stops with just asanas. Very few even attempt dharana and dhyana (deeper meditation) with seriousness. There is a need to search once more and reestablish the practice and value of yoga in modern times.
What I get on a yoga mat, and from a yoga teacher, has been more beneficial onstage than any other workshop I've ever done.
Yoga is not a practice - the word 'yoga' means union. It does not mean standing on your head, twisting your body, or holding your breath. Yoga means to know the union of life. When you experience everything as a part of yourself, you are in yoga.