Early this morning I practised my yoga class and I know that I will feel gorgeous for the whole day. Yoga is a great discipline that I’ve personally started to appreciate for many reasons already some years ago, mainly because it makes me feeling very well in profound yet subtle manner.
I realized that this discipline is only partially understood as being limited to some “asanas”, the yoga poses. As such, its advantages are only perceived to be at the body level and many people fail to realize the immense benefits yoga offers in uniting the body, mind and breath.
When one is in this harmony, the journey through life is calmer, happier and more fulfilling as well as every day is lived at its best.
In everyone’s life there are chapters when some difficulties arise or complicated situations just happen. It is in those moments that our emotions direct our attention to external distractions, and this process drags a lot of energy from ourselves, so as to feel tired, sometimes angry or crestfallen, even a little depressed.
Well, when I discovered yoga I learnt better how to stay physically fit but also how to keep a well balanced spirit, regardless life’s difficulties.
I understood better how my level of “resilience” can be improved by this discipline that has deeply to do with mindfulness. Resilience is the capability to maintain integrity and fundamental scope even when facing with a dramatic external modification, and to adapt own balance to the changed circumstances. Briefly, that’s the ability to overcome, turn-around and get back out of adverse situations without loosing attention and consciousness, important elements of a mindfulness approach.
So, as I see it on myself, not only Yoga helps an all-round fitness, improving my body flexibility, building muscle strength, perfecting posture, draining lymph, massaging organs thanks to its poses and breathing techniques, helping to sleep deeper and releasing tensions in the limbs, as proven also by many researchers, but it makes me happier, by increasing my serotonin levels, and even more because it helps to keep focus.
Indeed, an important component of yoga is focusing on the present, teaching not to be distracted by own thoughts, which can play over and over like an endless tape loop.
Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, in other words it slows down the mental loops of any negative feeling that can cause stress.
I found it helpful to strengthen my awareness, and the more aware you are, the easier it is to break free of destructive emotions, calming the nervous system and the mind. A mindfulness approach also increases the ability to step back from the “drama” of the moment, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events. With the brightness it generates, it really speeds up reaction time, enabling to choose a more thoughtful approach in any situation.
Yoga definitely gives a peace of mind.
When I am in a posture, with rain or sunshine outside there, it doesn’t matter, I feel blessed anyway and appreciate everything. I’m within myself, and I’m in peace.
I have only to find a way to increase the frequency to this panacea, as I start to get addicted to.
But, as Prof. I.K.Taimni is saying: “To make do is the greatest happiness”.
Namaste.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!
