Yoga And Spirituality

Yoga is primarily a practice comprising of a sequence of mild actions and stances that improve our body’s flexibility, posture, blood circulation etc. Many who regularly engage in Yoga often relate how the practice has helped improve their physical and emotional well being.

What even many yoga enthusiasts do not know is that the practice can often help individuals cope up with tremendous emotional trauma or sorrow. Also, yoga has been known to have a particularly marvelous effect on older individuals. As many older individuals are likely to tell you this effect is not just physical but in many ways quite spiritual. People who are above a certain age have found that yoga greatly improves their life in a manner not usually associated with an exercise regime.

In Sanskrit ‘Yoga’ means to add together or unite. It is from this very word that the word ‘Yoga’ is derived. The practice of Yoga originated in ancient India thousands of years ago and has since then been recognized as a means of uniting the soul with the body and thereby finding one’s true identity.

Often the various Yogic postures are accompanied by the utterance of the ‘OM’ sound, but usually they are practiced in complete silence. Though here in the West yogic postures or asanas are what receive maximum attention Yoga in its original form also emphasized equally on practices such as breathing by means of a special method called pranayama, meditation or dhyana and tremendous concentration called dharana. As is obvious each of these practices have less to do with basic exercises and more to do with what can safely be termed ‘spirituality’.

Hence, regular practice of yoga can open up a new doorway in our lives and lead us to a level of spiritual well-being where most of us have never been before.

Due to your unfamiliarity with the word you might be wondering what Spirituality actually means. Of course we tend to use the word Spirituality quite loosely in our everyday lives but originally Spirituality refers to the attainment of a certain form of wisdom that one seeks, willingly in order to achieve equilibrium in his/her life.

Spirituality is about transcending the confines of ones own self by means of an assisting force that is in many ways far more powerful than the self itself. It is the only means of finding the true reason for ones own life and thereby achieving a form of enlightenment that grants you unconditional tranquility and boundless joy.

Spirituality is your key to coping with the surprises life springs on you in a calm and collected manner.

To gain such composure we must enhance our spiritual capacities by means of methods such as Yoga and meditation.

Meditation allows us to extend our inner tranquility to our outer space by forming a link between our mind and body. Meditation is not a religion bound practice rather it is a spiritual routine that may be carried out by one and all.

Meditation may be accompanied by relaxing music or a spiritually stirring bit of reading for best results. Many also think that the best time for meditation is sometime early in the morning or even late in the evening.