If you only consider yoga as a form of exercise or stretching, you are missing a wide range of opportunities for deeper experiences and personal growth.
Breath work, known as pranayama in Sanskrit, is an important, and often amazingly effective, simple yoga practice. Observing your breathing can quickly tune you into how stressed or relaxed you are at any given time.
Other yoga practices include withdrawal of the senses, known as pratyahara in Sanskrit, such as closing your eyes to draw attention inward. This technique increases awareness of your physical body and also develops concentration skills.
Chanting is another yoga technique that includes simple singing of sounds or words using only a few notes. If you can get over feeling self-conscious about your voice, chanting is not only fun and challenging, but moves energy through vibration.
Through the regular practice of these techniques, your mind will begin to focus and become calmer. Thus, another fundamental yoga practice, meditation, becomes easier. Meditation quiets the mind and improves conscious awareness in everyday life, which can help you to make wiser choices.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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