YOGA… Is it an exercise or a lifestyle?

Most of you think of Yoga as stretching exercises for warming up the body for real sports, or a meditation practice to relax and unwind or something that they just do not understand. It’s okay that you think about it NOW like that, because now I will share with you some insights about YOGA for you to know a little more about it, so you know better.

Yoga has 4 different MAIN layers; Bhakti, Raja, Karma and Gyan. These four layers represents different aspects of YOGA. See anyone could be a YOGI without even knowing, just because YOGA is so much more and deeper than what you & I think. First, let me tell you what does YOGA mean… Yoga is derived from the word yug; which means the union of the body, soul & mind. And now, I can share with you the meaning of each main layer:
BHATI; DEVOTION, it’s the act of anything you do with a 100% devotion and surrender; it can be living in peace with devotion.
RAJA; KING, all physical yoga is derived from RAJA YOGA (asana, ashtanga, hatha…etc.) which has around 8.3 million postures.
KARMA; DEEP DUTY in actions. It is living your life in which you are 100% responsible for every act, for every action.
GYANA; pronounced as Nyana or Inana and it means KNOWLEDGE. It is the Yoga of Knowledge, knowing the simple and first steps to get into the advanced postures and steps.

See YOGA has 5 paths for it, the four that I mentioned above and one more that is KRIYA. If we look closer into BHATI it’s path focuses on devotion, which includes lots of love with it. So a person has to be flowing with Love and Devotion to be practicing Bhati yoga. And RAJA’s path is one of commitment, discipline, balance & harmony, for you to do any kind of movement/posture you need to focus and go beyond the intellect, find that balance, that harmony that you have internally, push yourself everyday more till you get what you want, and be where you want. As for KARMA’s path it’s simple, do all your actions without any attachments to the results. Do selfless acts with no expectations, be giving and participate with love and ease, be creative while you do that and by time you will be less sensitive and even more compassionate, you will see life with objectivity. GYANA’s (NYANA) path is through the knowledge that you have, get to know yourself more and be even more experienced internally (inner experience) and achieve Wisdom through it. As YOGA has balance; it have one more path which is KRIYA which is the path of Awareness and Mindfulness, studying life and experiencing it outside of you, it is beyond you & your body, it’s about everything that is around you, it is AWARENESS beyond you.

When I first learnt these information I was amazed of how little I knew about YOGA, although I LOVED IT for some reason, I was surprised how my mind wasn’t expecting YOGA to be that deep. And it made me realize that there are a lot of things that MIGHT SEEM strange or different or unknown and it could be so magnificent and full of love if you give yourself a chance and allow yourself to learn more with no judgment.

So is yoga an exercise or a lifestyle? It has a lot of nice postures! And if you combine postures that heat the body together and move muscles dynamically or statically for a specific time, then YES it is an exercise (Physical). But to get the benefits of yoga, you need to practice it’s paths, you need to understand that it is beyond what you might know, it has wonderful philosophy, and healing powers mentally, physically and spiritually. There is this yoga seated posture (vajrasana) that helped my digestion (Wellness), and another certain focusing practice (anitya bhavna) that helped me to calm my mind and concentrate on being present (in the now), and when I practice it before bedtime it eases me into better sleeping (Mental). And as for Spiritually, I am already a spiritual person, not religious though, and all the things that YOGA believes in and encourage people to practice & BE already exists in ISLAM and other religions, one of the teachings is focusing on your INTENTION. If you have a good intention you will get more goodness in your life, and if your intention has harm in it even if you are a good person; then you will get bad results or outcomes in your life. “إنما الأعمال بالنيات و لكل امرئ ما نوى” .

So in my opinion Yoga is a lifestyle, you cleanse your body from unwanted food and dirt, and your mind from unwanted thoughts. You trust yourself even more, you give your body more love and more time to to experience your body’s limitation and push them further. And OMG… Your Soul is interconnected with the universe, and you start living with even more awareness, even more love, even more peace and even more BEING. And for that anyone could be a YOGI.

Namasté,