Why Yoga?
Yoga practice is a balance between effort and ease that feels challenging and delicious at the same time: "Sthira sukham asanam" (Patanjali, 2.46).
Yoga is a wonderful gift from the many sages back in India hundreds of years ago. Peeling back the layers of societal conditioning that cloud the essence of who we really are is an eye-opening experience.
Yoga helps us re-discover our true Self. A deep sense of vibrant stillness and being centered will become available to us all the time.
The word "yoga" means "union" in Sanskrit. Yoga is uniting mind, body and soul. Yoga is being consciously aware.
Yoga wakes us up.
It lifts us out of the auto-pilot mode of our daily routine, and urges us to always take our highest action, to act from our highest Self instead of our ego.
A consistent yoga practice helps us gain strength, balance and flexibility; mental clarity, emotional and spiritual growth - for those of us who wish to pursue it further. No, yoga is not a religion.
In the words of Donna Farhi, "it is a process of deconstructing all the barriers we may have erected that prevent us from having an authentic connection with ourselves and with the world."
Recommended Reading:
Yoga
Moving Into Stillness, Erich Schiffmann
Dancing the Flame of Life, Dona Holleman
Awakening the Spine, Vanda Scaravelli
Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit, Donna Farhi
The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health
Yoga Philosophy
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Satchidananda
Bringing Yoga to Life, Donna Farhi
Yoga for a World out of Balance, Michael Stone
Anatomy
The Key Muscles of Yoga, Ray Long, MD