Every year, you hear of more people donning leggings (or maybe an old pair of tracksuits) and starting to do yoga. Maybe it’s your friend, a coworker, or a family member. There’s something magnetic about the practice, that makes everyone instantly attracted to it.

Although it’s getting more and more popular, yoga is much more than just a trend. No matter what reason that people go to their first class – maybe they’ve seen others do it, maybe a friend is dragging them along, maybe they’re hoping for a magical cure of back pain – none of these reasons are why they stay and come back for more.

When you go for your first yoga practice, you might think it will improve only one aspect of your life. Perhaps you do it for its physical benefits, or because you want to incorporate some type of spiritual practice into your life. But soon you realize it seems to affect every aspect of your being – and that’s exactly what it is intended to do.

The True Importance Of Yoga

Old yogis understood that humans are physical, mental, and spiritual beings. They developed yoga in an effort to help harmonize all three levels of our beings. True yoga in India didn’t develop only around physical exercise. It was primarily a spiritual practice focused on the development of virtues that help us reach our highest potential, and find purpose in our life.

Still, even if you only practice the physical postures or asanas, you will see a change in all three levels of your being. That’s not only a promise coming from subjective experiences of practitioners, it is also something that we can and have proven by science today.

Physical yoga practice is a form of education about living a better life. On the mat, we become aware of our body and our movement. We connect to our breath and learn to control it. The breath serves as a sort of bridge between our physical body, our mind, and our spiritual self. You can experience that as soon as you start controlling your breath. And you don’t have to believe me from just my word – you can try it right now.

Start deepening your breath. That means your inhales and exhales get longer, and you activate all the organs involved in the breathing action. As you inhale, lift both your belly and chest and try to make your exhalation longer than your inhale. Only after a couple of moments, you will experience a sense of calm, your thoughts will be quieter, and you will enter a state of meditation. Try closing your eyes, and breathe for a minute or two.

Now, in only a few moments of conscious breathing, you have experienced the true importance of yoga. Without any preparation – you have managed to connect your body, your mind, and your spiritual presence.

When we start practicing yoga regularly, we learn of this control over our bodies. We learn we are able to calm ourselves down, heal our pains, and become aware of the present moment. This happens even if we’re not aware of it, but it does become more significant when we are conscious of what we’re doing.

After you learn to connect your breath, movement, thoughts, and emotions during a one-hour yoga class, you can begin to take that skill and incorporate it into life off the mat. 

That’s the true importance of yoga. When you learn this important knowledge, you will see the benefits in your everyday life, and your well-being will improve. 

Are you interested yet? Why not come and try a class with me! Get in contact via the forms on this website or via my email (puffinyoga@gmail.com) to find out more.

Stay tuned for my next article where I will take a deeper look into the specific benefits of yoga.