Hello!
It’s been a while since my last post. After losing interest in writing about the IT sphere, I’ve decided to shift my focus to yoga. Quite a radical change, right?
I’ve been practicing yoga for 8-9 years now. It’s one of those activities that never gets boring. I’ve tried various sports like gym workouts, swimming, cycling, running, and kickboxing. While I enjoy these activities, I often find gym workouts become monotonous quickly. I still enjoy swimming, running, and cycling, but I take breaks from them periodically. However, yoga has been a constant in my life. I don’t think I’ve taken a break from yoga in all these years, and for the past few months, I’ve been practicing it daily.
Over the years, I’ve had several yoga teachers. About six months ago, I discovered a fantastic website called Inner Dimension, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying their yoga sessions. Now, I’ve decided to embark on a 200-hour yoga teacher training course at Inner Dimension Academy. The course is divided into two parts: a 30-hour segment and a 170-hour segment. I’ve already started the 30-hour segment and I am saving up for the 170-hour one.
I’ll be sharing my notes and thoughts from the lessons I receive during this teacher training. Let’s start with the first lecture: What is yoga?
What comes to mind when you hear the word “yoga”? Yoga pants, downward dog, handstands? The truth is, yoga is much more than that. I’ve never been to India, but as Travis mentioned, when he visited India for the first time, he didn’t see yoga studios where people were doing poses. Instead, he saw yoga in chanting, temples, and meditations.
Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word “yuj” which means to yoke or unite.
So, what exactly is uniting? It can be many things. Unite breath with movement during yoga practice. Unite mantra with focus during meditation.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali explains yoga as:
Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodha.
Let’s translate this: Yoga - Unite, Chitta - Mind, Vritti - Wave, Nirodha - Removal. And we get: Removal of the waves in the mind or Yoga is a still mind.
For example, when you face conflict or anger, an unstable mind can disturb your inner peace. You lose yoga when you react to external factors. The moment you react to something outside, you give up your power to an external force. Yogis learn to respond, not react. Nobody can change your mental state unless you give them control to do so.
Disturbance can also come from within. It’s common to have an inner critic. This critic complains, compares, and focuses on negativity. Even if this critic never goes away, the problem arises when you identify with the critic and believe them. They might say, “You’re not good enough,” or “You’re not loved,” and we identify with these messages, creating disturbances in our minds.
The good news is that yoga offers a whole arsenal of practices to overcome these disturbances.