01 Feb How do you Yoga?
I guess you’ve heard that you ‘should’ practice yoga at the beginning of the day, when the sun is rising. That might work for you but let’s rewind a little.
Yoga has variety, it is a vast catch basin of connectivity. It is wide and low and teaches us not only to be strong and passionate but also humble and soft. It helps us to remain flexible and enhances how we contact our inner abiding as well as our family and friends. Yoga is informing, it can carry us through turbulent times and become a mainstay of hope, direction and wonder. Yoga does not want to control you, it wants you to dance wildly on your mat, moving to your inner rhythms and tunes, diving deep into introversion and expanding out again as rhythms change.
The ‘how’ of yoga determines what you will practice. What parts of Yoga are you drawn to you? What interests you? There are many styles of yoga these days – too many to go through here, but you might like to feel into your area of interest when reading about the following four ways to practice.
Each has the same source and the same destination – just different strokes for different folks:
Raja Yoga – the physical movement practices and/or meditation;
Bhakti Yoga – Mantra/Pray/Chanting – the devotional form of practice;
Karma Yoga – the yoga of service – volunteering, serving others;
Jnana Yoga – listening to/reading the philosophical texts of yoga.
We know yoga has many benefits and just as many ways to practice. The good news here is the physical practice is not the only route in. It could be mantra meditation, it might be studying the Yoga Sutras, it could begin with observing how you interact in the world with others and with yourself.
Practice time is anytime! You decide when. If routine works well for you, do that. In these modern times, practicing at a specific time can be helpful, a centering point to come back to, checking in, seeing where we are at, helping us return to centre is helpful in the hurdy gurdy of modern living.
Morning times can indeed be sacred. I don’t rush most mornings, I wake early so I can be easeful at the beginning of my day, slow coffee, meditation, journalling, letting spaciousness meet me.
How do you practice your yoga?