What Does ‘Yoga’ Actually Mean?
Understanding the meaning of yoga can help you integrate its message into your life, and as a result, you can live with more ease and compassion - for yourself and for the world around you.
The Definition of Yoga
Yoga - a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation. —Oxford Dictionary
The word yoga signifies the connection between your mind and your body.
To practice yoga is to practice revealing the union of mind and body. This can be done through different ways, including movement, breathing, and focusing your attention.
Feeling Disconnected Without Yoga
We often receive messages that emphasize the opposite of yoga.
Think about why you might feel disconnected.
The opposite of yoga is setting aside your emotions to reach a particular goal, for example. This creates a disconnection between your mind and your body. Between you and what your feelings are saying.
Other examples of disconnection are avoiding your feelings through addictions, like excessive drinking or television, ignoring needs for self-care, or extensive isolation from those that care about you.
You need connection.
Your emotions are your internal compass, or intuition, to help guide your choices in life.
When you become disconnected from yourself, it makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to have a genuine connection with those around you.
And the less you understand yourself, the less you’ll be able to understand other people.
The greater your disconnection with yourself, the deeper your feelings of isolation will become.
You might not have explored personal feelings with your colleagues, or friends, or family. You might consider, as a way to step into closer connection, what brings joy into their lives, what makes them sad, what was their childhood like and how does it influence them, or what their dreams for the future are? Do you know these things about yourself?
Yoga Helps You Understand Yourself
Practicing yoga puts you in touch with your inner world - your thoughts, feelings, judgements, and perceptions.
It is important to know yourself better.
The reason it is important to cultivate yoga, or an understanding of your mind-body connection, is because in knowing yourself better, you are able to have a deeper connection to yourself and the world around you.
This connection is vital to your health, both physically and mentally, as well as those around you.
You Can Experience Yoga
There are different ways to practice yoga.
Physically-focused yoga.
One popular way is by going to a yoga class at a nearby studio, and moving through asanas - the physical expressions of yoga. Studios often offer various styles of yoga asana. These include vinyasa, restorative, yin, or hatha. Each of these styles offer different benefits, and the best way to find what works best for you is to experiment.
Mentally-focused yoga.
Another way to practice yoga is meditation, where you sit still and observe your thinking patterns. There are many different styles of meditation as well, and many are accessible through guided lessons in apps and online. All in all, there are eight ways to practice yoga, and they are known as the eight limbs of yoga.
Whichever way you choose, they all lead to the same place - awareness of mind-body union.