Yoga: How to find your style and approach

To understand for myself what yoga is, I decided to ask people what they understand about it. I asked people who practice yoga and who heard something about yoga, about 50 and 50 percent.

Results:

– It is a system of knowledge about the inner human world and the universe.
– Path of knowledge and self-development, self-growth, self-knowledge.
– Teaching about soul.
– Exercises for health.
– Helps to relax stress, anxiety, and fatigue.
– System of knowledge that helps to harmonize the inner world and surroundings.
– Exercises in fitness for health.
– Exercises that help to reach goals.
– Love for God, Creator.
– System that will allow determining the relation between self and the external world.
– System of exercises that helps to find out about yourself and inner emotional experiences.

By talking with people, I saw that they talk about such word-understanding as God, Creator, Universe.

Everybody understands yoga on his own, but when a good master (teacher) guides us deep inside, we start to change from inside and step by step get closer to our divine nature (divine self).

I also came to yoga because doctors recommended yoga for health, but thanks to my instructors-teachers, I started to do yoga fundamentally, not only externally by form, just doing exercises on the mat. Now yoga for me – it is a system of self-knowledge and self-growth and striving to harmonize relationships with people and the surrounding world, understanding the universe as unity without borders and immeasurable, and finding your place in this universe. It is the path of accepting (mostly very problematic) and understanding self as serving people. It is sharing important knowledge about goodness and mercy, compassion and love to all beings. It is a way to work with your own mistakes and ignorance. Furthermore, it is possible to meet with your fears face-to-face.

Most modern yoga schools bring down yoga to primitive physical exercises by pointing to full relaxation or training only the body, without remembering the spiritual aspect. How did it happen that now most of the bright advertisements in all cities invite you, with the help of yoga, to take care of your body and get healthy, and only rarely do ads offer to “find a way to yourself”? Unfortunately, we live in an era of consumerism, that’s why widely represented things are easy to sell. It means yoga for health, which helps to remove stress relax. But it is only one of the reasons.

Another reason is economy. By modern marketing in our cities, there should be a lot of everything – a lot of advertisement, a lot of shopping centers, a lot of entertainment, and a lot of yoga styles. Various styles in this – it is the only way of advertising in a situation of huge competition and fighting to survive under the sun. Yoga becomes a market brand, for which important, beautiful banners, expensive mats, and prestigious practice halls. Spirituality goes to the second plan.

But not everything is so sad. Every one of us has our individual qualities. We have different temperaments, health situations, and life circumstances. Every one of us will choose classes for himself. For some it will be an important accent on yoga therapy, for some practice with deep relaxation. Young and healthy, strong people with strong backs can experience powerful and dynamic practices in schools of Ashtanga-Vinyasa yoga Power yoga. Yoga for pregnant women, soft practice for women – huge variety of classes and schools, every school has its own methods.

New styles are emerging also because of indifference. Indifferent, adequate, and good teachers that understand what’s happening in our society. Every practice created by huge work and polishing many years before “curing” certain “diseases of society.” In our Kali-Yuga age, for example, only one meditation is not enough to awaken our spiritual nature. Only by singing mantras it’s hard to motivate humans to have good relationships with surrounding people. The more styles will be creating in world, the more possibilities there will be to bring knowledge to people. One school will not bring that knowledge to people, another teacher will.

Style is not the most important. In my small research I became happy: people possibly don’t know what yoga is in full understanding of this world. Yes, now all movie stars do yoga, there are a lot of pictures on the internet with beautiful asanas a lot of advertisements for clubs that invite us to do yoga for a beautiful and fit body. But people with whom I was talking, they were talking about Soul, about God-Creator, about the highest Divine Power, about creation inside us, about power that supports us if we try to live correctly, fairly, with goodness, treating people honestly not only with others, but also with ourselves, but it is hardest.

What does it talk about? That yoga inside us, it lives in our heart, in our soul. We have the possibility to pull out our knowledge to the surface, and it doesn’t matter what style we choose. If we stand on the way of spiritual self-knowledge, we will be guided to the right path. It’s tested on myself. When I came to yoga, I didn’t even know where I came from and what kind of style it is. Yoga, and that’s all. But I was doing practice. Changed many yoga studios until I found what I was looking for very long time (thanks to the Gods).

Dear friends, so keep searching, don’t stop even for a minute. If we honestly go on this Path, then Higher powers will help us.

E. Gerasenko