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The Yoga
Path
by
Valerie Burke, RN, MSN
I
arrived at my first yoga class clueless about yoga but looking good in
my recently purchased
cotton yoga pants and Birkenstocks. I guess
I thought I needed to look like Gandhi. I forced my body to bend into
pretzel-like forms, ignoring its wails of protest as well as the admonishments
from the teacher to “listen to your body”! My “no pain,
no gain” philosophy was basically my approach to everything. For
weeks, I dreaded every yoga class until I finally found a convenient
excuse to quit. That was twenty years ago. Now I practice yoga daily.
I share this experience with you in hopes that it might save you from
injury or disillusionment.
Yoga is not just an exercise routine requiring one to bend the body into
all sorts of new positions. The postures, or asanas, are only one aspect
of the eight-fold yoga path.
Yoga is a form of meditation as it demands your full presence, your complete
participation in the Now. Like other spiritual undertakings, you must
be ready for it, if it is to be beneficial. Yoga demands you let go of
competition, with others and with yourself.
Yoga was codified by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras between 500 and 2000
BC, although the practice of yoga preceded that by another few thousand
years. The Yoga Sutras are succinct lessons on the nature of the human
condition and how we can reach our highest potential. There is nothing
in this ancient text that contradicts the precepts of any religion; yoga
actually complements any spiritual path.
There is only one prerequisite for yoga. You must be open to spiritual
growth and willing to take action on your own behalf. Your body, your
breath, your mind, and your actions are being refined in the “laboratory” that
is the yoga mat. As you learn on the mat, you can extend out those lessons
to the rest of your life. Yoga provides a type of life roadmap, but the
journey is more important than the destination.
One of the important principles of Yoga is ahimsa, meaning nonviolence.
For some, ahimsa is first experienced on a yoga mat in relation to how
one takes the body through yoga poses. If you struggle and force the
body into these positions, you run the risk of injury. But if you practice
ahimsa, the body is honored wherever it is in that moment, stretching
only to a gentle edge, short of inflicting pain. No competition, no comparisons,
no heroics. Simply allowing What Is.
The benefits of yoga are many. Aches and pains gradually disappear. Immunity
strengthens. Sleep and energy improve. Depression lifts, blood pressure
lowers. Organs and glands function better, and people even heal faster.
Most yoga students feel more grounded and centered in their lives. They
feel more compassion for themselves and others.
Yoga is a path through the spiritual wilderness that has been walked
for nearly 5,000 years. It offers us a new way to BE in the world, a
new way of moving, a new way of responding to daily challenges. Yoga
is a journey inward that brings us back to the essence of our true selves.
Click
here to view a few basic standing yoga poses by Val's yoga instructor,
Sage Hopkins.
 Valerie
Burke is a freelance writer and clay artist in Union, Washington.
She is an RN and has a Master’s Degree in Psychiatric / Mental
Health Nursing from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. After twenty
years of practice as a nurse, she decided to turn her life in a different
and more creative direction with sculpture and writing. She lives
in a house overlooking Hood Canal with her husband Jon and 5 kitties.
She has a health blog called Panther
Speak and is a Reiki Master.
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Click on link below
to
view small
individual videos featuring yoga
poses by
Mariel
Hemingway
and
Rodney Yee
10
Video
Yoga Poses
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