"What was I looking for that night in Bombay? The same thing I had been looking for as long as I can remember.

The same thing all of us seek in one way or another. The “answer” to life, whatever that might mean. The “truth.”

The reason for living, dying, or being “here” at all.” - Beryl Bender Birch

The practice of yoga came to the west back in 1893 when one of India’s celebrated gurus, Swami Vivekananda, was welcomed at the World Fair in Chicago. He is now known for having sparked the West’s interest in yoga.

Literally, the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit term Yug, which means: “to yoke, bind, join, or direct one’s attention”. At the same time, yoga can also imply concepts such as fusion, union, and discipline. The sacred scriptures of Hinduism (an ancient belief system from India that has a global presence) also defines yoga as “unitive discipline”; the kind of discipline that, according to experts George Feuerstein and Stephan Bodian in their book Living Yoga, leads to inner and outer union, harmony and joy.

In essence, yoga is most commonly understood as conscious living; of tapping into one’s inner potential for happiness (what Sanskrit refers to as ananda).

What Yoga Is Not

Sometimes it’s helpful to understand things by what they aren’t; especially when dealing with a topic, like Yoga, that is quite easily misunderstood. Authors and yoga scholars Feuerstein and Bodian help us understand yoga by telling us what it is NOT:  Yoga is NOT calisthenics (marked by the headstand, the lotus posture or some pretzel-like pose).

While it is true that yoga involves many postures – especially in hatha yoga – these are only intended to make people get in touch with their inner feelings.  Yoga is NOT a system of meditation – or a religion – the way many people are misled to believe. Meditation is only part of the whole process of bringing ourselves into the realm of the spiritual.

The Essence of Yoga

Virtually all yogic science and philosophy states that a human being is but a fragment of an enormous universe, and when this human being learns to “communion” with this vastness, then he/she attains union with something that is bigger than him/her. This attachment or tapping into something bigger thus enables one to walk the true path of happiness. By flowing along with the force, the individual is able to discover truth. And with truth comes realization; but to attain realization, our words, thoughts and deeds must be based on truth. People attend courses on yoga and go to studios to learn new techniques in yoga, but yoga teacher Tim Miller said that “true yoga begins when [you] leave the studio; it’s all about being awake and being mindful of your actions".

Yoga does not see a distinction between the body and the mind; and this is an understanding that western psychology has also concluded for many years now (the link between mental health and physical health, and vice versa).

Yoga is indeed a process that involves releasing blocked tension and energy in the body, and helping make the muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and all other components work to their utmost potential. Yoga believes that human beings are optimally designed, by nature, to be flexible and agile; and stiffness and lack of mobility only arrive when the body is unhealthy or out of alignment. Therefore, countless people have found themselves in a yoga class, or on a yoga mat at home in front of a Yoga video or DVD, in the hopes of improving their physical health; and perhaps you may be one of them. If that’s the case, then keep reading!

There are proven physical benefits of yoga, which include:

Increased flexibility and range of motion

Reduced pain in joints and muscles

Stronger immune system

Stronger lung capacity and therefore higher quality respiration

Increased metabolism (which can lead to weight loss!) 

Higher quality of sleep (especially due to improved breathing and a more oxygenated body)

Given that certain yoga practices require postures to be mastered, yoga has always helped promote the body’s flexibility; it also helps in lubricating the joints, ligaments and tendons. Yoga detoxifies by increasing the flow of blood to various parts of the body. It helps tone and invigorate muscles that have grown flaccid and weak. So please do keep in mind that, while yoga is often discussed in terms of its mental approach, there are clear and proven physical benefits that are a part of this approach.

Therefore, if weight loss is your goal, or the ability to shovel the snow in winter without having your back ache for days, then yoga is as viable an option to you as it is for the stressed-out corporate executive who needs to find a strategy for coping with the craziness if her busy life!

“Yoga is thus just not twisting the body to perform certain asanas or postures but balancing the mind and body, making it more receptive to the universal life force pouring from the Supreme Self. Hence, be truthful, do your duty and love all, along with a few asanas daily to keep yourself on the path of evolution.” Meena Om, in Yoga – Beyond the Body and Mind.

Yoga itself is not religious in the sense that it focuses on faith or belief. Yoga is a science; and indeed, in many places in the world (such as India), it is referred to as a science. This is not mere playing with words; it truly is approached as a science, which means that it is understood in terms of the scientific method. Yogic science seeks to verify cause and effect, and build principles based upon objective observations.

This discussion on yoga as science is important for us to have here, because it allows us to sensibly ask the question: what are the benefits of yoga?

Yet yoga is a science; as empirical and pragmatic as kinesiology, or exercise science, which seeks to understand how the body acts and reacts to changes in the internal physical environment. And even more simply than any of this: each of us has a right to ask the basic question why should I bother doing this yoga thing? before we should be asked to consider experiencing it for ourselves.

Benefits of Yoga

Yoga through meditation works remarkably to achieve harmony and helps the mind work in synchronization with the body. How often do we find that we are unable to perform our activities properly and in a satisfying manner because of the confusions and conflicts in our mind weigh down heavily upon us? Stress is the number one suspect affecting all parts of our physical, endocrinal and emotional system. And with the help of yoga these things can be corrected. At the physical level, yoga and its cleansing practices have proven to be extremely effective for various disorders.

Listed below are just some of the benefits of yoga that you can get:

1. Yoga is known to increase flexibility; yoga has postures that trigger the different joints of the body.

Including those joints that are not acted upon with regular exercises routines.

2. Yoga also increases the lubrication of joints, ligaments and tendons. The well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body. It has also been found that the body which may have started doing yoga being a rigid one may experience a quite remarkable flexibility in the end on those parts of the body which have not been consciously worked upon.

3. Yoga also massages all organs of the body. Yoga is perhaps the only exercise that can work on your internal organs in a thorough manner, including those that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime.

4. Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder. One of the far reaching benefits of yoga is the uncanny sense of awareness that it develops in the practitioner of an impending health disorder or infection. This in turn enables the person to take pre-emptive corrective action.

5. Yoga offers a complete detoxification of the body. It gently stretches the muscles and joints as we massage the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny of your body as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.

6. Yoga is also an excellent way to tone your muscles. Muscles which have been flaccid and weak are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess fats and flaccidity.

But these enormous physical benefits are just a “side effect” of this powerful practice. What yoga does is harmonize the mind with the body and these result in real quantum benefits. It is now an open secret that the will of the mind has enabled people to achieve extraordinary physical feats, which proves beyond doubt the mind and body connection. In fact yoga = meditation, because both work together in achieving the common goal of unity of mind, body and spirit which can lead to an experience of eternal bliss that you can only feel through yoga.

The meditative practices through yoga help in achieving an emotional balance through detachment. This in turn creates a remarkable calmness and a positive outlook, which also has tremendous benefits on the physical health of the body.