AWARENESS YOGA

Yoga is an ancient science that, according to records, dates back to around 1800 B.C.

Yoga means "to yoke." We are "yoking" our mind with our body with our soul. We are already a complete person, though sometimes we try to think our way through life, ignore our true feelings, or "whip" our bodies into shape.

The goal of yoga is to awaken our awareness to the thoughts, emotions and physical discomforts so that we can heal them. We can transform and heal our limitations and penetrate our psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual blocks so that we may live in health, happiness and peace. The goal is to move energy stuck in the body as tension, and allow for the letting go of suppressed emotions.

Yoga therapy sessions combine breathing, movement, postures, deep relaxation and meditations for mental clarity and control. Especially important is learning how to channel energy (direct it), rather than suppressing it or expressing it in harmful directions, which may lead to a host of medical and psychiatric illnesses such as depression, fatigue, addictions, anxiety, hypertension, insomnia, cardiovascular disease and more.

The ongoing experience is the continual awakening of our whole Self.

When the soul is the center of our attention, and we are creating from that center, then yoga psychology says we are experiencing the Self: We are aligned with our core reality and our central purpose.

When we are off center, i.e., focused on something outside ourselves as a source of fulfillment, an empty feeling is created, which our projected, commotional ego tries to fill. The actions that are created from this displaced center are like waves of emotions that come back to us. We call these commotions "behavioral health issues." We can be aware that we are off our true center when these manifest. We actually experience being "off balance."

Self improvement begins with insight into ourselves to realize the underlying imbalance. Yoga and meditation are examples of two methods that have been practiced for centuries and have a great deal of current and ongoing clinical data. Once we can realize that we are off our center, tools such as yoga and/or meditation can help re-establish the experience or our Self - our center.

By Rami Katz

THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA