Fons, yoga is for women! They Ohm with incense sticks and have sound meditation in a circle. They don’t even eat steaks! They chant!
That is not for me. Yoga is not a sport. I like cross fit, boxing and cycling.
Good for you. Continue to do what you feels good for you.
But if you like to have a life with less stress, a bit less on your mind and like to feel better in your body, you may want to have a look at yoga.
The key purpose of yoga is the quieting of the fluctuations of the mind. In simple Dutch: have the piano in your head play a bit slower . Quieting your piano.
In yoga we aim to slow down the mind and getting a grip on our thoughts and emotions. Becoming a better person for yourself and others.
But Fons, I see always those yogis in poses like they want to get themselves into a moving box. Why is that? This is just one out of the 8 phases in yoga to get your piano playing slower. Just a way to get your body into a physically better stay allowing you to sit still for longer time for you to quite down.
These 8 stages are:
1. Yama : focusing on our behaviour in relation to others
2. Niyama: focusing on our relation with ourself: discipline
3. Asana: the postures, the yoga poses, the physical part
4. Pranayama: breath control
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of outside stimuli
6. Dharana: concentration
7. Dhyana : meditation the uninterrupted flow of concentration.
8. Samadhi: be bliss, be one with all around you
A lot of fluffy words . But for me as a VP managing Asia, it helped me to reduce the stress levels I had to deal with in my work. It helped me to only really care for things that really mattered . It helped me to really bother what was worth to be bothered. It made me a better person, they tell me.
At the BASTA Acedemy I will guide you through a few yoga exercises to get a flavour of what yoga really is. See you.
BASTA,
Fons