Hatha Yoga: Unraveling the Mystery
by Cindy Gray on January 14th, 2009
Loading ...It seems like whenever I turn on the TV, I see something with yoga in it. From sit-coms to car advertisements, even a beer commercial, everywhere you turn, people are talking about yoga. For the first time since the 70′s, yoga is experiencing a resurgence of interest. Is West meeting East, or are the baby boomers trying yet another trend to slow the pace of their hectic lives? Anyone who knows yoga will tell you it’s no trend. The practice of yoga has a deeply rooted scientific basis, and it’s been around for over three thousand years. Yoga has stayed the test of time, and for one simple reason: yoga works.
People ask, what is yoga? Hatha Yoga is the physical aspect of yoga, a school of Indian philosophy that as a whole, aspires to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Yoga is like a ladder of self-development with hatha yoga being the first step on that ladder. The other steps are far too detailed for this writing, but they include karma yoga, the yoga of action; jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge; and bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. The practice of hatha yoga is not a religion, nor does it ever compromise a person’s belief system. So when the yoga word namaste (nah-mah-stay) is spoken, it simply means, the Divine in me bows to the Divine in you. The word yoga literally means union, from the Sanskrit word yuj, to unite. “Ha” represents the sun, and “tha” represents the moon. Hatha yoga means literally, union of the sun and moon; or symbolically, the union of right and left; of male and female; and of yin and yang–or the opposites of nature.
So why is hatha yoga so good for you? The ancient yogi’s believed that to achieve a highly developed inner-self, they first had to perfect their outer-selves. So hatha yoga was developed to unite the body with the mind and spirit. This union is achieved by using the breath in a different way called pranayama, or deep diaphragmatic breathing, stemming from the center, the solar plexus, much like in martial arts. Combining deep breathing with deep stretching increases flexibility, improves posture and skeletal alignment, improves circulation and helps flush toxins from the body, and it improves balance, coordination and concentration. Yoga promotes a deep sense of relaxation and encourages a sense of calmness and well-being. Yoga relaxes and energizes the entire person, inside and out, all at the same time.
It seems like the 70′s and the national interest in yoga was such a long time ago, but the need for balance and well-being has remained unchanged. Perhaps a three thousand year old body-mind-spirit science is just what the doctor ordered….Namaste!
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