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In this day and age of New Age philosophies and globalization of cultures, the practice of yoga has become a very commonplace thing in our society. Yoga is also just as widely misunderstood by\u00a0 those who have never looked into it\u2014or looked at it in the right perspective! What is the truth about yoga?<\/p>\n
First of all, a small history lesson. Yoga means, in the ancient language of Sanskrit, \u201cto yoke together\u201d or \u201cto join together.\u201d The things being yoked in this idea are the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga has been around for five thousand years, based on the evidence at hand. It is a system of physical and mental exercise, originally conceived of in the Indian sub-continent. It is actually a key component in many Eastern and Indian philosophies, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, but it is not, in itself, a religion, since it developed long before either faith. It is based on a series of poses, many of which bear unusual and interesting names, such as \u201cdownward dog\u201d and \u201cwarrior pose\u201d; many millions of people use it to gain greater strength, agility, flexibility, and even to lose weight. There are a multitude of health benefits to be had by practicing yoga, as well as a lot of positives in the spiritual and mental arena. There is a lot of evidence to support that yoga can help improve blood pressure, migraines, lose weight, reduce back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome, and much more. Pregnant women can benefit greatly from incorporating a modified yoga routine into their lifestyle, as it can help them remain serene, fit, and focused.<\/p>\n
Before you cry \u201cNew Age,\u201d understand that the precepts of yoga are completely in line with Biblical Christianity. Classical yoga is based on eight precepts:<\/p>\n
1. Yama,<\/strong> or \u201crestraint\u201d in your behavior, refraining from extreme behaviors, violence, lying, casual sex, etc.<\/p>\n 2. Niyama<\/strong>, or \u201cobservance\u201d in your attitudes: purity, being mindful, studying, tolerance, and contentment.<\/p>\n 3. Asana,<\/strong> which is the physical exercise portion of yoga; the poses are called \u201casanas,\u201d and it is believed that exercising and disciplining the body leads to greater spiritual, mental and emotional control, too.<\/p>\n 4. Pranayama,<\/strong> which are breathing techniques. These techniques have been incorporated in meditation, fitness, and even labor programs. It is a proven fact that proper breathing can improve the mental attitude and emotional state, as well as calm or excite the body.<\/p>\n 5. Pratyahara,<\/strong> which is a preparatory regimen for meditation, and is summed up as, \u201cwithdrawal of the mind from the senses\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Dharana,<\/strong> or \u201cconcentration,\u201d meaning that the yoga practitioner can focus on one thing, improving mental and physical discipline.<\/p>\n 7. Dhyana,<\/strong> or \u201cmeditation,\u201d which is the ability to concentrate on a specific thing\u00a0 (or nothing at all) for a specific time period, often an extended time.<\/p>\n 8. Samadhi,<\/strong> or \u201cabsorption,\u201d which indicates self-knowledge and self-comprehension,\u00a0 grasping the essential nature of yourself as a person.<\/p>\n Modern yoga as we know it usually concentrates on the 3rd<\/sup>, 4th<\/sup>, 5th <\/sup>and 7th<\/sup> steps.<\/p>\n As you can see, there is nothing inherently wrong or blasphemous about the precepts of yoga. God instructs us to discipline and train our bodies and minds, to meditate upon His goodness, to still our minds, bodies and emotions and seek His guidance.\u00a0 Since yoga is not a religious system, it can be viewed as a framework, upon which whatever philosophies or beliefs someone has can be hung. There are many Christians who practice yoga and feel it not only benefits their physical bodies, but it also improves their relationships with themselves and with God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this day and age of New Age philosophies and globalization of cultures, the practice of yoga has become a very commonplace thing in our society. Yoga is also just as widely misunderstood by\u00a0 those who have never looked into it\u2014or looked at it in the right perspective! What is the truth about yoga? First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[22,21,10,7,39],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yoga","tag-absorption","tag-concentration","tag-meditation-2","tag-meditation-tips","tag-yoga","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therippleeffectlife.com\/Mastering-Your-Life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}