Yoga Off the Mat

Hello Everyone :)

This is my first blog and hopefully I do not make too many Blogging blunders:)

This is also your opportunity to ask me questions about what how to handle certain situations as a yogi. What direction might yoga suggest when at a cross roads or something as simple as which yoga mat is the best.

Sometimes after a class you may have a question about what I said or how we are running Red Lotus Yoga and this is our forum to answer those questions, voice your opinion and/or have a running debate about issues, ideas and more.

I hope to this blog will truly serve us all:)

A question I often get, mostly from people who don't practice yoga is, "I'm not flexible, I can't do yoga." Implying...why bother, I'm too (fill in the blank) to do yoga.

Actually, what they are saying is, "I'm too attached to my limitations to do something about changing them."

If that's the case, then yes, yoga isn't for them because it will ask them to change, grow and possibly, just possibly get happy or free from their limitations.

The first big mistake is thinking yoga is just a physical practice....like some form of East Asian jumping jacks. It's not.

Yoga is a mind/body practice where our intention is to reach our highest goals on a spiritual level. Meaning, yoga also brings in ethics, morality, meditation, poses, breath work and much more. I can't really summarize over 4,000 years of yoga in one blog, but needless to say, it's a deep well we are dipping into.

On the physical level, yes, yoga poses and practices can make you fit, trim, flexible and strong. But the poses, just by themselves, will not make us any happier. That comes from the seeds we plant in our actions, thoughts and words. Yogic text gives us extensive suggestions on how to eat, think and act in our world. These ideas have been time tested for thousands of years and guess what....they work. If they didn't they wouldn't still be around and still be so popular.

It's OK and good to get drawn into a yoga class for purely physical reasons. However, if you have a good teacher who is also a true student of yoga, you will walk away from the practice wiser, happier and healthier.

When we go to the gym, we typically walk out an hour later just being an hour older and closer to death. At the end of a yoga practice you should walk out an hour later, wiser and closer to your highest level of being.

If someone is inflexible, most often because of lack of movement, then getting some physical in might help. A lot of times that lack of movement is caused by a lack of motivation. Something we might hear in a class, by the teacher, might help motivate us to get more flexible somewhere else in our world, off the mat.

I am simply suggesting that the yoga practice can bring insight into the rest of our lives, rather than just the hour on the mat.

Please write back and feel free to post comments, questions and more.

Namaste'
Brian