June 2006

Its all Yoga Shmoga!

By Kelly Mercer

“Kelly mercer created yoga shmoga to introduce women to the holistic side of a yogic lifestyle”

Yoga seems to be everywhere at the moment: over 1.5 million Canadians practice one form of yoga or another, and although the volume of people is large, few people actually know what it is. Put simply, Yoga means “Union” and is derived from the Sanskrit word yuj – which means “to join”. Spiritually, it’s to join the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness – the Yin and Yang, the Shiva and Shakti, the male and female energy, both energies which reside within our own being. On a more "everyday" level, Yoga is a way of balancing and harmonizing the body, mind and emotions.

Contrary to popular belief, Yoga is not just a form of exercise, but a non-dualistic philosophy, a way of life that influences every part of your day and every molecule of your being. Although Yoga is not a religion, both Buddhism and Hinduism both have roots in this ancient philosophy which dates to over 5000 years old. It is important to be aware that Yoga, in its essence, may be practiced in conjunction with any religion, or no religion at all!

The commonly known physical aspect of Yoga, Asana is one very small aspect of the practice as a whole. Asana is a way of reorganizing and balancing out the densest energy in our bodies – the physical bones and muscles – by releasing unwanted, blocked energy and optimizing health. This allows us the opportunity to sit for longer periods of time in meditation – to calm, witness, and clear the mind – which eventually leads us to unity with the universal consciousness. In conjunction with the practice of Asana, we start working to balance and reorganize the more subtle energies of the body by using the breath (Pranayama), gestures (Mudras), locking energy in specific areas (Bhandas), and internal purification (Shatkarmas).

From the physical body, Yogic awareness then moves on to the mental and emotional bodies, and this is where yoga becomes a way of life: a way to cope, view and appreciate the highs and lows of everyday life. Purifying and harmonizing the mental and emotional bodies happens in two main ways: The first being in our inner world - meditation, and the other being in our outer world – everyday conduct.

Become a witness to your life. In order to know how to purify and balance the mental and emotional bodies, we must first be able to acknowledge what is causing the stress and imbalance. Meditative yoga techniques help give us the awareness of our mental processes and give us a way to step back and “witness” our mental and emotional patterns while we are sitting on our mat during practice. It is when we take these techniques of awareness and witnessing into the outside world that we really start to change and direct our lives towards living in tune with the Universe, rather than going against it. Incorporating these techniques and aspects into living a Yogic lifestyle, whether embracing it fully or employing aspects here and there, cannot be intellectually understood. Instead, it requires the acquisition of a body of living knowledge that one can only achieve through first-hand experience. Through living in this state of awareness, we are able to change the path that this world is on from one of malice to one of self-acceptance, acceptance of others and compassion for all.

One truth – many paths… North America, in the last 20 years, has been introduced to many of the different styles of Yoga including Classical Hatha, Ashtanga, Kundalini, Kripalu, Bikram, Moksha, and more recently, Power Yoga and Yin Yoga. It has been said that variety is the spice of life, which I believe to be true, but what needs to be kept in mind is that the different yoga styles are all different ways of eventually getting to the same place: Samadhi – oneness with the universal conscious. When choosing a style of yoga, we need to keep in mind that not every style of yoga is going to be beneficial to everyone. Many factors need to be taken into consideration including one's physical make up, nervous system and general health and stress levels. What might feel great in the moment will sometimes leave you exhausted and too drained to recover from in time to continue with your daily life. Sometimes this exhaustion is more subtle and is not at the forefront of our awareness and if not detected can eventually lead to illness, so it's good to keep in mind that ‘more’ is not always ‘better’.

While randomly trying out different styles of yoga is a fantastic way to sample the buffet, if your intention is to use Yoga as a way to bring balance and harmony into your life then it is important to choose a style of yoga from a place of self-awareness and education. To help you do that, Pura Luna Lifestyles has created a workshop series to do just that. Taking 6 women at a time, over 6 x 2.5 hour sessions, we investigate the different aspects of Yoga through each of the bodies, and learn how to bring this knowledge and self awareness into our everyday lives, giving you the environment and foundation to go within and shine throughout.

* Please note these reviews are written by individuals, and in no way reflects the view of Yoga in Canada.