A Relationship with Yoga To Master the Art for a Lifetime

""When you hear the word “Yoga”, it’s likely that words like stretching, exercise, practice, flexibility, bending, and twisting come to mind. That’s because the primary association that most Westerners have with yoga has to do with the “on the mat” or physical aspects of the practice of yoga or “Hatha Yoga”.

There are also several other forms of yoga that emphasize different ways of fulfilling the essential purpose of yoga (which we’ll get to in a minute), including:

Jnana Yoga: The path of knowledge, wisdom contemplation and introspection and quiet reflection.

Bhakti Yoga: The path of devotion, emotion, compassion and service to God

Karma Yoga: The path of action, mindfulness, and service to others

Raja Yoga: The path of meditation and practices that promote the transcendence of thoughts and mental constructs.

You probably didn’t log on to this website to read about yoga, but trust me, there’s a connection between the subject at hand, and the theme of this blog, and that, in fact, is the point of this post, and the point of Yoga: Connection.

The word “yoga” is a derivation of the Sanskrit term “yui” that means ‘yoke” and refers to the bar that encircles the necks of two oxen or other draft animals, creating a union between them that enables them to work together to plow a field or pull a cart. The intention of the practice of Yoga is to promote and support the joining or integration of individual and divine consciousness.

You may be beginning to see the connection between yoga and relationships at this point, particularly the part about being bound by a harness around the neck, but seriously, when you think about it, there really are some strong parallels between these two concepts. In fact, if you examine the underlying intention of the practices of Yoga and relationship, it quickly becomes apparent that they are very much in alignment with each other. “Relationship Yoga” can be seen as another equally viable path towards the realization of our full potential as human beings.

While this may sound more than a little grandiose, anyone who has experienced the full measure of what committed partnerships can provide, knows that such a claim is not hyperbolic or exaggerated, but is well within the realm of possibility. And like Hatha Yoga, which offers liberation from a restricted and inflexible body, relationship yoga can free us from the limits that are inherent in a life in which there is insufficient connection and mutuality of support in our lives.

And as in other yoga practices, the path to freedom does require effort, commitment, and perseverance, particularly at those times in which feelings of discouragement and pessimism can at times be present. The impulse to quit or opt out can be very compelling, so much so, that just hanging in there can itself be a formidable challenge. Relationship yoga requires us to stretch into our partner’s world, and to persevere in the face of discouragement, frustration and even pain. It demands that we commit to doing our best without pushing too hard or without losing ourselves in the process. It requires a level of self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and self-trust, that can only come through experience, practice, and dedication.""

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stronger-the-broken-places/201502/mastering-the-art-relationship-yoga

2015 Yoga: A Discipline that has Exploded in the Last 50 Years

As the new year begins, millions of Americans will start off 2015 in pursuit of some resolution, whether it’s quitting smoking, landing a better job, or getting in shape for warmer weather. Many will likely turn to some form of yoga, a discipline that has exploded across the country in the last few decades. Yoga not only increases strength and flexibility, it has been shown to improve outcomes for people with everything from arthritis to asthma. Now, a pioneering study by a researcher at UConn’s Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) has shed new light on why people start practicing yoga, and what makes them likely to stick with it over the long haul. The results suggest that it’s less about fitness, and more about faith.

The paper, published last summer in the Journal of Health Psychology, grew out of the personal experience of Crystal Park, the study’s lead author. A professor of psychology who has extensively studied the role of spiritual belief in the psychological reactions of people to high-stress situations, Park has also practiced yoga for more than 10 years, and over that time she became interested in examining why people are drawn to the practice. The scientific literature clearly showed that there were health benefits to yoga, but no one had studied why people do it.

To help answer that question, Park enlisted the help of Dechen Zezulka, the owner of Mystic Yoga Shala, the studio where Park practices. With Zezulka’s help, the research team conducted a nationwide survey of more than 500 yoga practitioners, including both students and teachers, to try and tease out what brought people into a yoga studio for the first time, and what kept them coming back. The results of the study listed the primary reasons to start a practice as flexibility and getting into shape, a list Zezulka says echoes her experience as an instructor, with the vast majority of first-time students hoping to recover from an injury, or just looking to develop the “yoga body.” But for many, that interest shifts over time.

“In the beginning, you are doing yoga,” Zezulka says. “Eventually, the yoga starts doing you. People come in for a superficial reason, [but] they start to become aware of what’s going on in their minds. That’s what keeps them coming back.” Zezulka’s intuition was borne out by the results of the study, where participants reported precisely the same sort of shift.

More than 60 percent of the study’s participants reported that their primary motivation for practicing yoga had changed over time, and a change was more likely to have taken place for people who had been practicing longer. While most people reported starting yoga for purely physical reasons, the primary motivations for long-term practitioners were not just about the body. Participants listed stress relief, a sense of community, and self-discovery among the reasons they kept coming to yoga, with “spirituality” as the most common answer.

That shift, from yoga as exercise to yoga as spiritual practice was familiar to Park through her own experience. “I started taking yoga at the gym for fitness reasons,” says Park, “solely for exercise. But I slowly found my way to the spiritual side.” This shift was particularly pronounced among yoga teachers, with more than 85 percent reporting that their motivations had shifted since their introduction to yoga, and nearly half claiming a spiritual component as their primary reason for continuing.

Read More:

http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2015/01/from-resolution-to-ritual-why-people-start-and-stick-with-yoga/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+uconn-today+%28UConn+Today%29