Montana Yoga Project

as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the eight limbs of Yoga practice are:

•yama – self-control…our attitudes towards the world around us. (I call it my “default” setting… to get angry and frustrated easily, through my yoga practice I have been able to change my “default” to being more at peace, less stressed, a sort of ‘go with the flow attitude’ – I have been challenged by cell phone issues lately, but so far… I haven’t ‘blown my top’!)

•niyama – discipline, personal commitment (well, doing a 100 day Yoga challenge has certainly taught me about discipline)

•asana – this word literally means “seat”. An asana is a posture in Hatha Yoga

•pranayama – control of the breath (I used to HATE starting each class with a breathing exercise. I wanted to get right to it!… c’mon… let’s do some YOGA… well, guess what? Pranayama IS Yoga… oh. ok. got it!)

•pratyahara - sense withdrawl (I’m not sure yet wht this means to me, but I’m guessing it has something to do with “trying to kill myself” as Bikram puts it)

•dharana – concentration (this is the part of the physical practice where students are told to “look at yourself in the mirror and don’t even blink your eyes”…it sounds absurd  but some of the more difficult, balancing postures are MUCH easier if you can do that)

•dhyana – meditation (see my definition and blog about meditation)

•samadhi – deep concentration, liberation from the physical body (we’ll get to THAT later)

simply defined, Hatha Yoga is Physical Yoga… the kind most americans think of when we consider this practice…(exercise Yoga)

Christy Turlington in her book Living Yoga gives this definition:

‘forceful’ yoga, the aim of which is to combine physical postures and breathing so as to unite the opposing energies of the body.

Namaste

What does that mean…?  When someone says Namaste.  I used to think  it meant “thank-you”, but it means so much more that that.  Technically… Namaste is a combination of two Sanskrit  words namah and te, meaning “I bow (reverentially) to you.”

I once read somewhere that Namaste meant…”the Buddha (or God) in me recognizes the Buddha in you”.  I like that better, and over the years, my own interpretation and use of the word Namaste means, simply… “I SEE you”.  I acknowledge you.  You are me, and I am you, and we are both God”.  That is why I always sign my journal, or blog entries with ‘Namaste, Nic’.  It is my way of acknowledging that my readers are just like me, in every way, just as much filled with the essence of God as any other being in the universe, and I thank you, acknowledge you… Recognize YOU.

Namaste, Nic.