what is yoga?

first of all i would like to share that september is national yoga awareness month. and to celebrate many studios around the country are giving away a free week of yoga classes. you can request your coupon up until 09/30/09 by going to: http://www.yogamonth.org/

now on to the question that has been plaguing my mind for the last two months:

what is yoga?

it also happens to be the first question that yoga works has asked me to answer and hand in on the first day of training on saturday.

i find myself torn on how to approach this question. my first instinct is to answer as simply as the question was asked: yoga is the practice of unifying the body, mind and spirit which is done through practicing a series of postures, along with breathing, and meditation.

on the other, i feel the urge to expound on what yoga means as a philosophy or what it means to me as an individual.

on this same note i have been thinking more and more about yoga as a subculture and what is expected of you once you begin practicing yoga. i have been inundated with questions/assumptions about what it means to be a yogi. such thoughts i've run into for example: all yogis are vegetarians (which i currently am not), or needing to buy my yoga clothes from an expensive store (which let's face it, while their stuff is nice - how does spending $80 on a yoga top bring you any closer to enlightenment? i am perfectly happy practicing in my $12 champion top from target, thank you very much!), or the ever popular assessment that all yogis are contortionists just waiting to show off their skills the moment someone asks.

after being presented time and time again with assumptions on what it means to be a yogi, i found myself taking comfort in something written in the yoga sutras of patanjali - sri swami satchidananda writes "if there is something useful for you in his words, take it and make use of it. if there is anything not useful, leave it." yoga is not meant to be limiting, but rather freeing. while, there are a lot of preconceived notions regarding the practicing of yoga - the only one that matters is the student who comes to their mat sincerely ready to practice.

xxx