What is yoga ?

The word ‘yoga’ has been attached to many forms in the last few years – there’s Hot Yoga, Boxing Yoga, Rave Yoga, Power Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Ashtanga, Iyengar, all sorts. It can be very confusing to understand what yoga really is, especially when there are so many classes to choose from.

So what is it?

Yoga is a science. Simply put, it is the science of how to live well. It is the science of how to be happy and peaceful. Most of us lead very stressful lives, especially in London. We have to go to work, take care of the family, maintain friendships, pay the bills, eat well, the list goes on. All of this is very stressful – yoga helps you to detach from your everyday stress and the chatter in your mind.

Mind & Physical Body

As humans we function mainly through our Mind Body and Physical Body – we use our five sense to interact with the world. We are led by our thoughts and physical desires.

Yoga will help you connect to the life energy within you, which goes beyond mind and body. You will start to see that your interaction with the world becomes less about pleasing the senses and you will become less affected by external situations. Through yoga, you start to turn inward. Your stress levels will go down, and your bliss factor will go up.

Hatha Yoga is not an exercise. Understanding the mechanics of the body, creating a certain atmosphere, and then using body postures to drive your energy in specific directions is what Hatha Yoga or Yogasanas are about. “Asana” means a “posture.” A posture which allows you to reach your higher nature is a “Yogasana”.

There are other dimensions to this, but to put it in the simplest way, just by observing the way someone is sitting, you can almost know what is happening within them. If you have observed yourself, when you are angry, you sit one way; if you are happy, you sit another way; if you are depressed, you sit another way.

For every different level of consciousness or mental and emotional situation that you go through, your body naturally tends to assume certain postures. The converse of this is the Science of Asanas. If you consciously move your body into different postures, you can elevate your consciousness and change the way you feel.

Energy Body

The driving force in life is the Energy Body. It is what keeps us alive. It is this energy which keeps us breathing. Yoga means to be in synch with the life energy.

In yoga they say there are three different layers of the body, the physical body, the mental body and the energy body.

The energy body is made up of 72,000 nadis. Nadi literally means a pathway or channel in which the prana moves. Prana means the basic life energy. That path is known as nadi. These 72,000 nadis are springing form 3 basic nadis. These three basic nadis are referred to as Ida, Pingala and Sushumna.

Ida and Pingala are also referred to as masculine and feminine, not in terms of gender, but in terms of certain qualities in nature. Pingala represents the logical part of the mind and ida the intuitive part of the mind. You may be a man but if the Ida is more pronounced in you, you will be more intuitive by nature. You may be a woman, but if Pingala is more pronounced you will be of a logical nature. In yoga, Ida and Pingala are represented by the sun and moon.

The whole science of hatha yoga is about bringing balance to the sun and moon within which is the Ida and the Pingala. The sun is the symbolism for masculine and the moon the feminine.
In modern education systems the feminine has been repressed, we are a purely logical based education system. There is no room for intuitive perception. This is one reason why societies are going through so much stress. We have enhanced the logical and destroyed the intuitive. If you want to explore inner dimensions, intuitive becomes as important as logical.

We want to bring balance to the Ida and Pingala so that we can direct the energies towards Sushumna. Sushumna is the most significant aspect of the human physiology. Once the energies enter Sushumna, no matter what happens around you, you have a certain balance, you inner way of being has nothing to do with the outside. To make this happen, it is very important that we bring balance between Ida and Pingala. This can be achieved by practicing authentic forms of yoga.

Yoga Logic brings you the various forms of yoga in order to take you this journey of bringing balance to your system leading to health, inner peace and complete wellbeing.
We offer you various yoga practices designed to take you on this journey in a step by step fashion incorporating different dimensions of yoga – Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Nada Yoga.