YOGA:
A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO FITNESS AND LIVING
TO YOUR FULL POTENTIAL
By Susan Marshall
“Yoga “ means “union of mind, emotions, body and spirit” in Sanskrit and is a system of physical exercises and meditation which date back at least 8,000 years. The purpose of Yoga is to accelerate our path to enlightenment—a state of blissful being in which we are living our full potential and have mastered life on earth.
The Yogi’s view us as spiritual energy beings intimately connected to and collectively a part of the Universal Spirit. According to the Yogic philosophy, in a continual quest for deeper self-knowledge, the Universal Spirit periodically cycles between being whole and splitting into many sparks of itself. When it is in a cycle of splitting into many sparks, these sparks become individual spirits (or souls). The mission of each human spirit is two-fold—(1) to know itself as intimately as possible which evolves the spirit to its highest level on earth and (2) to help others in their soul development. Since we are all connected, the enlightenment of a single spirit is meaningless without the enlightenment of the whole of Universal Spirit.
In accomplishing this two-fold mission, we play a hide-and-seek game. First we lose our recognition of the beautiful spiritual beings that we are by choosing childhoods filled with distortions. One of the main distortions is the “illusion of separateness”-- that because we live in separate human bodies that we are not connected to one another. This causes a profound existential and painful loneliness. When we are ready to emerge from this painful separateness, we then begin our search within and commence seeing through the distortions to the beautiful, perfect beings that we are, and that we are all very intimately and lovingly connected to one another. Our two-fold mission then becomes apparent and our consciousness of our quest for enlightenment greatly accelerates the process.
In Yoga, we humans (maybe extraterrestrials are the same as us?) have three bodies—physical, emotional, and mental. These are tools of the spirit used for soul evolvement. Yoga accelerates soul evolvement in two ways—it brings each of the three bodies to its most evolved level of health, and it integrates each of the three bodies with one another AND with the spirit so we can eventually live as pure spiritual beings. Yoga works on the physical body to tone muscles, lubricate joints, increase flexibility, massage viscera, dissipate stress, increase life-force energy (prana) and stamina, and keep all body systems working optimally. To withstand the stress of accelerated growth and soul evolvement, we definitely need a body full of vitality that will support our endeavors.
The emotional body is also evolved in Yoga. Negative emotions which are intimately related to illness such as anger, depression, and jealousy are gradually replaced by joy, peace, trust, and unconditional love. It never fails to amaze me how my emotional state can be transformed with an hour of Yoga practice. The mental body is evolved by Yoga in that it becomes clear and focused, devoid of clutter and confusion. Productivity can be observed to increase dramatically over time since a clear focused mind can handle an increased number and variety of tasks without burning out.
Yoga meditation, which is any “focused awareness”, trains the body to completely relax, the emotions to be calm, and the mind to be focused. Yoga trains us in active meditation by teaching full concentration on our Yoga practice, and in passive meditation by teaching how to take “mini-vacations” from our earthly concerns.
Yoga is truly a holistic method for health and fitness whose benefits can be experienced as growth-producing over time. If you are ready to experience a high level of health and joy, as well as greatly accelerate your growth and spiritual development, Yoga may be for you!