What Is Yoga?

More than a physical practice

Yoga is an ancient tradition whose roots reach back thousands of years in India.

Today, the word yoga is often associated with physical postures, flexibility and movement. Yet asana—the physical practice—is only one expression of a much broader philosophical and spiritual tradition.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, commonly translated as “to yoke,” “to join” or “to unite.” At its deepest level, yoga explores the relationship between body, breath, mind and consciousness, inviting us towards greater awareness of ourselves and our connection with life.

Yoga is therefore not simply something we practise on a mat.

It is a path of self-exploration.

Through physical postures (asana), conscious breathing (pranayama), meditation, ethical principles, self-study and contemplative practices, yoga offers different ways of quieting the fluctuations of the mind and turning our attention inward.

Different yogic traditions have expressed the ultimate purpose of this journey in different ways: self-realisation, liberation, freedom from suffering, union, or recognition of our true nature.

Although these ideas are deeply spiritual, yoga does not require adherence to a particular religion or belief system. Its practices can be approached at many different levels. One person may come to yoga through movement, another through meditation, philosophy, breathwork or simply the desire to live with greater awareness.

Over time, the practice can begin to extend beyond the mat.

How consciously we breathe.
How we respond rather than react.
How we treat ourselves.
How we treat other living beings.
How present we are in our relationships.
How we move through the world.

All of this can become yoga.

For me, this is one of the most beautiful aspects of the practice: yoga does not ask us to become someone else. It invites us to look more deeply at who we already are.

The journey is ultimately an individual one. Each person arrives with a different body, history, experience and understanding, and each person’s relationship with yoga will unfold differently.

There is no need to be flexible.
There is no need to be spiritual.
There is no need to already understand yoga.

You simply begin.

And perhaps, somewhere along the way, the practice becomes less about learning how to perform yoga and more about learning how to live it.