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WHY PRACTICE YOGA ?

For many people, the body and mind are at war and the mind has very definite ideas about the body. The practice of Yoga trains the mind to let go of its preconceptions and discover the deep underlying harmony between the body and the mind. The art of Yoga is both a philosophy and a science for developing a healthy body and mind and becomes a poetic expression of our inner most self.

We have been told that the rational mind is the only worthwhile mind. And that what does not appeal to the rational mind is worthless. Yet there is something instinctive in our nature, crying out to expand. We have to re-learn what is instinctual as we are not sensitive to what is natural in us. When we practice Hatha Yoga (physical practice) we reestablished a relationship between the instinctive and the intellectual.

The asanas (postures) when properly practiced promote the full and natural range of movement, improved breathing, efficient functioning of the internal organs, balance of the nervous systems and an optimistic state of health and well being. The practice of asanas creates a meditative state of mind and from there comes a firmness of mind, firmness of emotion and a firmness of life. However something else emerges: the sense that while this is a very desirable state of affairs, there is more. We begin to get a glimpse of an aspect of self beyond the physical, mental and emotional parts of ourselves, a glimpse of the truth about this entity called “self”.

May we all be like the lotus flower, at home in the muddy waters.

THE YOGA LOFT
21228 Ventura Blvd.
Woodland Hills, California 91364


Email: yogaloftla@gmail.com

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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