~ July Teaching Schedule ~

Yoga Wellness with Joanna at the
41st Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority National Convention
 

 

In the West, we consider “yoga” to be a physical practice where we move our body, stretch, strengthen, and balance. However, this is only a fraction of the full practice of yoga. One eighth, actually. The Yoga Sutras, written by a man named Patanjali over 2,000 years ago, is considered to be one of yoga’s most sacred texts. Patanjali lays out an eightfold path to attaining a higher state of consciousness, one in which the practitioner learns to still the craziness of the mind. This path is yoga.
 

Asana is the practice of physical postures. It's the most commonly known aspect of yoga for those unfamiliar with the other seven limbs of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. 
 
The practice of moving the body into a variety of postures has widespread benefits; of these the most underlying are improved health, strength, balance and flexibility. The practice of asana, which means "staying" or "abiding" in Sanskrit, is a tool to calm the mind and move into the inner essence of being.
 
The challenge of poses offers the practitioner the opportunity to explore and control all aspects of their emotions, concentration, intent, faith, and unity between the physical and the ethereal body. Using asanas to challenge and open the physical body acts as a binding agent to bring one in harmony with all the unseen elements of their being, the forces that shape our lives through our responses to the physical world. Asana becomes a way of exploring our mental attitudes and strengthening our will as we learn to release and move into the state of grace that comes from creating balance between our material world and our spiritual experience.