Everytime I bring up exercise in a conversation, Yoga always seems to pop up one way or another. I've always wanted to do Yoga, but I just "haven't gotten around to it yet," I guess you could say. I hear it's one of the best things you could do for your body and it can drastically help reduce stress. With school, work, homework and extra curricular activities to juggle, I'm thinking Yoga may just do the trick!
For those of you who are interested, here's some background information about the exercise:
Yoga first originated in India and was primarily a source of Hindu philosophy. Many use Yoga as a form of alternative medicine which focuses on relaxation and meditation; those who practice the activity are dubbed yogi, yogin (masculine) and yogini (feminine) [<-- I love the sound of that!]. There are many ancient Hindu scriptures that outline the basis of Yoga: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and several others. Since the 'Bhagavad Gita' was written (somewhere between 500 and 50 BCE), Yoga has been categorized under 4 main classes: Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. The word 'Yoga' itself comes from the Proto - Indo - European word 'yugam' which means to "join" or "unite." Some of the effects of Yoga are said to include stress reduction, circulation and flexibility. Pretty cool, eh?
So why is Yoga so popular then? My guess is because almost all diseases are stress-related; therefore, practicing Yoga may prevent sickenesses and help heal one spiritually and, in the long run, physically. One of the things I love about this idea is the fact that its a type of relaxation therapy that doesn't involve prescription drugs. Most of the time I hesistate to take prescription drugs, mainy because someone once told me that they "fix one thing but hurt another." I'm not 100% sure about how true this is, but I don't want to take any chances!
Are you a regular yogin/yogini?
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