Perhaps you just want to learn to meditate, to calm and focus your mind. How does unending bliss sound?
Honestly, that is the ultimate goal of yoga. To direct the mind to the divine source of all life, that which connects us, however you define it. This is a paraphrased quote from T. Krishnamacharya 1888-1989, often referred to as “the father of modern yoga” and TKV Desikachar’s father:
“Control the breath, focus the mind, and direct it into the heart, the source of unending bliss, which constantly calls from within.”
Unending bliss sounds good, right?
Yoga practice begins to control the movement of the mind by controlling and connecting the more outer, easier to access breath and body movement, what we know to be a yoga asana practice or the postures. We begin to bring awareness and attention of the mind to the body by connecting the movement of the breath and respiratory musculature to the movement of the spine to the movement of the limbs. From there, we can move toward sitting still, breathing more consciously and calming and focussing the mind with more ease.
From my experience, going from daily activity directly to sitting still in meditation is an abrupt transition. My legs and back may not be ready to sit still upright comfortably, let alone expecting that my mind will quiet and focus at my command. If, however, I practice a brief movement (asana) and breath (pranayama) practice first, my body stretched and stimulated, my breath having brought my autonomic nervous system into a more balanced state, I can drop into meditation with much more ease.
Although simple, sitting still and listening for inner wisdom is by no means easy. Yoga is an ancient practice that guides you there step by step, understanding your humanity, allowing for any spiritual or religious beliefs or lack thereof, giving you a variety of tools that lead you to connect to the best version of you and allowing that to shine brighter after every practice.
You CAN do this. If you can breathe, you can practice yoga. How can 10 minutes a day change your life? Let’s talk.