Yoga - an inward journey
Yoga is for everyone, no matter your age, your body structure, your backgound...
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Yoga is about a balanced, centered, and stable state.
Yoga cultivates your awareness and acceptance, brings you clarity, peace and bliss.
Just stay open, and enjoy the purification and transformation on your yoga journey.
A Glimpse of the Yoga Practice in India -
International Day of Yoga 2025
Music: International Yoga Day - The Lyrical Lanterns
Is Yoga putting your leg behind the head?
When people know I practise yoga, they all ask if I can put my leg behind the head...
I guess this is how most people think of yoga, which is understandable (but sad). Because if you take a look at social media, most of the yoga pictures are people putting themselves in various advanced yoga poses, giving people a perception that you need to have a flexible body to practise yoga.
But yoga is not about flexibility, yoga is not about mastering advanced poses...
Yoga is about mastering the mind.
Yoga is a path to Self realization bringing us eternal bliss.
My body is too stiff
for yoga!
I know a lot of people don't dare to practise yoga because they are afraid they can't handle the yoga pose with their stiff body.
All I want to say is, yoga is not about fancy poses. A lot of simple poses can already give you lots of benefits.
Flexibility is not the most important element in yoga.
The followings are more important when we are on the mat:
1. Our breath
2. Awareness
3. Let go of the mind
4. Listen to the body
5. Acceptance
6. Surrender
Yoga is not about twisting your body here and there. Yoga pose (asana) is there to loosen the body and joints, to remove tension/blockages in the body and mind, to energize cells and tissues, to purify the emotions, so there is deeper and smoother breathing, and everything can flow more smoothly. So listen to the body during the practice. If the body allows, you stretch a little more. If the body says that is enough, then you stay there. Do not force. Do not go beyond what the body can comfortably handle.
Asana practice is a preparation for other deeper practices. There is so much to explore in yoga. Don't get attached to fancy poses or not bendy enough. There are always options to any yoga pose to cater for different body structure.
Why so many advanced poses in yoga?
Me: (puzzled🤔) Master, why are there so many difficult poses in yoga? Does one need to master all these advanced poses to taste the benefits of yoga?
Master: (smile😊) In Indian tradition, there are not that many poses. The practice of asana (yoga postures) is to prepare to body to sit comfortably for meditation. According to yoga sutra by Patanjali, asana should be steady and comfortable. The asana are to be done with steadiness and ease, without these two qualities it is not yoga.
But for a lot of other reasons people gradually develop many other poses. Don't get distracted, a lot of simple poses are good enough to give you the benefits. Remember it is not about how many inches more you can stretch, it is the way you approach your practice that counts. Never compete and compare on the mat. Always listen to your body.
Say, in seated forward bend, it doesn't matter whether you can touch your forehead to shin bone or not, what is more important is your awareness, breathing and connection.
Yoga is an inward journey, if you can surrender with complete acceptance, you are in a yogic state. It doesn't matter how much you can stretch, it's the state you are in that is important. Yoga is a state, it is not only about what you do on the mat, it is about every moment in life.
I am not able to meditate,
I have too many thoughts.
Many people thought sitting in meditation means one should have no thoughts. In fact, when one has no thoughts, he doesn't need to sit in meditation, he is naturally in a meditative state no matter what he is doing.
Meditation is simply staying aware and watchful to all happenings. We are the seer, watching the body and notice what is happening inside. We watch the breath, inhalation, exhalation, how inhalation is happening, how exhalation is happening. We watch the thoughts, watch how the thoughts arise, watch how it dissolves, watch how we are carried away by the thoughts, watch the moment we found ourselves got carried away, and watch how we come back to the breath again.
Accept whatever experience you have during meditation.
No judgement. No good or bad.
Simply be watchful.
