You don’t need a fancy gym membership or even equipment to begin yoga. All you need is a firm commitment to begin your day in a healthy way. You can do yoga anywhere―on a yoga mat, a durrie, a thin mattress or whatever else that you can lay your hands on at home. Alternatively, choose God’s playground and do it on a patch of green grass out in the open. If you are a beginner to yoga, try and join a class so that an instructor can guide you through the asanas and you learn the right breathing technique that is taught with it.
Age-old Wisdom
Ayurveda recommends ‘early to bed and early to rise’. You should be up at least one hour before sunrise, perhaps at 5 am. It’s peaceful at this time and you can embark on your yoga routine without any interruptions, phone calls or emails.
Once you learn yoga, you can do it at home by yourself. You just need a small place anywhere in the house for that. The best is to wake up early and start before other people are up in the house. The advantage is that you can finish by 6 am and then have enough time to get ready for work, peacefully.
Eight Limbs Of Patanjali’s Yoga
The true yogi follows the eight-limbed path listed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In brief, the eight limbs, or steps to yoga, are as follows: 1) Yama: Universal morality 2) Niyama: Personal observances 3) Asanas: Body postures 4) Pranayama: Breathing exercises, and control of prana 5) Pratyahara: Control of the senses 6) Dharana: Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness 7) Dhyana: Devotion, Meditation on the Divine 8) Samadhi: Union with the Divine.
Patanjali’s eight-limbed path forms the structural framework for yoga practice. No one point is more important than the other. Each is part of a holistic focus which brings completeness to the individual as they finally connect with the Divine. Apart from the asanas, a true yogi leads his life peacefully, believing in nonviolence and will harm no one, animal or human.
Yogi Cameron, a yoga guru in America, who had his yoga training in Coimbatore has written a comprehensive guide to follow Patanjali’s eight-limbed path of yoga. In The One Plan, Yogi Cameron lays out a fifty-two-week programme based on Patanjali’s teachings as well as the ancient medical system of Ayurveda. He sticks to the wisdom laid out in the ancient text, but adapts it to a modern context.
Health, Balance, Purpose
As a practical guide for improving your life, The One Plan lists exercises and regimens for an effective daily routine, tips and reminders for becoming grounded in that routine, with real-life stories and practical tools to resolve life’s struggles and setbacks. The book even has a section on eating the Ayurveda way. By following this plan, you will find health, balance, and purpose. Your commitment to Yogi Cameron’s ‘One Plan’ may last 52 weeks, but the changes will last a lifetime.
Asana and Pranayama
For most of us, yoga means asana and pranayama. If just these two parts of yoga make such a big difference to your life, can you imagine what will happen when you follow all eight parts? As Yogi Cameron says in his book, “You might have picked up this book to clear your skin of blemishes or to improve your relationships…. After you read the One Plan, you will achieve all this and more. You will have found your purpose.”
It is said that for the Americans ‘Yog’ is just physical exercises which keep one fit and healthy. Even for many of us it is just some asanas and postures.
But to be healthy in the mind, and spirit and body we need not only physical exercises but a deep understanding of our mind .
Even if we begin with asanas we get benefit and we realise Yog is more than just physical. It is a whole way of living a fruitful life .