A Humble Reflection: What Does Yoga Mean To You?

Millions of people do yoga now. Millions? Yes, according to a study in 2012, in the US alone, there are 20.4 million people practicing yoga these days. Not to mention those in its original country, India. Or, in Asian countries where it is recently booming.

Yoga means much for its lovers. From its physical reasons, to its trending hype and all the way to its spiritual benefits. I would like to think that from what ever angle we are coming to yoga is just fine, for a start. One may prefer a solitude practice in yoga, the others may like a more communal based yoga classes. Still, each and every individual tastes its benefits personally. Most of the time, these benefits cannot be described perfectly in words, but you can just feel them. As a long time yoga practitioner, I feel those benefits beyond words. Occasionally, I even avoided to explain what they were and tried to minimize my logical justification. Although the effects are obvious, I always wish to simply enjoy what yoga IS in every moment and not thinking about it much. 

From time to time, however, it is tempting to compare our yoga practices and then express critic about how other people practice. Forgetting the ground fact that yoga could have various meanings for every single person. Much like the function of thesaurus in dictionaries. One word could have many meanings and many words could also be connected to one. All has their own contexts, depending on the situations.

So, I’d suppose, to criticize how people value or practice their yoga is actually to criticize and diminish the rich meanings of yoga itself.

And, please take this one very gently (I know, I would!): to criticize how people value or practice their yoga might also portray our insecurity issues. Uh oh. Yup. Isn't it interesting to see how most things in life work paradoxically? :-)

Now, to celebrate the one thing and the many things we have taken in from yoga, Karmarati People have answered to a simple quiz recently: “What does yoga mean to you?”.

Happy to share with you the inputs from our loving friends here...

Peace. (Amanda)

Going inward and acceptance. (Jane)

Pulang & berhenti membandingkan. (Nanette)

Being flexible! (Liza)

Finding myself. (Liliana)

Endurance. (Tiara)

Healing, finding peace and finding true-self. (Anne)

Reborn and purifying. (Katta)

Peaceful. (Rina)

Journey to true self, purify, knowing, acceptance. (Imed)

Relax and recharge. (Dya)

My favorite excape! (Shanti)

Mind blowing discovery of oneself. (Nandinne)

Thank you, Yoga! You have brought so much to all of us. 

We would hope to remain grateful and humble as yoga continuously shares its rich benefits.

Abundant joy.

Om Shanti.