Mindfulness and Meditation

How I worked out how simple it could be.

Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash

First, a personal history. A few years ago I had both the time and the opportunity to study yoga for a year. In that 12 months I immersed myself in yoga philosophy and took yoga classes 4 times a week.

Say yoga these days and it conjures up images that one of my yoga instructors used to refer to as the sexy pretzels. You know the type I mean; lean and supple (usually female ) bodies in the most preposterous and impossible postures.

This was not that.

Writings on yoga philosophy date back to pre-Christian times and the asana practices centuries before that. Going into it I didn’t realise how complete and holistic they were intended to be.

There were 8 principles or what was later to be known as the 8 limbs of yoga.

1. Yama: your integrity in the world; nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, non-greed.
2. Niyama: your personal integrity; cleanliness, contentment, self-discipline, surrender, absence of the ego.
3. Asana: the physical practices, the postures, which were intended to prepare the body for meditation. The only real “alignment” cues given were that the posture should be steady and comfortable.
4. Pranayama: breath control and breathing techniques, because…