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Why Do Yoga?  by Garrett Sarley (Dinabandhu)
According to a study by Yoga Journal, nearly 20 million Americans
practice yoga. If you are among these 20 million, you know that yoga
makes
you feel better—its effects are almost immediate—but you may not know
why.
And if you haven’t yet joined the yoga revolution, read on to discover
just
how beneficial this simple age-old practice can be. When practiced
regularly, yoga reliably increases our sense of physical health,
emotional
well-being, mental clarity, and spiritual connection.
Breath Is the Key
The key to gaining the full benefit of your yoga session is to
make
sure you breathe deeply, fully, and in coordination with the movements
of
your limbs. Combining yoga postures with the breath benefits you at the
core
level of physical functioning: cellular metabolism. This is because the
yogic breath delivers increased oxygen to your cells while the
movements and
holding of postures improves circulation, removing waste materials that
impair efficiency.
In addition to improving the metabolic exchange that each cell
depends
on for optimal functioning, the muscular stretching and rhythmic
pressure
caused by the breath have a profound impact on the detoxifying
mechanisms of
the body, including the lymph system, kidneys, lungs, skin, and
elimination
components of the digestive system. This explains the feeling of
freshness
after yoga and the light or clarity you see in people’s faces following
a
class.
Cleansing the Bioemotional Self
Each of the upper six chakras (the subtle energy centers of the
body)
is associated with an endocrine gland. These glands have long been
known for
their role in producing the hormones that control basic body functions.
The
recent revolution in eurobiology is the discovery that the physical
and
emotional bodies are directly regulated by a complex balance of these
hormones and other chemicals that are also produced in the glands,
including
neurotransmitters (i.e., serotonin). Small changes in these chemicals
have a
significant impact—our emotional world is heavily dependent on how well
our
endocrine system is functioning, i.e., our hormone and neurotransmitter
levels. Because yoga specifically tones the endocrine system, when we
practice regularly we experience mood enhancement and an overall
feeling of
well-being.
Each time you take a yogic breath while in a posture, you do two
things: you increase blood flow and pressure on one part of the body
and you
decrease it on another. Think of how you would go about cleaning a
dirty
sponge. Don’t you hold it under the water and then repetitively squeeze
it
in and out? This is precisely what happens to all tissues in the body
during
yoga, especially the endocrine glands. This massaging, flushing, and
cleansing action stimulates endocrine functions to more optimal levels.
Anyone who practices yoga regularly can verify that this process is
actually
tangible, and that increasing levels of confidence and a more positive
mental outlook are natural results.
Undoing Stress
Cortisol and adrenalin are hormones that are released in the body
as a
result of stress. Sustained high levels of these “stress hormones”
destroy
healthy muscle and bone; slow down healing and normal cell
regeneration;
co-opt biochemicals needed to make other vital hormones; impair
digestion,
metabolism, and mental function; interfere with healthy endocrine
function;
and weaken the immune system. Sustained levels can eventually lead to a
host
of serious metabolic disorders, from hypertension to cardiac disease.
The
good news? Yoga reduces cortisol and adrenalin levels in the body by
returning it to a physically stress-free state, making it less
susceptible
to illness and more prone to resiliency and vitality.
Muscular and Cardiovascular Health
As a result of the practice of yoga, your entire muscular system
becomes stronger and more elastic, and thus less susceptible to injury.
Standing and balancing postures strengthen and lengthen the big muscle
groups and floor postures strengthen the muscles that support the spine
and
head. Flowing from one posture to the next with attention also
increases
coordination of the musculoskeletal system as a whole. You move more
safely
and easily and feel more at home in your own body. Finally, the heart,
as
the largest involuntary muscle of the body, greatly benefits from yogic
breathing practices and from the relaxation experienced in the muscles
during yoga, allowing the whole cardiopulmonary system to reset to a
healthier rhythm.
In addition, whenever your head is lower than your heart—in
postures
like standing forward bend, Downward Dog, and headstands and shoulder
stands—your whole circulatory system gets a rest. The walls of every
fluid-containing tube in your body gain a reprieve from the constant
fight
against gravity. Inversion postures also specifically target the
thyroid and
pituitary glands, sometimes referred to as the “master glands” because
of
their role in regulating metabolism and health.
Mind-Body Unity
Neurobiologists have been studying the interaction between the
body
and the mind, and their findings show what yogis have been saying for
thousands of years: functionally, the body and mind are inextricably
bound
together. The mind is a subtle body and the body is a gross mind. You
can
think of it like fingers in a glove; when you move your fingers, the
glove
moves; if you move the glove, your fingers must move also. This insight
is
the basis for the revolution in psychiatry over the last two decades
and the
reason why the standard treatment for mental disorders now consists of
tinkering with the organic blood chemistry system rather than the
psychological and emotional constructs; more often than not, when you
go to
the psychiatrist, you get a prescription, instead of a dialogue. This
interweaving of body and mind also helps to explain yoga’s
effectiveness.
Integrated Functioning
While yoga works from the inside out to improve our emotional and
mental state by affecting the organic biology that conditions mood, it
also
works from the outside in. When you practice yoga properly, you create
the
conditions for becoming absorbed in the moment. The breath, the
movement,
the concentration, the flow, the conscious relaxation—all of these
together
create the possibility of entering a very powerful realm, the moment of
integrated functioning. Integrated functioning occurs when what you
think,
what you feel, what you say, and what you do are all the same and
aligned.
We all experience thinking one thing, feeling another, saying a third,
and
then doing something else. Mostly, we are not integrated.The good news is that it is highly likely that you will
experience
moments of integration during a yoga practice session. The focus on the
breath, coordinated movement, and deep relaxation of yoga practice
specifically pulls strongly toward integrated functioning. When you
fall
into an integrated state at some point in your practice, you’ll notice
that
your entire neurobiological system resets, with fairly dramatic
results.
People report sudden clarity about how to move forward in a challenging
situation in daily life, and spontaneous physical and emotional
healings
occur.My own story convinced me of this early on. In one of the first
yoga
classes that I ever took, I fell into a state of deep relaxation. When
I
came out of it, the bronchial asthma that had plagued me for my entire
life
had disappeared, never to return. This also helps explain why yoga is
so
effective with weight loss, even when the actual calories expended in
the
yoga practice do not account for it. Moments of integrated functioning
bring
you back to your natural self. Repeated familiarity with your natural
self
works against those stresses and habits of feeling and thinking that
underpin control of diet and lifestyle choices. Though it may seem
counterintuitive that a set of physical movements and breathing
techniques
can have an emotional effect, the regular practice of yoga postures
will
bring you more happiness, confidence, and mental sharpness, and these
traits
will continue to increase as you continue to practice.
A State of Union
Yoga is often referred to as a spiritual discipline, and endless
numbers of people report an enrichment in their inner life as a result
of
this practice—but how can a process of merely breathing and stretching
your
body generate a spiritual experience? As we’ve seen, yoga acts as an
integrative practice on all levels of the organism. The word yoga comes
from
the Sanskrit word “yuj,” which means “yoke,” as in binding a team of
oxen
together. Thus, yoga means “union” or “yoking together.” On the most
superficial level, it balances and integrates the body. You may have
noticed
that the left and right sides of your body are not the same, nor is the top
half of the body balanced with the bottom half. One half is stronger,
better
coordinated, injury-free, etc. Yoga practice works on erasing these
imbalances by stretching and strengthening each half equally.
Just as with our physical bodies, our emotional bodies can be out
of
balance, uneven, turbulent. You are probably more comfortable with
certain
emotions more than with others—and not only the so-called “positive”
ones.
We often live with parts of ourselves separated off into compartments,
yielding an experience of not feeling “at home” with ourselves; we feel
split and conflicted much of the time. Yoga practice can interrupt
these
patterns of unintegrated functioning and reliably substitute
experiences of
natural, integrated movement and being—the experience of flow and deep
relaxation. We start to reclaim parts of ourselves that before were
left to
exist in the shadows of our personality structures, draining energy,
confidence, and flow from us as we tried to make our way through life.
Connection to the Whole
Still, how does balancing the halves of the body and integrating
those
lost parts of our inner self generate a spiritual experience? The core
component of a spiritual experience is the awareness of being part of a
unified whole. Religious and spiritual traditions describe this
experience
differently, but the common theme is always one of awareness of and
connection to a larger whole.
Every time you practice yoga, you have the chance to reclaim part
of
yourself that you don’t always have easy access to. It might be
physical,
mental, or emotional, but the process of integration is quickened by
yoga
practice. When you regularly participate in this flow of integration,
you
automatically sync up with the larger rhythm, like when a pendulum is
placed
next to another pendulum. After a while, both swing in the same
cadence.
Yoga practice aims to reset our physical, mental, and emotional rhythms
to
their natural state. We experience this resonance as a spiritual
experience,
and drinking often from the fountain of yoga practice can make this
available to you more and more often. The inner life of the soul
becomes as
familiar, real, and tangible as our body, thoughts, or feelings, and
with
this awareness our life becomes deeply enriched.
Anyone Can Do It
The most wonderful thing about yoga is that virtually anyone can
practice it—people who are young and healthy and people in their 80s as
well
as those confined to wheelchairs. I once worked with a woman who had
had
both legs amputated, and I know a Kripalu Yoga teacher who teaches yoga
to
people three days after they have open-heart surgery. Don’t be
intimidated
by the exotic bends and twists you sometimes see adept practitioners
putting
their bodies in. There is a yoga practice that is right for your body
and
stage in life, and regular practice will bring you all the benefits
yoga has
to offer.
Garrett Sarley (Dinabandhu) has been a leader in the field of
spirituality and human development for more than 30 years.
Kripalu’s
Chief
Executive Officer, his passion is applying the principles of integrated
functioning—the foundation of yoga—toward organizational growth and
vitality. Garrett is coauthor, with his wife, Ila, of Walking Yoga and
The
Essentials of Yoga.
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