Partner left after 9 years - eclipses coming up!

[Dawn of Hope]

Hi, Ali,
I haven't been around much lately, but I'm just now catching up and wanted to reply to your response to my last message, about yoga, in your previous thread...

Hey Dawn, thanks for your blessings! You sound much better yourself and I am so glad. I really enjoyed it and thanks for the description! I might sign up for a 2nd class a week, it was that good! The website says they do - asana, pranayama and dhyana, which is just general yoga I guess?

Thanks, and I'm so glad to hear that you are enjoying the practice! I made the jump to yoga from gymnastics; yoga is a lot more than just stretching, I came to realize...I got hooked after my first yoga class, because I was so peaceful driving home that even people cutting me off in traffic didn't bother me a bit! That was when I knew yoga was for me, and it has given me a lot over the years.

Yoga means "to unite" and has, as its underlying goal, to bring a person's mind, body, and spirit (soul) into harmony with each other and ultimately with the rest of the universe. A lofty goal, which explains why there are so many approaches! Yoga encompasses a lot of things that most Westerners don't think of as yoga per se, such as nonviolence, adhering to certain dietary principles, kindness.... It is a much more universal and intricate system/concept than most non-practitioners realize, and goes far beyond just the bendy-like-Gumby aspect. However, people are perfectly free to take advantage of the aspects of it that are useful to them, and leave the rest.

Asana means poses (stretches/positions)--in other words, the twist-yourself-into-a-pretzel stuff that most people think of as yoga.

Pranayama is breath work. Breath is a very important element in yoga. It helps you focus properly, and can be used to change your energy and your mindset. (I use aspects of this to help me sleep better, to concentrate at need, to calm myself, and to reach beyond my previous limits, among other things. Yes, it really is powerful if you know how to use it!)

Dhyana is a term I wasn't familiar with, but I looked it up, and it refers to a particular type of meditation, and the term is roughly equivalent to the Japanese word "zen."

So that is your lesson for today, class...there will be a quiz later.

Hope you are doing well today, Ali!

Peace,
Dawn