Chakras and Koshas are two very widely used terms in the popular yoga world. Everybody is talking and writing about them. Yet the information we find online is usually confusing or non-practical. Let me clarify some aspects of Chakras and Koshas and explain how they relate to each other.
You need to answer two questions honestly to know if you are ready to begin yoga:
1. Can you breathe?
2. Do you want more from life and yourself?
If you answer these two questions ‘yes’, then you are ready to begin yoga. There are no other prerequisites.
Eastern and western thought traditions have very different understandings of consciousness. The answer both traditions would give to the question ‘where is the consciousness?’ is also quite distinct. The difference between the answers portrays their particular ways of tackling questions about consciousness.
I have been working on embracing my moon cycles after years of heavy cramps. Then I read about this idea of looking forward to my next period. That idea made me realize that I still had so much to do until I genuinely embrace my bleeding.
Many people who had never practiced yoga or very new to yoga are confused about what yoga is.
Is hatha yoga a sport or a spiritual practice?
The short answer is, yoga is a spiritual practice. But why is there such confusion?
Nadis are energy channels, the pathways that our life force energy travels. Yoga calls our life force energy as Prana. Just like the blood circulation, Prana travels in our body along certain pathways.
Feeling content with who you are and how your life is going, is a deep, strong desire. Ironically, oftentimes we are afraid of feeling content.
I started yoga for a healthier, more mobile body. I know a lot of experienced yogins and yoga teachers who started that way. For many people, yoga begins as something they do a few times a week and quickly becomes something they adopt as a lifestyle.
I started practicing yoga because I wanted to do more with my body. I wanted more mobility, more muscular strength, more control over my body. It was such a pleasant surprise to see that the yoga practices also involved focus on the breath and the mind. When I started practicing yoga years ago, I had no idea how powerful and all-encompassing yoga is.