Ashtanga Yoga - 8 Limbs of Yoga | Yoga Teacher Training | Anvita Dixit

Transcript

namaste in today's video we're going to understand the history and the significance of the practice of yoga and in what ways yoga can actually impact and help us to live a better lifestyle even today so let's take a trip down the pages of history and start to decode and understand what this practice of yoga is all about now archaeologically one of the first few evidences we have of yogic postures comes from harappan seals which seem to be depicting a person that's sitting in a posture that is similar to siddhasana or even bhadrasana and therefore we believe that probably yoga existed even around the harappan civilization its form may have been different and the way it was practiced could have been different from what we know it today but there seems to be an allegiance or some sort of a reference to these practices even around those times now at the harappan civilization period we don't have any literary evidence of yoga and the first sort of form of evidence that comes about is known as the patanjali's yog sutra several years later this document of patanjali helps us to understand the aim of yoga how yoga is to be practiced and what the end goal of yoga really is so let's understand this document patanjali wrote yogg sutras in sanskrit which consists of four chapters that explain the aim of yoga then lead us into a very detailed explanation of the practice and this is where our asana pranayama and all the more physical practices feature after which we understand what are some of the benefits of yogic practices now let's get to understanding what these practices are all about there are eight steps in yoga according to muni patanjali and let's look at what these eight different steps are the first step is called yammer and the second is known as niyama usually when we study these steps they always come together as elements of self-discipline and social discipline so when we study these before asana we start to understand that maybe there are some qualities we need to have even before we get on the mat and these actually are pretty universal qualities talking about discipline talking about how you need to really be consistent with your practice and constantly undertake self-study as with any other activity as we've often heard you need to put in 10 000 hours to master any activity or skill and sometimes the same applies with yoga and your yoga mat unless you have a determination a consistency and a passion for the practice you might only be able to reach a certain level so if you're trying to be serious then these two elements become really important just so you stay disciplined and come back to your mat every single day the third element where muni patanjali explains is known as asana and i think this is the most common one we've all seen it we've heard it we've experienced it and we've practiced it and what makes the asana so unique is that it really harnesses a circulatory system across your entire body and not only that it impacts pretty much every biological system present in your body and it's so beneficial therapeutically and even from preventive standpoint and therefore yolk is really used in the biological space it's also used as a physical science and is generally used as a tool that keeps you healthy safe and fit so this is the asana practice but what is the original definition of the word asan the word asan refers to something that is practiced slowly steadily and with an experience of inner joy that's one of the reasons we constantly focus on our breath and our mood while we practice yoga so that not only are we just moving our limbs in different ways but we're also feeling this joyful peaceful emotion that helps lead us into a mindfulness space and also keeps us centered and grounded throughout the practice after this we come to the fourth limb which is called pranayama again pranayama has become so important especially in the post pandemic era because we realize that through pranayam and controlled breathing we can actually improve the functioning of our respiratory system this practice is a supplement to all the other practices that we constantly do on our mat and by breathing correctly we allow the respiratory muscles our chest our lungs bronchi alveoli to function to their maximum optimal capacity and by doing so we really do maximize the functioning of our respiratory systems so that is the fourth limb of pranayama after that we come to a slightly lesser known limb known as pratyahar in sanskrit pratiha refers to withdrawal of the senses and usually this limb serves as a sort of bridge between the physical dimensions of yoga going into the more mental and more relaxing dimensions of the practice so in this prathihar we learn to just take our senses inwards preparing our minds for the practice of meditation and to be honest it's if we don't get this step right it would be so much more challenging to meditate properly because if our senses aren't withdrawn in words we constantly be distracted by sound smell uh even something small that disturbs us will immediately peak the interest of our senses and bring us back into normalcy so practicing pratihar becomes important in our yogic journeys so that we can take a step back and allow our senses to come all the way inwards now we look at the next slim which is known as dharana and dharana refers to the practice of bringing your thought waves in one direction now i know most of us constantly have this feeling of overthinking we have a lot going on at the same time in our minds and harana sort of helps us to give direction to our thought waves to bring them into this one flow and to really help them to focus on one direction so that we're not in multiple places at the same time and finally we come to the seventh limb which is known as dhyan and dhyan is what we today know as meditation so meditation is actually a part of this large eight-step process of yoga and it is the seventh step one of the more high ones because it's a little harder to actually practice so this is known as dhyan now what is dhyan all about well it's about entering into what we sometimes call the flow state where your thoughts are completely directed on one thing and you're so in control you're so enmeshed with the objective focus so that's all you can really think of see and focus on there are many different types of meditation so you can take different objects you can use your breath you can even use a flame a candle certain sounds that will help you to move forward on your meditation practice and that helps you to generate a feeling of peacefulness become more mindful and by meditating for 10 or 15 minutes you take that sense of awareness into every single moment of your life so for all the rest of the 23 hours of the day you become more mindful more focused and much more relaxed now let's look at the eighth and the final limb in the yoga practice this one is known as samadhi now samadhi is sometimes quite misunderstood but very simply put it means a state of complete union with your object a focus and you can choose whatever this object needs to be for me sometimes when i'm dancing or i'm practicing yoga i'm just so at one with myself that that's the union i'm experiencing you can apply it at the same way to your business to whatever goal you might be looking to achieve when you feel the presence of that goal and become completely one with it you're set to be in a state of samadhi and that brings us to the end of the eight different steps of yoga i hope you were able to come on this journey with us to understand from scratch how has yoga come about and what are the different steps in this process now one more thing is that yoga has so many different variants and that's because in india and in other parts of the world as well where yoga has flourished so many different teachers have made it their own practice added their own variations and made it global multi-dimensional and multicultural and because of that it's become a practice that unites humans across the globe something that you really make your own and then imbibe into your own daily journey in the modern world however we know different types of yoga in the physical formats you might have heard of hatha yoga ashtang yog vinyasa yoke you might have also heard of rajya you gyan you bhakthi yoga and karmyog and these are all just different types and formats of practicing yoga there are also different ones such as aerial yoga or different kinds that have become more popular now but essentially the key element is that it just helps you to connect with yourself to know yourself better to give yourself that mind body and heart soul connection that you're looking for on a daily basis so to include yoga in your daily practice would just help you to reconnect with yourself and whichever type of yoga you choose to practice it should be something that works for you that you enjoy and that you feel like looking forward to coming back on the mat for every single day so i hope this has helped you to see how yoga works what type of a global practice it is and i hope that you keep continuing on your journey forward namaste