"Yoga is a mindset" with Ajith Shankara

WAYS TO GROW

If you ever wondered what is the philosophy of Yoga, tune in, because in this episode, we go deep in the magic of yoga. We talk about the basics of Yoga but reaching deep on those basics. Ajith Shankara talks about the Union and the Ego, the Yin and the Yang, Shiva and Shakti... We wonder about anxiety and stress, about men's suffering and much more.

Here are some highlights of this deep-dive on Yoga:

Yoga means UNION. Individual consciousness merging with the Universal consciousness. It's never been separated, it will never be separated. It is not possible to separate it. It's like a wave thinking is different from the Ocean. It's impossible to separate the wave from the Ocean. But the wave has an individuality, an ego, a quality, a name... I'm born in this country, my name is this, my job is this, my passion is this... it looks very different but it can't be separated. Being in that state of awareness, that I'm one with everything, that is the state of yoga. Yoga is not possible to do, it is what it is.

The physical practice helps a person to be comfortably sit for meditation without any feeling, aches and pains. So you can separate yourself completely from your body. So if you're feeling eggs after 10 minutes, you need her to backwards. Then the mind cannot go anywhere else. It's just stuck in the pain.

The goal of Yoga is living with the highest experience of the Unity. To live in that estate of mind where you don't feel separated from the surrounding: the trees, the animals, rivers, mountains, birds, animals... you are one of that living being... We tend to get insecure, fearful of the projections of the ego. That makes us feel separated from everything. The goal of yoga is to be happy.

You require an effort to be in the pose. So you are making an effort to be in the pose then in the pose you bring the relaxation. So when the bar of effort is up to 10 and you relaxation was zero because there was no relaxation at the beginning. And then you start relaxing in the pose. Your relaxation comes up up, up to the level of 10. Then, both go to zero. So your effort and your resting are equal, it's balanced so that it becomes effortless because your effort and rest become equal. In the most challenging pose, you can be effortless if you learn to relax.

The mind is our experience of life

My existence now, who I am, is my memory and my past and my idea of the future. In between I forget to live

Breath is an extension of your mind. So when you are focused on the breath, you cannot think you can only think of the breath

Breath is such a healing practice:

Your thought becomes the Breath

The Breath becomes the Thought

You become one with the Breath

Mind becomes one with the Breath

You become one with the Mind

Mind, Body, Breath become together

Body and Mind are two different sides of the same coin

When you are losing control of the spinning wheel, you know you need to come out

Well, if you're not flexible, that is exactly the reason why you should do yoga; I like to correct. When we say yoga, we often misunderstand what we do on the mat with what yoga is. So we can start using the word Asanas or postures. So when we do the Asanas, the physical practice, yes, then it is exactly the reason why you must step into the mat If you're not flexible. Because we accumulate a lot of stress and tension. This stress is not just the physical muscular tension that causing the stiffness. It's also emotional. This emotional tension accumulates in different parts of the body.

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