The physical benefits
The early benefits
ofAstanga yoga practice include improved balance and co-ordination, and feeling
more healthy, alert. vibrant and energetic. The constant repetition of a wide
range of postures quickly improves your levels of fitness. You develop great
strength, stamina and flexibility. In particular. the vinyasa (see pages 70—73)
and sun salutations (see pages 46—5 3) build a lot of upper body strength. You
also begin to notice that your posture improves, not just when you are doing
yoga but in the rest of your life too.
The psychological benefits
Astanga yoga is
challenging; when you first see a demonstration of the practice you may find
that you doubt your ability to do all those complicated postures. But with
dedicated practice, each posture gradually becomes possible. This can be a
fantastic boost to your self-esteem, and can give you a new-found physical
confidence and sense of ease within your own body
People also notice changes
in their moods, behaviour and outlook on life after a few months or years of
yoga practice. These may start with increased mental energy and an improved
ability to concentrate. In time, you may find that Astanga yoga gives you a
feeling of inner strength. focus and stability which means that you are better
able to cope with stress, and the ups and downs of everyday Life.
Over time you also develop
better powers of observation, both of the world around you and of yourself The
capacity for clear self-observation is especially significant because it can
lead to profound change from Within. As you become more sensitive to your inner
self, the eight Limbs of Patanjali’s yoga (see pages 18—19) may begin to speak
to you in a different way One of the advantages of Astanga yoga is its
structure. Because you repeat the same postures in the same order each time,
your practice is always consistent. This allows you to use the practice as a
way of monitoring how you are feeling on a daily basis; Astanga yoga forms a
backdrop that throws into sharp relief even the most subtle emotional and
physical changes.
For some people this
system of yoga will always remain primarily physical practice — but for others
it becomes a devotional one. Yoga is a spiritual tradition with an
extraordinarily rich heritage. You do not need to be a Hindu to embrace this
spiritual aspect: you can simply devote your practice to something “higher”
than yourself. Patanjali is not specific about who or what this higher force
might be. As a result, yoga can have spiritual meaning for any person of any —
or no — religious belief
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