Yoga And Its Benefits

The aim of a spiritual path is to raise our consciousness to the point of allowing us to directly perceive the spiritual dimension. To be spiritual means to recognize one's spirituality and recognize the transcendental essence of ourselves and others. It also means to see that we are all connected to God and to respect each other in that light. That is one of the objectives of Yoga. But how can we be sure that there even is a God?

This comes by a reawakening of our higher sense of awareness and the perception of our spiritual identity. It is through the process of yoga and the path of Sanatana-dharma that we can achieve this higher consciousness and comprehend exactly who we are. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali form the basis of yoga practice. However, yoga itself is a deep, serious discipline, and there are many types of yoga that can be practiced. There are four main types of yoga depending on the yoga positions. There is:

Jnana-yoga is the path of intellectual development and understanding what is real and what is not.

Karma-yoga is the path of right action, detachment from the fruits of one's deeds, and committing our activities to a higher and spiritual purpose. Raja-yoga or Astanga is the path of internal meditation and the achievement of higher states of consciousness through various different practices. Bhakti-yoga is the path of raising our consciousness, and increasing our love and devotion for God and decreasing our attraction for aspects of the temporary material energy.

There are other types of yoga, but they are often considered branches of these four paths.

However, in the earliest stages, yoga is, essentially, a tool for controlling the flickering nature of the mind, and for promoting the growth of one's positive qualities and expanding one's consciousness from material to spiritual consciousness. It is known that Yoga is the process of calming the activities of the mind, which include imagination, misconception, perceived knowledge, sleep, and memory. When these are stabilized, then it may be called yoga, which provides the chance for the seer to fully realize his own fundamental and essential nature. Yoga is the attempt to realign our individual Selves with the Supreme Self, God.

When you progress in yoga you can feel the undesirable burdens of the mind fall away, such as anxiety, anger, greed, envy, discontent, hate, etc. Then other qualities like tranquility, peacefulness, contentment, and blissfulness will be felt. These are qualities sought by all and are among the many things that can be accomplished with yoga, at least on the basic level. As you make further progress, you may enter into the deeper levels of understanding and transcending the mind and gradually go so far as to realize your own spiritual identity and what your relationship is with the Absolute. Becoming free from material life and reclaiming one's spiritual identity is the goal of all yoga.

But in spite of all of these benefits, many people find it quite difficult to take this path. This is only because they lack the motivation to exercise. But once you start performing Yoga on a regular basis, it can itself keep you motivated. The benefit of feeling motivated by Yoga practice is what makes Yoga unique among health maintenance programs. Yoga can become a lifestyle because there is no torture.

Why do most diets fail? Why do most exercisers quit? Lack of motivation is usually the reason for exercise and diet failure. People already know they ought to exercise, eat better, walk more, and drink more water, but they must stay motivated without "burning out."

In Yoga, positive energy flows throughout the room. Positive energy creates motivation to exercise and creates strong visions of success. The next step is to believe in the powerful visions of success, which you see. Some people are afraid to be successful. Maybe they inherently feel a lack of self-worth, but Yoga also works on boosting one's self-esteem. It is normal for people to feel apprehensive about change, but change is often one of the gateways to success.

So we can say that consistency acts as the key as far as the benefits of yoga are concerned while we have to take care of the yoga positions. We can't benefit from yoga if we are not consistent with our routine. If we fail to do so, then it is very difficult to derive positive results and yoga can't be blamed for it. Another beneficial technology is hypnosis therapy.

Hypnotherapy has proven to be extremely effective in getting and keeping us motivated. Self hypnosis is based on the combination of visual imagery and auto suggestion, and it works on deeper unconscious levels than one can imagine. Motivational hypnotherapy engages your unconscious mind, and compels it to positively alter your sense of self-image and self-perception.

Unknown to us, our unconscious is largely responsible for how we think and react. If we train it to think along different lines, your subsequent behavior will change as well. You will have the desire to understand the true potential that lies within all of us, and by using hypnosis techniques you can tap into that potential. Through positive affirmations such as "I can do it" along with positive visual imagery, self hypnosis programs can retrain your mind into believing that everything is possible, and nothing is impossible. This simply means that yoga in conjunction with hypnotherapy can help us to achieve success more quickly.