What Is Gentle Yoga
Yoga is a gentle discipline, designed to calm the mind and heart of the practitioner with a view to attain good health and optimum happiness. By good health we mean, first and foremost, are all the organs of the body working in cohesion with each other. If there is any discord, automatically, it results in ill-health and an overall lack of well-being. May we point out at this stage that a good musculature is not necessarily a sign of good health? Many so-called able-bodied, well-built, muscular men and women who practice regular weight training and a serious regimen of aerobics are known to house, within themselves, myriad diseases that usually surface later in life.
We have used the term “optimum happiness” because happiness by itself is a very relative and ambiguous term. Which doesn’t mean that, as a palpable concept, it doesn’t exist? Just as only a depressed, unhappy person knows how he or she is feeling, so also does a happy person. By and large it has been noticed that people with overall good health, i.e. those who are free from chronic disease of any sort and not beset by regular niggling indispositions as a result of a strong immunity are happy people and vice versa. For our health is actually a good measure of our state of mind.
Yoga is an eightfold path to emancipation, a gentle spiritual science that caters to the human body, psyche, emotions and spirit. The eight steps were laid down by the sage Patanjali, the father of Yoga, and are as follows:
- Yama (Don’ts)
- Niyama (Do’s)
- Asana (Yoga exercises and poses)
- Pranayama (Breathing exercises)
- Pratyahara (Control with regard to the senses)
- Dharana (Concentration)
- Dhyana (Meditation)
- Samadhi (A state of super-consciousness)
But even though the ultimate endeavor of all yogic practice is liberation, what is called moksha, nirvana or kaivalya, Yoga postulates that here in the human body itself we can experience a state of heaven. Yoga teaches us that by living life in consonance with the laws of nature we can, at least, be free from disease, sickness and ailments.
Your question probably concerns Naomi Judith, having appropriated Gentle Yoga as her path which she practices and propagates. It may appear unique as a soft style, but so also are the others barring of course a few vigorous dynamic styles such as Vinyasa (Flow) Yoga, Bikram (Hot) Yoga and Power Yoga. These styles are more dynamic and, contrary to all other claims center their attention or interest primarily on the body.
This being said and done, Yoga by itself is a gentle and persuasive art of living, a highly scientific art whose techniques have been honed over the centuries. In most Yoga classes students are exhorted to pay attention to their breathing, to not get agitated, but rather, be kind and gentle to themselves. Practitioners are also encouraged not to compare themselves with their neighbors, to give of their best and await results over time. In Yoga it is not how far you reach or how much you are able to twist in a pose, not so much you are able to achieve by way of physical accomplishment as much as how you feel while doing the pose. Remember, the real benefits of Yoga are the resultant peace, tranquility and calmness.
