Practicing Yoga Will Shape the Course of
Your Life in Three Steps
by Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500
How can Yoga help anyone
change the course of life? How many people say they
would like to make a lifestyle change? How often do you
hear someone say he or she would like to make a
difference? Let’s look at each issue, and discover a
formula for positive change, which will help you, and
everyone you know.
How can Yoga help anyone
change the course of life? Making a positive change in
your life requires you to make a commitment. The root of
our commitment is our decision making process and how
serious we are about focusing on it. Any form of Yoga,
teaches us how to focus our mind, and make positive
changes around us.
Whether you practice
alone, or under the guidance of a competent Yoga
teacher, you begin to realize the unlimited potential
that is within each of us. The biggest difference
between people is that many have no direction. This lack
of direction is a result of great social changes around
us or the inability to focus in a particular direction.
However, great social
changes have never stopped humanity from moving forward.
There is always someone who is focused enough to lead a
cause or a nation. A person who has chosen to lead has
made a decision, reinforced it with commitment, and
focuses on progress every day of his or her life.
How many people say they
would like to make a lifestyle change? Most people would
like to make a change, but they have not seen the
three-step formula of: decision, commitment, and focus.
It is not complicated, but each of us has to make an
initial decision in order to shape our destiny.
How does Yoga help one
learn to make a difference? At the heart of every cause
is someone who has learned how to completely focus his
or her mind. Consider M. K. Gandhi: He was a humble man.
He could have sat back refused to act, and blamed the
world for everything. Instead, he created a global
philosophy of nonviolent resistance to social injustice
and colonialism.
Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi’s decision to take part in India’s independence
movement became a role model for other independence and
social change movements around the world. We can learn
from his example to this day. He may not have desired to
change the world, but his example created awareness and
changed the world view of social injustice.
From the outside, looking
in, Yoga may seem quite ordinary. The physical Yoga
styles move slowly, in comparison to other forms of
exercise. The truth is – Yoga cannot be compared to
exercises because the Yogic approach to life and health
is holistic. To make decision, maintain a commitment,
and remain focused, requires mental, spiritual,
emotional, and physical fortitude; all of which can be
revealed in Yoga practice.
© Copyright 2009 – Paul
Jerard / Aura Publications
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