Are you fit enough to save your life?

Fitness is not just getting yourself a gym membership. Fitness is achieved when body, mind and soul are all well integrated. And Yoga is the only answer and solution. So before your body and mind starts to wither and give up make Yoga your lifelong companion.

By Jeenal Mehta – Yoga Educator
Article published in magazine Life Positive in 11/2008

When your body starts to get regular aches and pains, when your mind gets in a habit of accumulating negativity and stress and you no more feel energetic, joyful and healthy, then you are running towards danger. Danger of falling in prey of diseases that traps your life in this vicious cycle. If your body is showing symptoms of fatigue, reduced memory, uncontrolled obesity or mental imbalance or any other such ill signs then you should soon question yourself. Are you fit enough to save your life? The fact is that constant strain and stress can damage the biological system considerably and affect the efficiency in normal dealings of life.

Modern man perceives fitness as sweating out at the gym and even after adopting such practices, he yet continues to suffer from health problems without attaining any results. The reason to this is that a human is a combination of mental, emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects. Just training the physical level will not bring harmony at other levels. A human needs to be treated at all levels. Yoga stands as a solution to this major human life problem.

According to Yoga, health is a state of the organism that brings in a feeling of harmony, efficiency in work, ability to meet an emergency situation calmly, ability to arrive at appropriate decisions quickly and, above all, longevity. Yoga emphasizes on training our minds, thoughts, emotions, actions and speech.

When a man is faced with normal daily activities, he often responds with stress and negative emotions. While eating, sleeping, talking or driving a car he faces a lot of stress that makes the heart, lungs and ductless glands work faster than their normal rate of work, and the activity of the stomach and intestines is suspended. Further more the assimilation process is disturbed and gradually our energy reserves are wasted and thrown away. Harmony of the working forces within the organism gets disturbed.

　

But when Yoga is applied to day-today living, it creates a positive environment both internally and externally bringing growth and nourishment. Yoga philosophy and its code of conduct (Yamas and Niyamas) and techniques such as Asanas and Pranayamas lead to an uplift of one's personality. This automatically leads to controlled behaviour, emotional balance and a healthy body. Yamas and Niyamas bring discipline and joy and further the Asanas and Pranayamas develop a strong immune system. Overall the yogic practices emphasizes on training of mind and senses. Yoga will help you to cope up with life's emergencies, big or small, whether it's running to the airport or fleeing a burning building with a balanced state of mind and healthy emotions. With an increasing amount in suicides and crime, it shows that man is not equipped with a fit mind. It’s Yoga that will bring in a sense of responsibility and duty.

After all fitness is not just getting yourself a gym membership. Fitness is achieved when body, mind and soul are all well integrated. And Yoga is the only answer and solution. So before your body and mind starts to wither and give up make Yoga your lifelong companion.

Namaskar! Om Shanti!

Jeenal Mehta & Daniel Fonseca, co-founders of Wise Living Yoga Academy which is authorized to impart Yoga Teacher Training Courses on the tradition of The Yoga Institute of Santacruz in Mumbai, India – the world’s oldest organized Yoga Institution. The residential programs are held regularly in Bali (Indonesia), Chiang Mai (Thailand) & Minas Gerais (Brazil) throughout the year and are accredited by the Yoga Alliance at the 200 hours level, allowing the graduates to teach Yoga in any part of the world.

Please follow the links to know more about our YTT courses 200 hours in 2012/2013:

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Minas Gerais, Brazil

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Bali, Indonesia

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Chiang Mai, Thailand