The relationship between yoga and meditation
In this post I will explain in short what the relationship is between yoga and meditation. Spoiler alert: they are two sides of the same coin.
Yoga is also meditation
When we think about the practice of yoga the image of longhaired hippies has slowly been replaced by fitgirls and -boys with strong biceps and slim waists in athletic poses. Attending a yoga class seems to become more and more normal but the step from yoga to meditation often still feels like a big one for most yoga practitioners. During yoga you work out but in meditation you just sit still so… what’s the point? Meditation can seem scary, a waste of time or just not your thing so let’s get a common misconception out of the way first: yoga too, is meditation. So yep, if you’ve been practicing yoga (with us) you’ve been meditating all along. Not so scary right?
Yoga sutras
The philosophy of yoga is thousands of years old and the foundation of what we know as yoga today was presumably first documented around 400 AD in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. In these 195 verses (sutras) about the theory and practices of yoga there’s actually only three sutras dedicated to yoga asana or, yoga poses. Moreover, the poses Patanjali was interested in were not downward facing dog or chair pose, the only ‘poses’ described by Patanjali in the yoga sutras are in fact meditation postures. It was not until the rise of Hatha Yoga in the 15th century through text like Hatha Yoga Pradipika that yoga became more of a physical (in this context meaning: all layers of the body) practice too. It’s incredible that these ancient sutras have inspired the world into a wide array of (physical) yoga practices that benefit both mind and body but you probably understand that the true practice of yoga is more than just physical fitness.
Gateway into the mind
Just like fitness is a training for your physical health, meditation is a training for your mind. And since your body and mind are two sides of the same coin, it’s useless to train one without also nurturing the other. That’s why in yoga we attend to both. To connect to the deeper layers of ourselves we use different meditative practices that Pantajali described as the ‘8 limbs’ of yoga. Some of these limbs are practiced during a (physical) yoga session, like asana (poses) and pranayama (breathwork), others are practiced more off the mat. You could say that in a yoga class as we know it, we use the physical body as a gateway into the mind. The physical fitness is just a bonus.
darcy ecoma verstege
Ready to dive into your mind?