Is Yoga a Religion?

This week in our yoga class we learned about meditation and practiced meditating for about 45 minutes. I did not think that there was that much knowledge about meditation. I found this class to be very interesting. During the actual meditation session, I found it very easy and calming when Mr. Spinella was talking us through it. I found that it was easy to follow instructions as they were being given. One thing I found interesting about this practice was that it seemed as if in my head I was already one step ahead of him. For example, I would already be focusing on the image in my head and allowing it to happen or not allowing it to happen and letting it faintly pass by. Next thing I knew he began to explain that if an image comes to your head either allow it to be there or allow it not to be there. After coming out of the meditation, I felt this crazy sensation of euphoria and relaxation. It was a strange, but pleasant feeling. It did not last very long though maybe for only about five minutes. Furthermore, to answer the question on whether yoga is a religion I would say yes and no. Yoga can be religion, but depending on the severity of seriousness taken yoga can also be a lifestyle. It may also depend on what type of yoga you are doing and where you are doing it. Just like there are extremists out there in certain religions, I feel the same can happen with yoga. When people think  yoga they think of just poses or postures to be executed. However, yoga is much more than that. You have Aryuveda, which I believe is a lifestyle choice, but if taken seriously it may be seen as its own religion. There is also Tibetan dream yoga in which I recently started researching about. Personally, I feel as if yoga is just as much of a religion just like any other religion out there. There are millions of books about it and it dates back for thousands of years. This sounds similar to religious texts

Pranayama & Practice

After practice this week and our lecture about Pranayama and the Tantric Yoga, I can definitely say that I am starting to better understand the purpose of these practices. Specifically in class, learning about the body and the Nadis really fascinated me for a couple of reasons. First, I think it is interesting to know that there are phases and types of cleansing that is done for each of the Nadis. This may be done due to the fact that the Nadis are considered to be pathways to the mental and spiritual matrices of the physical body. There is so much importance that pranayama has in the yoga world. Pranayama is a very powerful practice that requires you to control your breathing. There are three types of Pranayama; inhalation, retention, and exhalation. They say that for every inhale breathed in is life being put into you, and for every exhale taken is almost like a mini death because for every exhale taken, Pranayama leaves the body.   

I never really had a problem with breathe work in my practices. In fact, breathing helps me alleviate the tension or the uncomfortability I feel when performing a certain posture or a pose. If a certain pose seems to me difficult for me, I notice myself slowly with control inhaling until my ribs are big and it is when I gain the balance back or accept the complexity of the posture that I will begin to slowly exhale this same breathe out.