From the HuffingtonPost
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “yoga”?
Stretching? Juice bars? Pseudo-Eastern spirituality? Tight pants on skinny girls pre-brunch? Yoga today is an urban trend, growing quickly in popularity since the turn of the 21st Century. The irony of yoga’s “now” status as a popular workout is that the practice is among the oldest rituals known to man. Today’s polished yoga centers and Bikram studios are only the latest incarnation of a tradition that has adapted to fit changing cultures for thousands of years. Nations have risen and fallen. Religions have come and gone. The apple of ideas has passed from Eve to Newton to Jobs. But yoga, in some form or another, has remained.
Nobody knows for certain how long yoga has been around. But as far back as our records indicate, archeologists have discovered evidence of yoga as both a physical and spiritual practice. Among the oldest records are engravings of yogi-like figures dating over 5,000 years ago from the most thriving cities of the era, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, in the Indus Valley Civilization (present day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran). The development of yoga runs parallel with the rise of Eastern spirituality, and – prior to the centralized political power of religion we see today – was considered a method of direct connection with the divine. The spirit-body connection is the foundation of yoga (the word “yoga” itself is the Sanskrit word for “union”), and it remains the longest lasting spiritual practice in operation today. But, I mean, juice bars are cool too.
Teacher
