By Marieke, The Netherlands
Table of Contents
Why keep practicing Yoga Asana? - 9 Gifts of daily Asana practice
As you begin reading this blog, you might already sense how valuable a daily Yoga Asana practice is, yet still find yourself struggling to maintain it consistently. Have you ever felt this way too?
I certainly have! Many times, after completing an inspiring Yoga Teacher Training Course in India, I was convinced I would keep up my practice once I returned home. But as daily life took over, my Asana practice slowly slipped away.
A late birthday party, that one meeting with friends which couldn’t be planned differently, enjoying a little too much tasty food at a nice restaurant, that movie you really had to see (according to your friends), a theatre night, a holiday, a child needing attention, a new love in your life, Easter or Christmas family breakfasts, getting lost in social media, a work deadline that really had to be nailed, filing a tax return, no time to cook a proper dinner so the pizza was delivered… All very good, or less good, reasons to get to bed too late or to wake up feeling heavy in body and mind.
As a result, the alarm in the morning goes off later and later. Self-practice time becomes shorter and shorter. And when you do manage to get on the mat, your mind might be distracted by yesterday’s events, or you might feel more stuck than ever in your Asana practice.
In this blog, I will share 9 powerful gifts that a regular Asana practice can offer; gifts you can return to whenever you need a reminder to roll out your mat again, and why to choose wisely among all the beautiful and endless experiences life has to offer.
Topics like deepening relationships, reducing stress, gaining health, vitality, clarity, success, peace, and happiness will be covered. The insights that come with these will help you understand why Asana practice is not only valuable for this lifetime but also carries a lasting impact beyond it.
But before diving into these gifts, let’s start at the very beginning: the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, an eternal source of inspiration for Yoga practice and the foundation of every Teacher Training Course in India I follow at Yoga Gita Ashram. The first Sutra of the first chapter already reveals why the practice of Yoga is so essential. So, let’s explore Patanjali’s first Sutra on Yoga:
1.1 अथ योगानुशासनम् ॥१ ॥
Atha Yoga-Anuśāsanam
Now the path of Yoga -union- is revealed
In the first sutra, Sage Patanjali states that the Patanjali Yoga Sutras explain the path to Yoga, union. Union with Life, with the Divine, with You – with a capital Y. This union, according to Sage Patanjali, is the answer to all problems in life.
So, in a way, the simplest answer to why we should practice Yoga Asana daily – in the right way – is this: to establish unity, union, or so called oneness. But this naturally leads to deeper questions:“What is this unity, and how does it transform my day-to-day life? And how can I align my Yoga Asana practice to that?”
In this blog, I will elaborate further on these questions – because if we all already knew how to reach this state of union – we wouldn’t need to continue reading, not the Sutras, nor this blog. And I wouldn’t need to write about it.
This is something Sage Patanjali understood as well, that it is not so easy to reach this state for people like you and me. That’s why, after the first sutra, 195 more follow, to help us understand how Yoga can be revealed in our life.
Let’s dive into it.
Atha Yoga Anuśāsanam: the essence of unity - what is oneness?
To explore the first Sutra, we could start by asking: What is oneness or unity? The opposite of oneness is separation. When you feel separated, you experience a sense of difference between yourself and the other, this is also called duality.
For example, most of the time, you naturally experience your body as one whole. While engaged in daily activities, you might not be very aware of your own knees, they are simply there as part of you. But the moment you hurt one of them, your awareness sharpens, and suddenly, this painful part of your body stands out.
We could say that when you don’t feel a difference between yourself and the other (whether a person, animal, object, or situation), you are in a state of non-duality, you are one with them. However, beneath the surface, we unconsciously separate and discriminate against nearly everything outside our own body.
For instance, you think of your house, distinct from your neighbor’s house. Within your home, you further separate rooms, furniture and colors. The ground floor versus the first floor, the front side versus the back side. On an even more subtle level, you differentiate my side of the table, sink, or bed from your side. With every separation, we create distance, and this distance pulls us out of oneness.
All separation, when examined closely, leads to problems. On a larger scale, it can lead to wars: “You, a Muslim, don’t believe what I, a Christian, believe.” On a smaller scale, it shows up in sports: “Your football club should not win because I support the opposing team.” Conflicts arise.
Even in everyday situations, separation can trigger irritation. Imagine finding some hairs in the shower drain. You might think, “You should have cleaned it because it’s your hair, not mine.” But if you felt a sense of unity with the person who shed the hair, you might not be bothered. If the hairs belonged to your two-year-old child, you would likely clear it away without a second thought, still feeling a natural oneness with your little one. But as we grow up, this effortless sense of unity often fades, and the struggle begins.
It is precisely this separation – in all the little things of daily life – that brings so much conflict and negative energy into the world. So yes, creating a better world truly starts within yourself.
Sthira-Sukham-Āsanam: finding steadiness and comfort
As human beings, we have evolved from simple amoeba to Homo sapiens. This entire evolution is stored and memorized in our cells. Throughout past lives, we have experienced many shocks; fearful situations, traumatic ways of dying, and various forms of trauma. These past experiences contribute to inbuilt fears, tensions, genetic predispositions, and blockages within our present functional body.
This is why our bodies may not yet be fully flexible in all Asana positions. It’s why we might feel heaviness in peacock pose (Mayūrāsana), find our breath restricted in cobra pose (Bhujangasana), or struggle with balance in tree pose (Vrikshasana). These early and past life memories – stored in our physicality – create separation when trying to fully express the poses and manifest as physical holdings, blockages, and misalignment.
Sutra II.46 Ąस्थरसुखमासनम् ॥४६ ॥
sthira-sukham-āsanam
Posture should be steady and comfortable.
When we are able to recreate these poses on the mat, the state of Sthira-Sukham – steadiness and comfort – naturally arises. You become completely one with the expression of the pose. The heaviness and the differences between your habitual human posture (e.g., standing on two feet, head up, nose forward) and the new shape you create on the Yoga mat dissolve. You experience a sense of weightlessness, as you do with your own body parts when they feel integrated and whole.
This state of union or oneness – Eka Tattva in Sanskrit – is a core principle we explore in the 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Yoga Gita Ashram, India. If this resonates with you and you’d like me to explore this concept further in a future blog, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. I would love to hear from you.
In the state of Eka Tattva, you expand beyond merely knowing the weight of your own body; you begin to embody the form of, for example, peacock pose. Through endless stability and comfort in the posture, you gain a deeper understanding of the other but also of your own human bodily limits. This profound knowingness of the other cultivates a non-violent attitude. When you truly understand a situation, discomfort, suspicion, and anxiety diminish.
You can observe this process of overcoming discomfort when traveling. Different cultural backgrounds bring different habits. In Western Europe, breakfast often consists of bread, while in South India, rice is a common choice. At first, eating rice in the morning might feel uncomfortable. But over time, as you become familiar with this difference, the sense of separation dissolves.
This experience challenges the boundary of “I am like this” and “I only like things this way.” You begin to accept differences more easily and become more familiar with the unfamiliar. This state of knowing leads to fewer mind disturbances, resulting in greater stability and comfort (Sthira-Sukham) in many life situations.
As you become more comfortable with the unknown, relaxation spreads to more aspects of life, not just with eating rice in the morning. When you later travel to Vietnam and discover that breakfast might be vegetable soup, you might think, “Let’s give it a try. After all, rice in India wasn’t so bad, perhaps this soup will be fine too.”
Creating more and more oneness through daily life experiences can be a long journey, as experiences are endless and mainly influenced by external circumstances. However, through Asana practice, you have the opportunity to recreate the other from within. You not only understand but truly become the other. This is a shortcut to the human evolutionary experience-based process.
The true purpose of Yoga practice is to become borderless, to embrace all differences without effort. When this happens, real union and infiniteness arise.
Prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpatti-bhyām: effortlessness in daily life
In Sutra II.47 Sage Patanjali refers to this as:
पर्यत्नशैÙथल्यानन्त्यसमापÙत्भ्याम् ॥४७ ॥
prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpatti-bhyām
Perfection in an Asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes
effortless and the infinite being within is reached.
When effortlessness in Yoga practice increases, daily life also becomes more effortless, because Yoga is Life. The nine benefits below are just a few of the gifts that Asana practice can offer. Each one can be viewed from multiple perspectives and will be explored one by one.
- An Easy Mind in Stressful Moments
- Health and Purification
- Feeling More Alive and Vital
- Better Relationships (Work, Family, Partner)
- More Clarity in Life & Life Situations
- Being Successful in Life
- Inner & Outer Peace
- Feeling Happy for No Reason
- Being in Love with Life
An easy mind in stressful moments
Stressful situations will continue to arise, but your response to them will change. Instead of reacting impulsively, you will act with clarity.
Imagine an urgent meeting is suddenly scheduled right before that important deadline. Normally, your breath might quicken, your mind tense up, and stress or anger take over. You’d likely react without clarity.
On the Yoga mat, you’ve already faced challenging situations, like standing in half moon pose (Ardha Chandrasana). There, you’ve learned to keep your breath subtle, maintain full-body awareness, and avoid unnecessary tension.
When a daily-life challenge appears, your central nervous system knows how to remain relaxed. Instead of escalating stress, you naturally take a deep breath, relax your belly, and handle the situation with calm and focused actions.
Health and purification
Purity is the natural state of all things when not influenced by external forces. For example, if you add salt to pure water, neither the water nor the salt remains pure. They become a mixture, salty water. For something to be impure, there must always be a base on which impurity can survive. A virus, for instance, needs a host cell to thrive – without it, the virus remains powerless.
Likewise, a healthy body, where every cell and system functions optimally, creates an environment where impurities struggle to survive as the immune system will defeat it before it can enter a cell.
Cancer cells are an example of lost purity. Instead of functioning as independent cells, they cluster into a tumor, losing their natural expression of freedom.
Practicing Yoga helps maintain inner alignment, enhancing the function of the central nervous system and supporting the immune and endocrine systems. This alignment allows the body to generate new stem cells, promoting rejuvenation and quick recovery even in old age.
Feeling more alive and vital
When you stop wasting energy by fighting life situations, you save a lot of energy. The more you align with life itself – the smaller the gap between reality (any life situation) and how you want this particular situation to be (your expectations) – the more alive and vibrant you feel. That’s what gives you the energy to truly enjoy the beauty of life!
Better relationships (work, family, partner)
The more you experience oneness, the more you understand others. By knowing yourself deeply (‘Know Thyself,’ as Greek philosophers would say), you also gain insight into your partner, children, and even that grumpy neighbor or lazy colleague. When you truly know the other, harmony naturally arises in your interactions.
More clarity in life & life situations
By broadening your awareness through Yoga practice in the right direction – as thought in Yoga Gita Ashram Teacher Training Courses – you also broaden your ability to see life happenings as they are, not just through the lens of your own conditionings and assumptions. Instead of viewing life through your own “colored glasses,” you begin to see life as it is. This clarity brings the ability not just to react to daily happenings, but to act calmly and wisely in life.
Being successful in life
When all the previous benefits come together, success in life naturally follows. Whatever your definition of success – whether personal growth, business achievements, spiritual progress, or financial stability – you will find it more naturally. By merging with creation (life), you become the creator (divinity) itself. When you are the creator, every possibility becomes attainable.
Inner & outer peace
Creating stability, harmony, and joy within yourself allows these qualities to naturally spread outward like ripples in water. Inner peace fosters outer peace, impacting those around you.
When you consistently express friendliness and harmony, it becomes challenging for others to respond negatively. Without a base for negativity to attach to, others are likely to respond more positively. Your inner peace thus cultivates outer peace, showing that true world peace indeed starts from within.
Feeling happy for no reason
Our natural state is one of happiness, love, balance, thankfulness, contentment, peace, relaxation, and freedom. By letting go of boundaries and limited beliefs, of who we think we are or are not, our true Self can shine through.
We realize who we deeply are (Self-Realisation). Natural qualities arise from within as we are no longer disturbed by outside circumstances. This leads to feeling happy for no reason, free from any external dependencies, finding joy from within. At this deepest level, where there is no separation between inner and outer, true liberation (Moksha) is realized.
Being in love with life
Daily Yoga practice cultivates a state of being in love – not with a specific person, situation, or object – but simply with life itself. This love is expansive and unconditional, a profound sense of connection with all of existence.
Conclusion: keep rolling out your mat!
If you ever find yourself drifting away from your daily Asana practice, let this blog serve as a reminder. A daily Yoga practice is not only vital for your own growth but also contributes to the evolution of humanity as a whole and to peace in our world.
Your Asana practice should move in the right direction – towards subtlety, openness, strength, oneness, and joy – replacing grossness, confinement, hardness, separation, and seriousness. It should bring contentment, dissolving worry, fear, and anger.
The true Yogic journey is one of Self-reflection – an inward exploration – leading to a natural, effortless expression of life blossoming through you into everyday life.
And now, whoop whoop, jump onto your Yoga mat!
P.S. Inspired by the Sutras of Patanjali and want to explore more?
Check out our Patanjali Sutra Practical Course. Love to see you there 🤍
About the Author
The emergence of the first blossom in spring is a delightful spectacle to me – beautiful, fascinating; year after year, moment after moment. Each bud knows exactly what it must do to become a perfect flower or a delicious fruit. And then, with complete surrender, it lets go and becomes one with Mother Earth again.
Sometimes, I wish that, as a human, I also knew in such detail which movements I need to make. At times, my movements seem to follow a clear path; at other times, it is my rational mind and emotions that appear to determine my dance of life.
Within every person resides the same enormous potential as in a flower bud. I would love to see every person fully blossom, surrendering just like the spring blossom – so that everyone shines -and in doing so, we make the world a more beautiful place together.
That’s why I created blossomYou.nl, a space dedicated to supporting your journey toward unfolding your full potential through art and expression.
Fully blossoming, how do we do that as humans? That is a good question. In my personal search for the art of living, nature, yoga, spirituality, and the arts continuously inspire me to find movements that bring energy, self-awareness, and direction.
Let’s blossom together and live in peace.
All love,
Marieke
