Yoga Life Institute N.H.

IF YOU SAY THE WORD YOGA IN A CONVERSATION TODAY, YOU’RE LIKELY TO GET VERY DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE YOGA IS. In Western culture the concept of Yoga has been primarily equated with stretching and exercise. You could say that many of the people in America today are doing “Yoga-like Exercises” without a sense of the bigger picture of where Yoga comes from or even what the purpose of practice is. There is nothing wrong with this approach, as we all have to start somewhere, but it is good to know that Yoga is not just about the physical postures. As a philosophy and a practice, it deals with all aspects of the human experience. When viewed from this larger perspective, we can begin to see Yoga as a lifestyle choice. The lessons that we learn in pose practice bring about a sense of deeper insight and awareness that permeates into daily living, and helps us create a sense of connection to something larger than ourselves.

My 6 yr. old son Jack was recently diagnosed with ADD...on top of an earlier diagnosis of Sensory Integration Dysfunction (also known as Sensory Processing Disorder). In a nutshell, his nervous system is in overdrive most of the time.

As I think back to his first year, it makes sense. We couldn't take him out anywhere as he was oversensitive to noise and chaotic environments - family gatherings, the grocery store, and pretty much everywhere. At 3 years old, we noticed that he couldn't follow simple two step instructions - he would head in the right direction and promptly 'forget' what he was doing. At 4, his preschool teacher casually mentioned that he didn't seem to hear her when she spoke (he passed a hearing test). And then, this last January, his Kindergarten teacher pulled us in for a meeting and told us she was concerned about Jack's inability to focus on her voice and the tasks at hand. She said that though he was not hyperactive and was generally well-behaved (and very bright), he could be quite loud, was easily aggitated, and did not seem to be able to pick out her voice and instructions in the midst of everything else going on around him. Onto evaluations...and voila! - a diagnosis of SID and ADD.

"On this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow...However men try to reach me, I return their love with my love; whatever path they may travel, it leads to me in the end."

Bhagavad Gita: 2.40/4.11

It wasn’t long after I began a regular practice of yoga that I noticed very clearly how my own mind was causing me suffering. I was walking in the woods with my dog one morning- which could have offered me a perfect opportunity to release some of the tension that had been building up for me in the past week. I remember feeling as I walked that I just didn’t have enough time to myself, and the feeling was oppressive rather than appreciative for the walk I was taking right then- alone, but for the dog. This line of thinking soon settled into a state of perseverating over a planned get-together with a particular friend, who often expressed intense emotional neediness.

In the wake of the 1960's, the primarily eastern concept of Karma became a part of western popular culture. As with many cross-cultural concepts, there is something lost in translation in the process. As Americans, we have come to know the word Karma as a casual expression of “what goes around comes around,” with the implication that whatever you put out into the world will return to you. This belief is fundamentally misplaced, and doesn’t really relate to the original definition of karma.