5 Yoga Sutras That Will Take Your Practice To The Next Level

1. 5YogaSutrasThatWill Practice To The NextLevel Take Your Do you feel like your yoga practice is lacking something? Have you gotten bored with mountain pose and warrior one? If you have, don’t worry. A yoga practice gone stale is easy to fix with the help of the yoga sutras. If you’ve mastered downward dog and can hang in extended triangle like a boss, it might be time to incorporate some new challenges into your yogapractice. It’s time to explore the yoga sutras ofPatanjali. What Are The Yoga Sutras OfPatanjali? Before we hop into the benefits of incorporating the yoga sutrasinto your practice, we should explain what theyare.

2. So, what are the yoga sutras ofPatanjali? The yoga sutras are a collection of 195 ancient aphorisms. Pantanjali wrote the yoga sutras in the second centuryBCE. An Indian sagecalled Sutras are very powerful. Deborah King, Author of Mindvalley’s Be A Modern Master Program, explains that sutras can actually elevate your consciousness between spiritualplanes. And Patanjali’s yoga sutras are noexception. In fact, his yoga sutras became so famous that Patanjali is now called the father of modernyoga. Why Yoga Sutras Are The Perfect Antidote To A Stale YogaPractice In the West, we have a tendency to focus on the physicality of our yoga practice. We want to lunge deeper, balance better, and getstronger. And while yoga is a physical practice, it is also a spiritual practice. And the spiritual side of yoga is too often left out of our dailypractice. So, that’s where Patanjali’s yoga sutras come in. And they are the perfect antidote to a yoga practice gone stale.

3. How To Use Yoga Sutras To Enrich YourPractice? So, how can you begin to incorporate Patanjali’s yoga sutras into your practice? Well, the yoga sutras explore the underlying meaning of yoga. They don’t describe the how — they explore the why. Many of us already have the how. If you’re practising yoga on your own or in a group, you’ve learned your fair share of poses. You might even be able to lead your own practice without instruction or guidance. But have you ever stopped to wonder why a certain pose is structured the way it is? Or why your yoga teacher tells you that savasana (corpse pose) is one of the most important parts of your practice? That’s what the yoga sutras explore. And contemplating the yoga sutras both inside and outside your yoga practice can help you deepen your connection, not just with your body but with your mind and spirit as well. Patanjali’s yoga sutras bring you closer to the core of what yoga is truly about. 5 Yoga Sutras To Enhance Your YogaPractice Here are 5 of Patanjali’s yoga sutras to consider the next time you roll out your mat. (Keep in mind that the English translation of these sutras will differ somewhat from their original Sanskrit.) 1.2 “Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mindfield.” 1.6 “The five varieties of thought patterns to witness are: 1) knowing correctly (pramana), 2) incorrect knowing (viparyaya), 3) fantasy or imagination (vikalpa), 4) the object of void-ness that is deep sleep (nidra), and 5) recollection or memory(smriti).” 1.35 “The inner concentration on the process of sensory experiencing, done in a way that leads towards higher, subtle sense perception; this also leads to stability and tranquility of themind.” 2.1 “Yoga in the form of action (kriya yoga) has three parts: 1) training and purifying the senses (tapas), 2) self-study in the context of teachings (svadhyaya), and 3) devotion and letting go into the creative source from which we emerged (ishvarapranidhana).” 2.29 “The eight rungs, limbs, or steps of Yoga are the codes of self-regulation or restraint (yamas), observances or practices of self-training (niyamas), postures (asana), expansion of breath and prana (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and perfected concentration(samadhi).”