Quest: Yoga for everyone – #1

Introduction

Today I decided to embark on a journey to discover what is “Yoga for everyone”. What does it mean? Literally and in practice? Can such a thing even exist? I will be asking and documenting my journey looking for the answers to these and many more questions to get to bottom of this. Hold tight!

First thoughts

Let me ask you something: what is your first thought when you see a headline “Yoga for everyone“? Without (over)thinking say out loud first thing that comes into your mind. And if you are kind enough, share your thoughts in comments. ?️Remember there is no right or wrong answer, just your thoughts. 

Well, this is what came to my mind… At first I am highly skeptical. Can it actually be for “everyone”? It does not say anything about the class itself. So I don’t know. Second, the heck, I am even starting to doubt myself: “Am I really one of those ‘everyone’?”. Another unknown! If anything, now I have even more questions and confusion than I started with. Does this sound familiar?

The heck, I am even starting to doubt myself: “Am I really one of those ‘everyone’?”

It sounds like a simple problem but it’s not! No wonder you get overwhelmed on those 3 magical words. Let’s start with definitions.

What is yoga?

Disclaimer: It is beyond the scope of this article to answer this question here.  I am already on an ongoing journey to find an answer to this question. More on this here.

As ironic as it is, dictionary definitions of the term “yoga” are not very helpful to bring a light on the subject. And in my opinion etymology is the way to go. Here is a quote from Wiki page:

The Sanskrit noun योग yoga is derived from the sanskrit root yuj (युज्) “to attach, join, harness, yoke”.[21] The word yoga is cognate with English “yoke”.[22] In the context of yoga sutras, the word Yoga means Union.

The second quote dives a bit deeper:

term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (“to yoke”) or yuj samādhau (“to concentrate”)

In summary, yoga is a union trough concentration. Let’s leave it at that for the moment. Contemplate what does it mean to you. And what does it imply?

In the next post, we will continue our journey. Starting with looking into the definition of the term “everyone”…