Judith Lasater is a yoga teacher who has more than four years of experience from California. She wrote, “Living Your Yoga” to show people the different lifestyle they can adapt through yogic principles and practices. In the book, Lasater indicated that yoga is essential as it cultivates personal growth, thus making an individual live in harmony with nature. Yoga is necessary for both the internal and external growth. It helps an individual attain qualities such as love and compassion required for daily living. Yoga supports personal growth where a loving environment is created, and an individual avoids self-judgment. It is a way of learning to accept oneself and embrace true nature. The negative pressures in life as avoided as individual practices yoga, and they have time to concentrate on themselves. Lasater uses her book to show how yoga can assist people in life and why it should be practiced to maintain health and happiness.
Yoga helps a person to abide by their true nature. A person creates awareness about their life through the observation of personal life, thoughts, words, and actions. Lasater has used some of the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and Bhagavad-Gita quotes in explanation of the relevance of yoga. Understanding the true nature and free a person from miseries can only be done by personal observations as quoted from Patanjali's aphorism tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Observation deals with checking the bodily sensations while breathing comprises relaxing the body and slowing down the breath, which helps to relax, allowing for expansion, and that coincides with infinite. When a person is relaxing, they learn how to appreciate themselves and others without expectations. An individual is able to understand their thoughts and ignore some of the expectations which can be harmful. It assists in developing faith and acceptance of reality.
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The concepts of abhyasa and vairagya are explained in relation to yoga. Abhyasa concerns the inner transformations which happen when actions are being carried out mechanically. Vairagya is about letting go, where a person surrenders anything that may be causing disturbances. According to Lasater, abhyasa, and vairagya indicates the key to living in yoga. It enables a person to live peacefully by not holding any anger or grudges due to failure of something or disappointments. Such negative emotions create tension in the life of a person, and that is why they should be released when encountered. The act of detachment reduces the chances of experiencing anger or hurt in case expectations are not met. People are most disappointed in life due to setting goals only to get disappointed. That results in stress and tension, and it affects the health of a person.
Yoga helps in creating openness and awareness in intimate relationships. Yoga makes an individual more aware of how they are able to show compassion to the suffering of other people. An individual practicing yoga becomes more aware of the needs of other people, and they can assist where they can without creating any detachments as that would hurt in the long-run. Yoga is essential in letting go the desire to control everything, such as in relationships, for example, fear that intimacy in a relationship will end and that will leave them unhappy. Yoga teaches people to appreciate the present moment, not obsessing about the past which may not be controllable. According to Lasater, the fear of death and unhappiness makes people control everything. However, yoga teaches about embracing the beauty of life and enjoying each moment as it comes. In that way, less obsessing is seen, and happiness is achieved.
Fear is one of the emotions which make people act irrationally. Fear drives anger and greed, especially with material things. An individual, for instance, may fear to lose their work and that prompts them to act irrationally by defrauding the company. Many people are angry in the world due to the attachment with material things, and it can explain the high levels of corruption. Greed drives people to consider only their interests and forget about the needs of other people. Lasater talks about the five klesas which are responsible for causing pain and learning from them comes with freedom and wholeness, thus spreading love instead of fear.
The five kleshas are regarded as the main cause of pain and suffering in human life. Lasater quotes these klesas from Patanajali’s Yoga Sutras, which is among the oldest texts which are written concerning yoga. The first one is Avidya which translates to ignorance, where ignoring the true nature results in pain and suffering. True nature, in this case, is identified as the part of people which are, loving, unchanging and peaceful. However, the distractions in life affect the nature of people, and they start being disturbed by what is surrounding, causing pain. Asmita means egoism, where a person forgets about their true nature and starts personal identification. When things are taken too personally, it results in greed and people being self-centered. Raga klesha is about attachments. As the ego grows, an individual becomes attached to something, such as material wealth. Desire can result in obsession where a person constantly requires something and hold on ensuring that they get it. Though it is healthy, excessive obsessing results in issues in the long last and it causes pain. Dvesa translates to aversions, which are developed in case the desires that people have are not fulfilled. Anger, for instance, can be developed and that hinders a person from being compassionate. Abhinidvesa is fear which is as a result of attachment only to get disappointed. If people understood their true nature, then they would experience a never-ending state of love and peace.
Yoga helps people to avoid the ordinary way of thing by finding a balance between personal needs and desires. An individual will learn to concentrate on the needs, what they cannot live without, instead of the desires, which may prompt fear and greed in the long last. Yoga helps in spiritual connection, where people can learn to live with deep faith. The faith makes people be fearless, needless and wantless. Yoga helps a person to develop wisdom, as they think deeply about an issue and that helps determine what is important and what is not, thus opening up the heart to love and happiness.
Yoga, therefore, helps in developing personality where a person is connected to their spiritual life, and that develops faith needed in life. Yoga is not only a physical exercise but a way of learning how to detach from worldly desires which makes people unhappy and angry. Considering all the indicated advantages of yoga, it should be recommended to more people, to avoid stress and people to embrace happiness and spiritual growth.
