We’re sure you heard at least one them before you started your practice.  This is almost inevitable when you consider the incredible popularity of Yoga and the many different strands that Yoga has. The truth is that Yoga can be very different depending on who you learn it from and how they perceive Yoga.  This article looks at some of the most common misconceptions.

1.  Yoga is a form of exercise.

Well yes it is, but so is walking.  I can walk from my couch to my table and I can hardly claim to have done my exercise for the day.  The truth is that exercise is just the beginning of what yoga is.  It’s closer to a combination of exercise, physiotherapy, psychology and spirituality all rolled into one.  As you come to master Yoga you will need to become more and more mentally strong, and most importantly disciplined.  If you can discipline yourself to do regular Yoga sessions, and maintain your discipline to do each pose for the “prescribed” time, then you will naturally become a very disciplined and organized person.  For some people this transcends to a spiritual level because they are so efficient and clearing their thoughts while meditating.

2. Yoga is for Hippies.

As previously mentioned Yoga can be a very spiritual experience if you become good enough at clearing your thoughts and focusing whilst performing the exercises.  But you certainly do not have to begin with any spiritual belief.  Yoga believes in aligning the body and the mind and the spirit through achieving inner balance.  What that means to you is probably going to depend entirely on what your beliefs already are.  For some people it will be a spiritually freeing experience, for others it will be an effective way of distressing and achieving a level of calmness of thought.  Still others will claim that these things are one and the same.

3. Yoga is a fad.

Recently there have been some very hyped up Yoga courses making big claims about what Yoga can achieve.  These are easy to associate with other ‘fad’ exercise crazes.  However Yoga is not something new and is based in documents that are hundreds of years old which describe exercises and poses that were probably being performed for generations before that.  An individual style of Yoga may come and go, but as long as people are still stretching before a game of football then Yoga will still be being used.

4. Yoga is too slow to help me lose weight or get toned

This one is way off the mark, but we have been somewhat trained by the weight loss industry that weight loss, and toning our body is all about hours in the gym and fast high impact exercise.  That’s simply not true.  Yoga can help with weight loss and in particularly toning for a number of reasons.  Firstly the exercises, while low impact and performed either statically or slowly – are still exercises.  While you use them you are using your muscles, and in many cases you are using muscles and muscle groups that regular exercise programs ignore.  The second way that Yoga can be of benefit in a weight loss program is that it will increase your mental strength and allow you to be more disciplined with your food consumption.  When it comes down to it excess weight is a result of excess eating and not enough physical exercise to burn off those calories.  Have you ever noticed how some people can eat donut after donut and not put on any weight at all?  It seems unfair, but it’s a natural result of their metabolism.  Usually these people will be quite ‘sinewy’ and this muscle allows them to metabolize food faster.  That’s the third benefit of Yoga in weight loss, as your muscles develop your body will actually become more efficient at consuming foods and processing them into nutrients and waste. In the end your practice is whatever you want it to be. We all had a reason to get into it at first. Hopefully along the way we discover new aspects and angles to pursue!