Don't limit yoga to just increasing flexibility!
The above blog title comes from a person, me, who started yoga with the idea of increasing flexibility and then found way more!!! Please don't limit the benefits of something so wholistic and so profound like yoga. The structural aspect of yoga, like asanas, flexiblity, and the ability to do pretzel poses, is like scratching the surface of something which is so deep. What you get from yoga is way more. That is if yoga is practiced with discipline, diligence and devotion.
In my experience of practicing and teaching yoga, I have seen people who can do all those asanas with immense flexibility and strength, but are breath holders! Their energy may be somewhat balanced but their mind is a total mess!! A center focussed yoga practice improves you slowly, in a wholistic way. It improves your posture, the way you breathe, balances your energy , tunes your mind (decreases stress,depression, anger, increases calmness and sleep quality) and ultimately connects you with your true inner self.
Practicing yoga is like walking in the fog. Unlike when you walk in the rain, you know you will get wet and in fact you do get wet or rather soaked and you see it. But when you walk in the fog, you do not know that you will get wet and you do not see yourself getting wet. But as you keep walking, the fog is slowly seeping in through your clothes, your hair, your skin and it's making you wet without making you realize. That's how the effects of yoga work! You may not see them to begin with. But the magic has started! Gradually, with every class, every asana and with every deep breath, the change is happening. All you have to do is keep walking in the fog till you realize that you are wet. And this wetness, this change, is way more than you had ever anticipated!
You begin to be in tune, not only with your own body but also with your mind. You can feel the energy shifting, the mood changing, the breath getting shallow or faster. And that awareness of each and every cell in your body, is true yoga!!!
-Manisha.