The aim of any true spiritual path is to raise our awareness to allow us to directly perceive the spiritual dimension. Being spiritual means to recognize one's own spirituality and practically see the transcendental essence of ourselves and others. It also means to realize that we are all connected to God and to respect each other in that regard. That is one of the goals of Yoga. But how can we be sure that there even is a God?
This comes through a reawakening of our higher consciousness and the knowledge of our spiritual identity. It is through the practice of yoga and following the path of Sanatana-dharma that we can reach this higher awareness and comprehend exactly who we are. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali make up the essence of yoga practice. However, yoga itself is a deep, serious process, and there are many types of yoga that can be performed. There are four primary types of yoga depending on the yoga positions. There is:
Jnana-yoga is the path of intellectual development and understanding the nature of reality.
Karma-yoga is the path of right action, detachment from the fruits of one's labor, and dedicating our activities to a higher, spiritual purpose. Astanga or Raja-yoga is the path of inward meditation and the attainment of higher states of consciousness through various different practices. Bhakti-yoga is the path of raising our consciousness, increasing our love and devotion for God and decreasing our attraction for the various aspects of the temporary material world.
There are other types of yoga, but they are often considered branches of these four paths.
However, in the earliest stages, yoga is, essentially, a tool for controlling the flickering nature of the mind, and for developing one's positive traits and expanding one's awareness from material to spiritual awareness. It is taught that Yoga is the process of calming the movements of the mind, which include misconception, memory, imagination, sleep, and perceived knowledge. When these are stabilized, then it can be called yoga, which offers the opportunity for the seer to fully realize his own fundamental and essential nature. Yoga is the attempt to realign our Selves with the Supreme Self, God.
When you progress in yoga you can feel the undesirable burdens of the mind fall away, such as discontent, envy, hate, anxiety, greed, anger, etc. Then other qualities like tranquility, peacefulness, contentment, and blissfulness will be felt. These are qualities everyone is trying to find and are some of the many things that can be achieved with yoga, at least on the basic level. As you continue to progress, you may enter into the deeper levels of understanding and transcending the mind and eventually progress so far as to attain realizations as to what your own spiritual identity is and what your relationship is with the Absolute. Becoming free from material life and reclaiming one's spiritual identity is the aim of all types of yoga.
But despite all of these benefits, many people find it difficult to follow this path. This is only because they lack the motivation to exercise. Once you start practicing Yoga on a regular basis, it can itself keep you motivated. The benefit of motivation from Yoga practice is what makes Yoga unique among health maintenance programs. Yoga can become a lifestyle because there is no discomfort involved.
Why do most diets fail? Why do most exercisers quit? Lack of motivation is usually the reason for exercise and diet failure. People already know they ought to walk more, drink more water, eat better, and exercise, but they need to stay motivated without "burning out."
When performing Yoga, positive energy is all around the room. Positive energy generates exercise motivation and generates moving visions of success. The next step is to believe the powerful visions of success, which are formed in your mind. Some people are afraid to succeed. Maybe they inherently feel a lack of self-worth, but Yoga also works on boosting one's self-esteem. It is normal for people to feel apprehensive about change, but change is often one of the keys to success.
So we can say that consistency acts as the key as far as the benefits of yoga are concerned while we are in the process of learning yoga positions. We can't benefit from yoga if we are not consistent with our routine. If we fail to do so, then it is hard to get the positive results and yoga can't be blamed for this. Another beneficial technology is hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy has proven to be extremely effective in getting and keeping us motivated. Self hypnosis is based on the formula of visual imagery and auto suggestion, and it works on deeper unconscious levels than one can imagine. Hypnotherapy for motivation engages with your unconscious mind, and compels it to positively alter your sense of self-perception and self-image.
The unconscious mind is largely responsible for the way we think and react. If we train it to think along a different line, your accompanying behavior will change too. You will be motivated to understand the incredible potential that lies within each of us, and by using a hypnosis program you can tap into that potential. Through gentle affirmations such as "I can do it" along with positive visual imagery, hypnotherapy CDs can retrain your mind into believing that anything is possible, and nothing is impossible. This simply means that yoga combined with hypnosis can help us to quickly achieve long-lasting success.
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Alan B. Densky, CH opened his hypnotherapy practice in 1978. He offers a wide range of hypnotherapy programs for all aspects of self-improvement, including self-hypnosis for exercise motivation.
