If I ask whether you’re interested in yoga, you may or may not raise your hand. If I ask you whether you want to increase your capability, I’m sure you’re going to raise both hands up. Everyone will; no doubt about it. But did you know you can’t spell capability without yoga? Literally!
The word for capability in Sanskrit is ‘YOG-yata’. We already know that YOGA means union or oneness. So the true meaning of capability means our ability to find oneness with whatever we do.
It’s not just limiting our success to the goals we achieve. ‘Yogyata’ is measuring how wholeheartedly involved we are in the process of achieving them & how deep our experience of life is. So here are the 3 powerful ways yoga can improve your capability and enhance your life:
Physical Capability
There’s a lot of myths related to what yoga can or cannot do for your body. Some say it’s for the young and flexible while others say it’s for the aged and slow. The truth is it is an ageless practice. You can find fast-paced energetic flows or relaxing slow-paced routines. You can even play around with a mix of both based on what your body needs on a particular day. Want to work on a specific part of the body? You can find asanas to detox each organ in the body and strengthen it.
Yoga will change what old age means to you. Stiff joints, slow circulation, slumping posture, brittle bones, painful groans while sitting and standing….isn’t that we’ve come to expect of old age? But here’s the real secret behind why yoga is an ageless practice – it slows down the natural wear-and-tear of the body.
Have you heard the story about how Sadhguru met his hatha yoga Guru Malladihalli Swami? When he was twelve years old, he would compete with his friends to see who could dive into a 120 feet deep narrow well and climb out the fastest. Sadhguru was always the fastest one to do it.
One day, he saw this eighty-one-year-old yogi fearlessly dive in and climbed out faster than anyone he had ever seen. When he asked the yogi how he did it, he simply replied – “Come and do yoga with me.” The rest is history. You must’ve also heard the story of 126-year old Sivananda Baba. He credits his long-lasting health to yoga and has never missed his morning practice till date.
The movement in yoga is not just limited to lifting and running. It allows our body to explore its full range of motion. You can then easily adjust your movement based on your environment. You stop wasting unnecessary energy and avoid injury when know how to use the right combination of strength, balance, and speed in your activity.
Yoga goes beyond muscle mass. It strengthens your bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments too. Nothing gets left behind. That’s why your age may go up in number, but your health won’t get left behind.
Mental Capability
Why is it that stress, anxiety, depression and distraction have invaded our lives so much that we often pray we could be as happy as our pet dog? The only difference between us and animals is the gift of a more evolved mind. But it’s become a curse over time since we lost the remote control of our mind. Yoga is a way to take charge of this remote control again, which allows you to retune the following mental capabilities:
Yoga Gives Sharper Focus
Andrew Carnegie was one of the first billionaires in history who gave away most of his fortune in charity. He made his fortune in such a short span that it made American politicians suspicious. They were convinced that he was a dark secret behind his massive fortune, involving some illegal activities. However, their investigation could not prove a single charge.
When they asked Carnegie about his secret, he revealed that he could focus of ONE thing for five minutes at a stretch. The senators were not convinced at first. So they tried to take this challenge, and they all failed.
The difference between success and failure is simply how long we can focus on ONE thing. Nothing less, nothing more. Yoga involves synchronizing our breath with our movement and holding poses with a certain breathing pattern. Our scattered mind learns to flow in one direction and our concentration naturally deepens.
Yoga Gives Better Memory
It’s a popular belief that a goldfish has a memory no longer than nine seconds. Well, it was an unpopular fact that it could give my memory some serious competition four years ago. Memorization had always been at bottom of my skill set.
When I was doing the six-month Isha Hatha Yoga teacher training program, I had to face my biggest test. It involved perfectly memorizing and reciting over 250 pages of practice instructions – word-for-word!
We spent each day practicing, visualizing and correcting multiple series of asanas, which we could eventually perform from memory. It helped reprogram my mind to learn and memorize new things. Would I have been able to wrap up the 250 pages of recitation ahead of schedule without my practices? Absolutely not!
Yoga Improves Your Mood
If you think telling someone suffering from anger, anxiety, stress, or depression that -“It’s all in your head. Knock it off!” is helpful; you haven’t really lived through them seriously. You can’t escape mental issues with a pill either. So what do you do? Don’t wish them away. Just breathe through them and watch them fade away! That’s the yogic approach.
Yoga is one of the most effective ways to lower cortisol levels and boost dopamine and serotonin levels. You elevate your heart rate using slow, focused movement and synchronized breathing. This helps you relax physically and mentally.
It gives you a stable space to observe your emotions without getting tied up with them. This allows you to consciously respond rather than impulsively react to the emotions you experience.
Spiritual Capability
If you’re struggling with a back pain or a chronic ailment, you’ll probably care more about yoga improving your physical capability. If you’re suffering from stress or depression, you’ll be more focused on how yoga can enhance your mental capability. But what happens once you’ve balanced both these aspects of your life? Short answer – that’s when life REALLY begins! You begin to seek the deepest, most burning questions in your heart like:
- What is my purpose?
- How can I serve others?
- What is the nature of desire?
- How can I connect with God?
- Who am I?
When you practice yoga, you naturally become more reflective and start tapping into a new intelligence – your intuition. You start seeing through all your likes, dislikes, and beliefs that you were holding onto. You stop trying to cling to your comfort zone and see the opportunities for growth in every challenge. Slowly, but surely, we’re able to break our illusions and become a more inclusive, compassionate being.
Sure, it all sounds vague right now. But my intention is not to sell you a philosophy. Because yoga is a tool for you to experience this transformation yourself.
When your body, thought, emotion, and energy starts going in ONE direction, you reach a state of inner stillness. In this state, you will be able to tap into your intuition and find the clarity you need to keep growing. This is the path of yoga and anyone can walk on it to find out the same truths themselves. So come and see for yourself!
Tell us what capability do you want to improve by practicing yoga in the comments below. Join us for our upcoming 21-day Yoga Challenge to improve your capability in all spheres of your life.
