Fall into Dhyana

You may have heard the word Dhyana. When I was young, I had a habit of dropping things a lot and my mother would say, “do it with Dhyana” which is equivalent to saying, "pay attention". I have been using this word with my own children as well. Although they speak very little Hindi, they do understand some important instructional words including Dhyana. This week, as I did my weekly yoga class with my 15yo son, I decided to talk about Dhyana with him which is an integral part of yoga philosophy.

When I was completing my yoga teacher training about 12 years ago and studied the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, I realized that this beautiful word, Dhyana is actually the 7th limb of the 8 limb system of Yoga. It means sustained concentration or meditation. Dharana comes before Dhyana and they ultimately lead us to the 8th and final limb of the yoga system called Samadhi. Yoga is such a beautiful, well-organized, and very well explained Science of bringing our body, breath, and mind together. I try to follow and reflect that not only in my daily personal practice but also in my teaching style. Please join me for a mindful asana practice whenever you can and Fall into Dhyana! 

~ Ritu