The word "yoga" comes to us from the Sanskrit language and means a "union" or "joining together".[1] It originated thousands of years ago as a way of life designed to assist the practitioner in achieving integration of body, mind & spirit.
Today "yoga" is a broad term which encompasses a wide variety of practices. The most widely known to westerners is a series of physical poses or "asanas" which may be flowed through and/or held for varying periods of time. Most schools of yoga also teach some form of breath control ("pranayama") as well as mental exercises including control of one's senses ("pratyahara"), concentration ("dharana") and meditation ("dhyana"). Many schools of yoga also include spiritual exercises and goals as well as behavioural guidelines. (See "The eight limbs of Raja Yoga" as described in Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras".[2])
The benefits which one gains from practicing yoga vary widely, depending on the styles and aspects of yoga practiced as well as the frequency, duration and intensity of yoga sessions. For this reason, it is impossible to predict which benefits any one practitioner of yoga will realize without knowing at least a little about that person's individual yoga practice. Additionally, much of our information regarding the benefits of yoga comes to us from anecdotal evidence and studies which did not follow the rigorous standards of scientific experimentation. Therefore, it is difficult to predict which formulae of yoga practices could be expected to produce similar results.
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