Hatha yoga is mindful movement – a moving meditation.  When practiced in this way, it unites the practitioner with the present moment, allowing them to listen truthfully to themselves and their experience.  Postures open the body in a perfectly balanced way, gradually removing restrictions to free movement.  Over time, restrictive physical and mental habits can be erased and rewritten, breathing will be full and unrestricted and the practitioner will be able to sit quietly and comfortably in peace.
 

During practice, the mind is attending to the breath – its rhythm, its journey through the body and the areas of tension and space it discovers on its way.  The most essential of all biological functions, with us in every moment of our life – our longest and truest companion.  When tense, the breath will be short and shallow; when relaxed, long and deep.  Yet the breath speaks both ways – by deepening and slowing it, you will relax – it provides a bridge between the external and internal experience, as an unconscious activity that can also be controlled consciously.  In this way, it provides a means for connecting us with our internal state and for healing ourselves from the inside out.
 

In his book Light on Yoga, Iyengar described how working with the breath can bring you peace:
 

“If breath prevails, the desires are controlled, the senses are held in check and the mind is stilled. If desire prevails, breath is in disarray and the mind is agitated and troubled. Therefore, the yogi masters the science of the breath and by the regulation and control of breath, he controls the mind and stills its constant movement.”

In a world where little time is afforded to relaxation and self-healing, yoga offers this in abundance. So beautifully simple in its philosophy, and accessible to every living, breathing being.
 

Image source: Cynthia Snyder