Close your eyes for a minute, take a few deep breaths, and concentrate on the sound of your breathing. Now doesn't that feel good? You may not know it but you just practiced the simplest form of yoga. Americans today use simple breathing techniques like this and other more complicated techniques to relieve stress, acquire better health, reach a higher state of consciousness, and ultimately to fully understand themselves. Although yoga came to the states nearly 50 years ago and was adopted for its physical benefits, it began more than 5000 years ago as a spiritual practice in a country called India, so we think.
The word Yoga means "oneness", which comes from the ancient Indian language called Sanskrit. When it was first founded, Yoga was the practice of meditation which is to sit and be still for a considerable length of time and control your breathing which would lead one to a higher state of consciousness (Kent 8).
Hatha-yoga
A yoga class.
Kent Heritage FestivalYogi's, as they were called, would practice meditation so they could come to the realization of their true self and achieve what ultimately everyone should be looking for, Enlightenment (Mystic 1).
Around 3000 B.C. is said to be when the practice of yoga was founded. Archeologists have found stone seals depicting yoga positions that date back to around that time, but do not actually prove that 3000 B.C. was near the date when yoga was started. The stones show figures sitting in the lotus position, which is the basic posture for the practice of yoga. The founder of yoga is said to be a man by the name of Lord Shiva who took the practice and passed it on to his first disciple and also wife, Parvati (Mystic 1). But no one really knows exactly when yoga started. Some say it...