yoga and health quotes: “Happiness is the highest form of health”. What are your thoughts on this ? I think the Dalai Lama is reminding us that inner happiness is the most nourishing lifestyle choice. He is not referring to constantly seeking outside oneself, but rather, to feeling a sense of peaceful fulfillment. Negative thinking steals joy and robs us of our health. The yogis were smart, promoting the breath as link between mind and body, realizing and steering us to calm our minds, improving our mood we seem to improve our health.
In the yogic system, the word for contentment is ‘santosha’ which is one of the niyamas. The path to health is a blend of balancing or re-balancing your body, calming the mind, and learning to breathe calmly through challenges. There is also the personal component to health, making the most nourishing choices, and organizing your life to be meaningful to you. I like this quote because it emphasizes that happiness is with (in) reach.
Cultivating contentment, as I have written before is an art form. I think, at the level of asana, one can be very mindful about how one moves, sensitive to creating conditions for comfort and ease rather than over doing, or, over-stretching. Yesterday at Base, we broke down upward facing dog pose, and the response was great. By breaking the challenge into simplified steps, we found an uplifted backbend instead of a shortened and compressed one.
Rana Waxman is a registered yoga therapist ERYT-500, with 20 years of teaching experience. Rana is a freelance writer and social media expert in addition to leading yoga workshops internationally and teaching alignment focused private and group Yoga Lessons in Hoboken and Jersey City NJ.
