How will asanas help you at the end of your life?

I heard this question / quote posed by the amazing David Garrigues on the equally amazing Adam Keen's podcast (Keen on Yoga) - it got me thinking seriously about this question and inspired me to write this.

The field of yoga is vast. Very very vast. The physical postures, the asanas which we practice make up just one small part of yoga. As we go deeper into the practice, yoga teaches us how to still the mind. It teaches us how to study ourselves. It teaches us how we can reflect, through meditation for example. This is just scratching the surface. There is much much more…

Some of these points that I’ve listed allow us to connect with our journey in this life. When our soul arrives in our present incarnation we are born with the Karmas from our previous journeys. Samskaras (behavioural patterns) which we inherit through our DNA and karmas. Our mission in life is to understand our purpose. Whether that is breaking free of any karmas that are weighing us down. Or offering service as our karma, to repay what we have received in a past incarnation. Or breaking free of behavioural patterns which do not serve us.

As we connect with our purpose, we are helping our soul with its onward journey. This is where the spiritual side of yoga comes in - the non-asana side of yoga.

Asanas will help us during our life, giving us physical health to lead a healthy life. And this physical health will allow us to practice the rest of yoga to the fullest of our potential.

Regularly practicing the rest of yoga will help us at the end of our life, to prepare our soul for its next incarnation.

Drop a comment below if you have a question or want to add something.