Fall Into Dhayana

Many of you have probably heard the word Dhyana. Itâ€™s a word that my Mother used often when I was being careless. She would say in Hindi, â€œDhyan se karoâ€. It's equivalent of saying, "pay attention". I have been using this word with my own children as well. Although they speak very little Hindi, they do understand some important instructional words including Dhyana. This week, as I did my weekly yoga class with my 15yo son, I decided to talk about Dhyana with him which is an integral part of yoga philosophy.

When I was completing my yoga teacher training about 12 years ago and studied the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, I realized that this beautiful word, Dhyana is actually the 6th limb of the 8 limb system of Yoga. It means sustained concentration or meditation. It is when we hold this sustained attention for a very long time, we delve into the 7th limb called Dharana which can ultimately lead us to the 8th and final limb of yoga system called Samadhi. Yoga is such a beautiful, well organized and very well explained Science of bringing our body, breath and mind together. I try to follow and reflect that not only in my daily personal practice but also in my teaching style. Please join me for a mindful asana practice whenever you can and Fall into Dhyana!