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About yoga
The origins of yoga can be traced back over 5,000 years to the foundation of Indian civilisation. It is believed to have been systematised by the great Indian sage Patañjali in the Yoga Sutra (thought to have been compiled in the third century BC). Although this text was followed by many other important texts on yoga, Patañjali's Yoga sutra is the most significant and forms the basis of yoga philosophy.
For most people in the West, yoga is practiced as a system of physical exercises (asanas). However the term itself has a much broader meaning. The sanskrit (language of ancient India) word yoga is derived from the root yuj, "to unite", "to join" or "to link". So the word yoga can imply a technique for uniting or bringing together. At a practical level, we could unite our breathing, our movements and our attention to create a state of yoga.
Patañjali in the Yoga Sutra speaks of yoga as the containment of the minds activities, a tool for refining our minds, a way of developing attention and concentration helping to quieten and focus the mind. This then enables us to view life through a clearer lens; one less shaded by our mind states.
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