Yoga is the oldest method of personal growth including the body, mind and spirit. The ancients perceived the body as a vehicle, medium, whose guide is the mind, while the soul is the true identity of man. Human being is driven by three forces: action, emotion and intelligence and purpose of yoga are precisely to integrate and bring these three aspects in balance allowing you to have a proper human development and creative.

The purpose of all the different aspects of the practice of yoga is to unite the individual self with the Absolute, in fact, yoga means union. This is done through the union (and acceptance) of opposites / complementary: positive / negative, male / female, individual / universal practice through physical and mental. According to the teaching Yoga, the world we perceive is nothing but an illusion (maya) resulted from ignorance to understand our true nature. Therefore we are often disappointed and always looking for external things and passing.

Only by investigating our deepest essence we can get in touch with the true reality and free ourselves from the discomfort and pain. In yoga, there are four main ways: Karma yoga or the action or work, Bhakti, or the path of devotion, Jnana or wisdom or knowledge or the Royal Road and Raja (royal) or the physical and mental health. Raja yoga consists of eight branches, among which are the asanas and pranajama that lay at the heart of Hatha Yoga, perhaps the most known and practiced in the West.

Hatha, literally “with force”, contains a sense of positive-negative, given by He represents the sun, positive force, and that that represents the moon, negative force. Consequently, the Hatha Yoga aims to balance the negative and positive in our body, creating a perfect harmony between body and mind. In other words, the Hatha Yoga is the Yoga psycho-physical harmony, health and longevity and is identified with the body. One of the last great masters of Raja Yoga Swami Sivand who was staying in contact with Western thought developed and synthesized the ancient wisdom of yoga into 5 main principles:

1. Exercise (asana)
2. Respiration (pranayana)
3. Relaxation
4. Meditation
5. Power

One of the initial practices for those approaching the path of Yoga is definitely the performance of asana. They are not the most significantly to this discipline, even if we practice is the most advertised and known by most, so that commonly “doing yoga” translates as in take some strange positions, but it does not. Asanas are special postures that lead to the discipline of the body combined with a control of mind and breathe to guide development that involves the entire being, even at the midpoint, to go beyond, to be on the path of Yoga fully, you will need to grapple with several other principles and aspects of this vast science.

The purpose of the asanas are manifold: they allow a thorough knowledge of the body which affects the physical, treat and prevent both physical and mental dysfunctions, balance the endocrine glands, tendons and ligaments stretch, loosening contractions and draining toxins from the muscles, relax and notify the nervous system, stimulate blood circulation, massage internal organs, calm and balance the mind. After a short period of yoga practice is easy to come influenced in a positive way, we can perceive little internal changes that then towards the outside, the outside world.