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Religion and Yoga 
Do I have to be part of a religion to do yoga?
Yoga is not a religion, nor do you have to be religious to practice Yoga. Yoga will open the avenues to explore many different facets of your personality, some of which may be interesting, or even surprising to you. Depending on the Yoga facilitator, certain emphases within a class structure may predominate (physical body, meditation, spirituality, etc.), so you may have to try a few classes to see what style speaks to you and which voice allows you to become more authentically experiential of the practice.
Like WHY?
Why do yoga?
Yoga is beneficial to the body is many ways. Yogis would say we actually have five bodies, or ?sheaths? called koshas. They are basically layers of our self. I. Within the physical body, Yoga helps each of the bodily systems to find balance and reveals where the body is out of balance. The body naturally become stronger and more flexible to the body?s capacity. This allows us to move more freely throughout the day and all our functions. II. Within the energetic body, our breath becomes longer and deeper, giving us a feeling of security and safety, thus reducing our stress. We may also find through our practice, that we are feeling natural energetic sensations more clearly in the body, which allows us to understand how we might balance our energetic input and output in a variety of situations. III. At the level of the mind and emotions, Yoga teaches us to focus our mind to a single point (ekagra chitta), whether it is the breath flow, changing sensations or an intention. With increased focus on what one is presently experiencing through this focus, we have the opportunity to find balance in many situations that may have before been difficult to accept or stay present within. IV. At the level of the wisdom sheath, we begin to trust through our practice, that what we are is enough on any given day or moment. We trust our intuition as to how to conduct our practice and our life in a way that will bring balance and peace to all levels of our self. We may also begin to realize that all of these changing sensations, energetic levels and emotions shift, transform and pass, but the constant observer of all the fluctuations remains unchanged. This realization, at whatever level, helps us to understand that we are not our sensations, our energy or our emotions. At a deeper level, we transcend these vicissitudes. V. Finally, at the level of the bliss body, we begin to experience moments of pure perfection. These moments feel as if we are perfectly peaceful and calm, engaged in replete attention without the need for control of anything and absent of the pull of the senses. These are moments of Samadhi. And if there is any reason at all to practice Yoga, it is to experience and eventually merge into Samadhi.
Stressless PLEASE
Will yoga help me be less stressed?
Yoga will help us to be more aware of the sensations within the body and where holding patterns accumulate. When we learn where these holding patterns are, we have a better chance of learning how to release them. Yoga also teaching us how to breathe completely and smoothly. If you notice your breath when there is an actual threat present, you might notice your breath short and high in the chest. This sends signals to other bodily systems to begin to get ready to fight the threat or to flee. Due to some of the conditions in our lives and our lack of knowing how to manage these stresses, we can begin to feel the ?threat? of too many things to do, relationship/work tensions and an overall feeling that, as individuals, we are not enough as we are beginning to produce the same physiological pattern as when a real threat (like a bear) is present. Yoga teaches us to breathe in times of tension and stress, thereby sending calming messages to the rest of the body so it doesn?t react in a myriad of ways to protect itself when, indeed, protection is not needed, but presence is.
Styles of Yoga
How do I know what style of Yoga is right for me?
Yoga is an exploratory, experiential path and experiencing what types of classes serve you best (from flow to slow; long held postures with emphasis on the breath to shorter ?kisses? of the same postures). You will find that at different parts of your life, certain styles of Yoga will benefit you greater than what you had maybe been practicing. This is due to the ever-changing physical, energetic and emotional consideration that present themselves during certain times in our life. More important than rigidly ascribing to a particular system is to begin to understand what might best balance you on these numerous levels of being (and it simply takes practicing increasing sensitivity to begin to understand what best balances you). Certainly, find a qualified and experienced teacher to give you the basics of posture, breath and tonal quality in the mind, but try to honor yourself through your experience of Yoga, in the styles that speak to you.
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