Yoga Asanas: Learning to Move With Awareness

Yoga asanas are commonly associated with flexibility, strength and physical fitness. Yet their deeper value can begin with something much simpler: awareness.

When we practise an asana, we are not only moving the body into a particular position. We are also noticing how the body feels, how the breath moves and how easily the mind becomes distracted.

For beginners, this can be more important than attempting difficult postures.

Simple yoga asanas provide an opportunity to understand balance, stability and controlled movement. With regular practice, a person can gradually become more familiar with their own physical limitations and capabilities.

The key is patience.

Yoga should not become a competition between practitioners—or even between the person you are today and the person you were yesterday. Bodies change. Energy changes. Concentration changes. A sensible practice recognises these differences.

Life Positive's existing yoga material includes beginner asanas and discusses the importance of practising postures with appropriate effort and attention rather than treating them simply as physical gymnastics.

This is particularly relevant for people who are new to yoga. Instead of trying to master advanced poses immediately, beginners can focus on developing a regular practice and learning to coordinate movement with breathing.

The result is not simply a more flexible body.

It can also be a greater awareness of how we carry ourselves, how we respond to physical discomfort and how quickly the mind becomes distracted.

Yoga asanas may begin with the body, but the practice does not have to end there.

The mat can become a place to slow down, observe and reconnect with the present moment.

That may be one of the most valuable reasons to keep practising.​

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