Yoga was a practice that was devised some 25000 years ago in ancient India.
The yogis of ancient India came up with the holistic practice of yoga as a process to reach a realm of spiritual existence where they were devoid of any sort of attachments. This realm was beyond any sort of human construct such as behavior, personality, ego and attachments.
In the Sanskrit scriptures, Yoga means “Union”. The yogis figured out after decades of contemplation and information collection and correction, a method that lead to the unification of the capabilities and capacities of the body and mind.
Years of expertise led them to understand that the body and mind were two different entities of the being and both held different amounts of capacities to hold information and well as capabilities of functioning.
They devised a method that worked on training and sharpening these capabilities and increasing the capacities of the body and the mind. And later proceeded to unify them with the help of the one element that was surely going to be instrumental in this unification, it was Prana (breath). With breath, these potentials came together and lead a person to that realm of heightened spiritual awakening.
All of this information was later put into words in the sacred Indian scripture called the Rig Veda. There are essentially 4 main Vedas, namely Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda.
So this is a thousand-year-ago scenario.
In today’s century (the 21st century) we talk about yoga to essentially achieve a happier life where there is a good balance in the health and perception of a person. We see rubber band-yogis on the internet and aggressively decide that we want to reach that level of flexibility. Essentially desiring the full use of the body’s potential.
So you see why this question is so difficult to answer. Most of these saffron-clad yogis have spent a good amount of their lives practicing and perfecting their yoga. And most often than not, they have reached that spiritual realm that we, as average yoga enthusiasts can hardly reach.
Anyhow one should know that better late than never, and it’s a great thing that you are on the yogic journey.
One should also know that flexibility is just one of the many benefits of starting to practice yoga. And as we all know, practice makes a person perfect. So, after starting this journey, one needs to make it a routine and breathe and live the ideals of true yoga.
The world yoga association registers an increasing number of yoga enthusiasts joining each year and it is evident that yoga is a feasible career option these days. People are attending destination yoga sessions and enjoying the best of both worlds that they can experience in this. Some of the most trending destinations are India, Nepal and Thailand.
Since Thailand is one of the touristiest destinations, one can find fitness retreat in Thailand. Along with that Yoga retreat in Thailand is another option where one can enjoy the most holistic practice there is in the world amidst the cool ocean breeze.
In the entire practice of yoga it’s mostly the physical training that grants us Flexibility.
The asanas or postures in yoga are designed to make the body as flexible and nimble at the bones as possible. This is possible only with rigorous training and performing asanas.
Now most people mistake the asana as shown in the picture for the correct way of doing that particular asana. But it may be a picture representation of how the asana must be performed and nothing more. the thing is that people have unique and different range of movements and one can never their body by the cover when it comes to the movements they are capable of performing.
The ideal yogic flexibility comes with starting with the asana practices and slowly but surely complicating your asanas. Also by bending your limits of how much you thought you could actually stretch or bend. This is in no way suggesting that you go head first aggressively into the asana, but try and achieve as much as you can, of that forward or back bend and set a newer limit every time. It will definitely pain at first, but after a few more practice sessions, the body becomes able to contain that pain.
You will know that you have achieved a new level of flexibility when you will not feel pain in performing the asana that made you feel like screaming with pain at an earlier time.
When you reach newer levels of flexibility, every time you thought that that was the best you could get at becoming flexible, that’s when you will know that you have attained a good flexibility. Now the time it takes for a person to achieve that flexibility is definitely different from one to the other, so don’t spend your time contemplating how much time it’d take you to become flexible, rather spend time breaking barriers for your flexible self .
