Getting Real About Yoga and Weight Loss

I've seen, heard, felt and received piles of messages about yoga and weight loss. Does it work? How does it work? And why does it work? These questions only begin to scratch the surface of inquiry and wonder. I've also felt a strong reaction from people who are holding yoga for something other than weight loss, something wrongly perceived as deeper, more intellectual or psychologically superior. There are people who intensely clutch an idea that yoga is a higher system, not to be lowered to the weight loss or even fitness category. This is the same kind of clutching that has kept yoga part of a tightly knit club for so long, since its introduction in America. I am standing up for yoga, because if yoga was a person, she/he would have no part of any superior air.

Yoga in its authentic form is a system of health for the body, mind and spirit. Neglecting an element transforms the practice into something that is not in fact yoga. Spiritual hoping, longing and closed-off-ness perhaps ... but that's not what yoga's about. Yoga is a highly effective system. When practiced authentically and regularly it works and works well. Extra weight -- whether it's physical, emotional or spiritual -- holds us back from our health and our potential. Overeating is a behavior caused by stress, depression, excitement, fun with friends, self-sabotage and countless other feelings, emotions and circumstances. There can always be an occasion to eat and overeat.

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