I try to meditate everyday. On the days that I do not get a chance to, I feel incomplete. Meditation and yoga ground me and breathing becomes much easier. Anxiety is relieved; new solutions and new ways to approach a problem often appear. More than anything, I am slowly regaining my ability to focus deeply.
I saw this interesting paragraph on yoga-
The most important teaching of yoga has to do with our nature as human beings. It states that our "true nature" goes far beyond the limits of the human mind and personality--that instead, our human potential is infinite and transcends our individual minds and our sense of self. The very word "yoga" makes reference to this. The root, "yuj" (meaning "unity" or "yoke"), indicates that the purpose of yoga is to unite ourselves with our highest nature. This re-integration is accomplished through the practices of the various yoga disciplines. Until this re-integration takes place, we identify ourselves with our limitations--the limitations of the body, mind, and senses. Thus we feel incomplete and limited, and are subject to feelings of sorrow, insecurity, fear, and separation, because we have separated ourselves from the experience of the whole.
Many people ask me what Om means. It is difficult to explain Vedic philosophy to anyone who is not familiar with it because it carries with it a healthy respect for all the three elements of nature- creation, preservation, AND destruction. Most people get confused about respecting "destruction"- it is viewed as negative, and understandably so. Destruction can also be liberation- destruction of ego; destruction of too many material things so that we are not a slave to these things anymore; destruction of illusion which then reveals the higher truth. Here is a good definition of OM (AUM)-
When taken letter by letter, A-U-M represents the divine energy (Shakti) united in its three elementary aspects: Bhrahma Shakti (creation), Vishnu Shakti (preservation) and Shiva Shakti (liberation, and/or destruction)
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