Meditations of a false yogi

I practice yoga; somewhat. I am not in tune with my chakras, nor the life force energies that emanate from them. I have no grand ideas about attaining higher consciousness, nor escaping the wheel of saṅsāra. Alright, so maybe I don't practice yoga. I do yoga; on Wednesdays; at lunch; have been for about a year; love it!

Yoga is like guerrilla exercise - you don't really seem to be doing much, but the burning in you muscles, the strain on your tendons, and the sweaty impressions left on the mat betray a very different reality. While yoga has quite a history of mysticism and spirituality behind it, I approach it purely at the level of physicality. For me, it is an exercise that improves my strength, flexibility, and balance. It's a chance for me to test my limits while maintaining a sense of control over my body. You can't rush into a position, or you will find that you won't be able to maintain it for very long, or "express" the position fully.

While I do not subscribe to the idea of internal energies whizzing around in my body (quite different than the electrical charge carried by neurons), I am able to effectively use visualization to assist me in my yoga; that is, mind over matter. It's about picturing an image of my body and getting certain muscles to relax so I can reach just a little further. It's about focusing on a static point so I can maintain my balance without being pulled by movement in my peripheral field of view. It's about mentally checking in with the positioning of my body and adjusting it so as to have an even distribution of weight. So I guess what I'm getting at is that yoga really is about mindfulness, but it's hard to discuss ideas like mindfulness without going too far into mysticism. I'm talking about mindfulness in terms of awareness, not in terms of a spirituality, just as I mean awareness in terms of awareness of my senses (just the five of them) and my body's position within it's immediate space, not awareness of some other state or reality. Sigh.

I like doing yoga. I enjoy the physical challenges it presents. I like that it's something that I do that doesn't really seem like something that I would do. I don't feel I have to buy into the whole spirituality of the yogic tradition in order to find benefit from the exercise. As with most systems, be it martial, or corporate, or political, or what have you, this is how I tend to approach it:

I'll attend the party. I'll munch on the snacks. However, I will not be drinking the Kool Aid.