My Yoga and My Faith

I am a Janey-come-lately when it comes to yoga. I took it up in 2006 and only because my brother had been nagging me no end. Actually, another incentive was the FREE class at my son’s school gym.

After that first class, I was hooked! It has been 2 years since I began March 2006 and I have all intentions of going at it for as long as I can.

You may find this funny but it was fear of what yoga was spiritually that kept me from even considering it. Once, many years ago, our office offered a yoga session as part of its human resources effort to cultivate the arts, music and fitness into the lives of the employees. They invited a singing celebrity who was then with the Ananda Marga group. When she started the OHM chants at the beginning of the exercises, it freaked me out. I thought, I’m out of here!!! And never again thought of trying yoga.

I have had the opportunity these past 2 years to reflect on my practice of yoga. I am grateful that my teacher, Pio, speaks of yogic philosophy in terms of my Catholic faith. He aligns discussions we sometimes have with the Holy Trinity, with Jesus’ teachings and the like. He makes me comfortable that I need not give up my own beliefs in order to practice yoga.

For sure there are still differences. In Pio’s faith, reincarnation happens to each being. In my Catholic faith, we only have one life to live. There are other things I have come across when reading yoga books that run counter to what I believe. But yogi friends who have been practising longer have said I could just choose the areas of yoga that are relevant to me.

The practice of yoga has also brought me benefits beyond just the physical. When brother-in-law Gilbert used to speak of “living in the moment”, I always wondered what it meant. But in yoga, as we learned to meditate and breathe properly, I slowly began to understand its meaning. I find that when confronted with stressful situations nowadays, I become conscious of how I breathe. When I find it becoming shallow and rapid, I consciously slow it down and take deep, lung-filling breaths. The meditation has helped me live in the present moment to ease my tendency to worry.

Pio also stresses that yoga is not just the fitness form. What he calls “karma yoga” is the equivalent of what we Christians call “service to the poorest of the poor”. In my sons’ school, it is called Magis (men for others). Pio has involved himself in feeding programs for children for years and continues to do so whenever he has time.

Pope John Paul II was (and still is) my idol. He always sought to look for what was common in all faiths rather than emphasize what was different. The concept of ecumenism flourished under his papal reign. This is why he was loved and respected by peoples of different faiths.

It used to bother me when some well-meaning Catholic friends raised the alarm after learning I am into yoga. Like me before, they equate yoga with being a cult or religion. But after experiencing yoga with my teacher Pio who allows me to be the best Christian I can be, I know that I can do yoga without need to compromise. Being in a Catholic charismatic community, with some sisters who likewise do yoga, I remain grounded and rooted in my faith.