Diagnosis of a‘yogoholic’

Diagnosis of a‘yogoholic’

What is yogoholism? It is an addiction to anything related to yoga or its techniques. It is a lifetime diagnosis. In this article, I would like to share with you my experience on this path. This daily yoga practise has changed - and continues to change - my approach. In the same way, my approach changes my personal yoga practice.

Hello, my name is Petr and I am yogoholic. At the beginning of this state, I had a downright negative relationship with yoga. I considered it to be a road to hell. I considered it to be a self-centered technique that causes problems. Possibly the most common question asked by yoga novices is ‘How can I start a regular yoga practice?’. To tell the truth, I did not have a problem with this. Everytime I got something into my head, I bit into it like a bulldog and went for my goal. Maybe you think that I was lucky, but you should be aware that even this approach has its drawbacks. Its dark side is that when you push on the saw too hard, its teeth become blunt, along with your enthusiasm towards doing the activities. And slowly, but gradually, you cease to take pleasure in what you are doing. I experienced this many times in previous activities. Whenever I achieved the desired skills after years of hard work, my passions quietly vanished in an inverse relationship with which I acquired the skills. When I did not achieve my visions, I was dissatisfied. When I reached my expectations, satisfaction did not last long. With each conqured rung of the ladder, before me appeared three more.

In comparison to other activities, yoga practise has the advantage that it offers an escape from this eternal cycle of dissatisfaction and suffering. It actually describes the cycle. Yoga has such a wide variety of techniques that the term ‘yoga’ can describe nearly any activity. For most people, the term ‘yogi’ means a circus artist who ties his body into bizarre knots and shapes. However, this is just one technique of yoga practise, which primarily teaches concentration and support of  the body during meditation techniques. For me, the word ‘yogi’ describes anyone who intensively and regularly engages in any activity. Yoga is an entryway! And so it doesn’t matter what we do, but how we approach the practice. Repeating the practice leads to its refinement and a change in the approach. Similarly, my conception of yoga sadhana (practice) changes over the years. There does not exist an exact description of how a given practice should look like. Yoga is a living organism which reflects our own preferences.

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