Yoga Facts You Probably Didn't Know About

No matter how long you’ve been doing yoga, there is always something new to discover, some new yoga benefit to learn about, some new fact to be surprised by.

Let’s learn some mind-blowing facts about yoga. Hope you’ll find at least one thing here you didn’t know.

• The largest ever yoga class took place on the 21st June in 2015 during the first International Yoga Day. The class was organized in New Delhi and 35,985 people participated. It’s interesting that the participants had been given the video of the exercises two months before the event so that they could prepare and practise to the best of their abilities.

• Savasana is one of the most challenging poses in yoga. No matter what kind of sequence you are doing and how long it lasts, it should always end with Savasana. You are supposed to achieve the state of ultimate relaxation in this pose which is really hard to do.

• The number of Americans doing yoga almost doubled since 2012 from 20.4 million to 36 million (According to the survey conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance). That’s like 10% of overall US population. No wonder, yoga is often referred to as a first effective result of globalization.

• Yoga includes 8 limbs or steps that are supposed to be followed one by one. Those are Yama (universal morality, truthfulness, compassion); Niyama (personal observances that imply self-study and disciplined use of energy); Asanas (body postures); Pranayama (control of breath, breathing exercises); Pratyahara(control of the senses, the senses shouldn’t be tied to external sources); Dharana (concentration, cultivating the ability to concentrate on one point of experience or one subject); Dhyana (meditation);Samadhi (Union with the Universe). What many of us understand as yoga is Hatha Yoga combining only two of the stages (Asanas and Pranayama).

Yoga is an incredible practice that can be enjoyed by everybody. You often read about it, but take a minute to realize what this really means. It is practised by people of all generations, all nations. And the practice is the same for men and for women. Anything great about yoga you know and want to share? Please, write it in the comments!

https://yoga.com/article/unbelievable-facts-about-yoga