Welcome back, everyone! Today, we’ll focus on something that people tend to automatically associate with mindfulness—yoga. In fact, during high school, my mindfulness teacher would dedicate a few days each month to practicing yoga. I would leave each of those yoga days feeling taller and more relaxed; having two hours of AP physics before mindfulness class, yoga always seemed to rinse away all the stress about vectors and forces from my brain and leave me ready to conquer the rest of the day.

Although the modern yoga practices that many of us are familiar with date back about 150 years, yoga as a concept has existed for over ten thousand years. The word “yoga” originates from the Sanskrit word “yuj,” which means “to unite.” Indeed, the goal of yoga is to unite the mind and body. The first use of this word was in the Rig Veda, an ancient Hindu text that is comprised of Sanskrit hymns. Translations of this text reveal phrases such as “In each yoga, we invoke the strong in each struggle” and “Who knows the yoga…has gained the “word,” the subject, and object of thoughts.” Although a little cryptic, these phrases ultimately reveal that yoga can help us to strengthen our mind.

Yoga became a more formal practice around 2,500 years ago, with the creation of the Patanjali Sutras. Sutra is the Sanskrit word for “thread,” and, in more general terms, sutras can be thought of as a collection of rules. The Patanjali Sutras are made of 196 of these rules and provide readers with eight limbs, or observances, to follow when practicing yoga. They are as follows:

1. Yama, which is treating others with decency
2. Niyama, which are guidelines by which one should live his/her life
3. Asana, which is one’s posture while practicing yoga
4. Pranayama, which is the focus on the breath
5. Pratyahara, which is utilizing the senses
6. Dharana, which is focusing one’s attention
7. Dhyana, which is a continuous flow
8. Samadhi, which is unity with the divine (aka nirvana)

As you might have noticed, the eighth limb takes a more religious turn; although we may not practice yoga in hopes of uniting with the gods, the sutras still provide a valuable basis for yoga practices and ultimately led to the creation of modern yoga as we know it today.

The beauty of yoga is that it is accessible to nearly everyone. It can be adopted to a wide array of mobility, flexibility, time one has to practice, and more. All you need is a yoga mat (I’ve been using the same $15 mat I got from TJ Maxx for over four years), a few minutes out of your day, and a laptop.

I am particularly fond of the practices by Yoga with Adriene, a YouTube channel run by a yogi named—you guessed it—Adriene. She is quite popular in the yoga world (and has over 12 million followers!), and for good cause: She has created nearly 700 yoga tutorials of all different kinds. She has practices dedicated for people who only have 10 minutes to spare, practices for people with back and shoulder pain, practices for managing anxiety, and more. Plus, her dog, Benji, often makes an appearance in her videos.

Besides strengthening your mind and body, yoga can have plentiful positive effects on one’s wellbeing. According to Harvard Health, yoga can improve one’s body image, help promote more mindful eating, boost weight loss, increase overall fitness, and improve cardiovascular health. With all of these benefits in mind, if you’re looking to enhance your mindfulness skills and physical health, yoga is definitely worth a try—you might surprise yourself with what you find!