The Deeper Purpose of Asana-s

“sthira sukham asanam”

The Yoga Sutra states that being steady and comfortable is itself an asana. This is because asana isn’t considered (according to the scriptures) a pose but a state of the body and the mind. When your body and mind are steady and comfortable, even when your body is challenged out of its comfort zone, you are in a “state of asana," but when your mind gets distracted by your senses and the body starts struggling in pain and discomfort, you are no longer in this state.

This is why, it takes a long time of dedicated practice to be able to train the body and mind to sustain this state of asana. Let’s set the goal of our yoga asana practice to experience - sthira sukham asanam.

Reference: article by Arhanta Yoga