Here is my 2nd post:
Blog 1 for Tokyo Center – 1 July, 2025 by Swami Pranavananda
Yoga for Communication
What does yoga have to do with improving communication? You may not perceive a connection, and think that communication is only improved by taking more time to talk, studying psychology, seeing a therapist, looking into your childhood, reading books on the subject, and practicing non-violent communication with others as a training. Of course, all of the above will help, but there is one element missing: calmness.
Yoga is primarily a teaching of calmness, beginning with specific physical exercises that have been tested for centuries. Then, breathing exercises are employed as a more subtle approach. Finally, sitting for meditation and using a special calming sound called a mantra is used to offer some temporary relief from mental and emotional turmoil. But there is one more component the classical yoga system offers: positive thinking.
It seems like a lot of time and effort: exercise, breathing, meditation, and positive thinking. But please understand that true yogis are even busier than most of us! Yogis, meaning people who have achieved a high level of calmness, know the secret: positive thinking is practiced by acknowledging the connection between all things, and acting from that awareness.
The secret is becoming aware of our motivations. What are we attempting to achieve? If we understand that life offers continual opportunities to practice calmness, then we take a step back from only thinking about our achievements as what we create in the material world. We realize that we are also constantly influencing the calmness of those around us and supporting the entire world with our selfless intentions.
Yoga teaches that we need two approaches to calmness: First, we can do the basic practices of postures, breathing, and sitting for meditation with a mantra. Second, we can view every moment of our life as a crucial contribution to the peace and happiness of all things. In yoga philosophy, you will find the words abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (detachment) to express this idea. In my next blog, you will find more on these two pillars of calmness!
Author: Swami_Pranavananda
Swami Pranavananda, hails from the USA, and has been a Yoga and Meditation teacher since 1995 in the US and abroad. He teaches mainly the Hatha Yoga and Anatomy sections for the TTC courses. He was the director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in Los Angeles, CA and San Francisco, CA for a few years. Currently he is serving in Vietnam and Japan teaching in the Hochiminh center and Tokyo center. He enjoys taking classes to learn Vietnamese.
