The science and practice of yoga has been in existence for thousands of years. Its origins are lost in antiquity. The ancient sages and saints would leave the householder's life and go off into the mountains, and live a simple lifestyle whose central focus was meditation.

They would meditate for years, and an inner space of awareness unfolded that revealed to them the tenets of what has come to be known as "yoga".

Based on their findings, the original scriptures were created that showed, step by step, the path to highest awareness.

These included guidelines for maintaining a healthy body and mind; various physical postures and regulation of the breath; mental concentration and contemplation techniques; and finally, the culmination of all the preparatory steps, meditation and the attainment of a transcendent state of bliss and peace from which the practicant never wavers.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit work "yog" which means balance or union. All the physical postures or "asanas" comprise the aspect of yoga which is called "hatha". The word hatha comes from the Sanskrit roots "ha" and "tha", which refer to the channels that regulate the heating and cooling principals in the body. The right side is the hot, positive, solar, masculine principal, and the left side is the cool, receptive, lunar, feminine principal. When these two channels are in a state of balance, or "yog", you have "hatha yoga".

The goal of hatha yoga, is to achieve a state of physical suppleness and mental and emotional well-being that will allow one to sit in asana, so that they can begin to meditate and, ultimately, transcend the limitations of the physical world, including time and space. In recent years, the term yoga has become widely associated with a variety of physical exercises which are tailored to every body type and level of physical fitness.