Yoga is a group of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. It refers to technologies or disciplines of asceticism and meditation which are thought to lead to spiritual experience and profound understanding or insight into the nature of existence. Yoga is also intimately connected to the religious beliefs and practices. Yoga in the context of Indian philosophy, is one of the six orthodox (astika) schools of thought, established by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The Eight Limbs of yoga practice are:

1. Yama (The five "abstentions"): nonviolence, truth, non-covetousness, chastity, and abstain from attachment to possessions.
2. Niyama (The five "observances"): purity, contentment, austerities, study, and surrender to god
3. Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to seated positions used for meditation. Later, with the rise of Hatha yoga, asana came to refer to all the "postures"
4. Pranayama ("Lengthening Prana"): Prana, life force, or vital energy, particularly, the breath, "ayama", to lengthen or extend
5. Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.
6. Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object
7. Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation
8. Samadhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of meditation

Yoga is a way of leading life. It purifies mind and body and is effective in the control of some common physical disorders such as blood pressure and diabetis.