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The goal of a spiritual path is to raise our consciousness to allow us to directly perceive the spiritual dimension. Being spiritual means to recognize one's spiritual identity and practically see the transcendental essence of all others. It also means to realize that we are all connected to God and to respect each other in that light. That is one of the objectives of Yoga. But how can we be sure that there even is a God?

This comes by a reawakening of our higher consciousness and the knowledge of our spiritual identity. It is through the process of yoga and the pathway of Sanatana-dharma that we may reach this higher consciousness and perceive exactly who we are. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali make up the essence of yoga practice. However, yoga itself is a deep and serious process, and there are a variety of types of yoga that can be practiced. There are four main types of yoga depending on the yoga positions. There is:

Jnana-yoga is the pathway of intellectual growth and understanding what is real and what is not.

Karma-yoga is the pathway of right action, detachment from the fruits of one's deeds, and committing our activities for a higher and spiritual purpose. Raja-yoga or Astanga is the pathway of inward meditation and the attainment of higher states of consciousness through various practices. Bhakti-yoga is the pathway of raising our consciousness, increasing our devotion and love for God and decreasing our attraction for the various aspects of the temporary material energy.

There are other types of yoga, but they are often considered branches of these four main paths.

However, in the earliest stages, yoga is, essentially, a tool for controlling the flickering nature of the mind, and for promoting the growth of one's finer traits and expanding one's consciousness from material to spiritual consciousness. It is explained that Yoga is the process of completely calming the activities of the mind, which include sleep, memory, perceived knowledge, imagination, and misconception. When these are stabilized, then it can be called yoga, which offers the opportunity for the seer to fully realize his own fundamental and essential nature. Yoga is the attempt to realign our "individual" Selves with the Supreme Self, God.

When you practice yoga you can feel the undesirable burdens of the mind fall away, such as discontent, hate, envy, greed, anxiety, anger, etc. Then other qualities like blissfulness, contentment, peacefulness, and tranquility will be felt. These are qualities everyone is trying to find and are among the many things that can be achieved with yoga, at least on the elementary level. As you continue to progress, you may enter into the deeper levels of understanding and transcending the mind and eventually go so far as to realize your own spiritual identity and what your relationship is with the Absolute. Becoming free from material life and regaining one's spiritual identity is the goal of all forms of yoga.

But in spite of all these benefits, people frequently find it quite difficult to follow this path. This is because they lack the motivation to exercise. Once you start performing Yoga on a regular basis, it can itself keep you motivated. The benefit of motivation from Yoga practice is what makes Yoga so different from all other health maintenance systems. Yoga can become a part of your everyday life because there is no torture.

Why do most diets fail? Why do most exercisers quit? Lack of motivation is the reason for diet and exercise failure. People already know they should exercise, eat better, walk more, and drink more water, but they need to stay motivated without "burning out."

In Yoga, positive energy is all around the classroom. Positive energy generates exercise motivation and generates strong visions of success. The next step is to believe the powerful visions of success, which you see. Some people are afraid to be successful. Maybe they inherently feel a lack of self-worth, but Yoga also works on boosting one's self-esteem. It is normal for people to feel apprehensive about change, but change is often one of the keys to success.

We can say that consistency acts as the key as far as the benefits of yoga are concerned while we have to take care of the yoga positions. We can't benefit from yoga if we are not consistent with our routine. If we fail to be consistent, then it is hard to get the positive results and yoga can't be blamed for this. To stay motivated, a beneficial technology is hypnosis i.e. Hypnotherapy.

Self hypnosis has proven to be extremely helpful in getting and keeping us motivated. Self-hypnosis is based on the formula of visual imagery and auto suggestion, and it works on deeper levels than one can imagine. Motivational hypnosis converses with your unconscious mind, and urges it to positively enhance your sense of self-image and self-perception.

Unknown to us, our unconscious is largely responsible for the way we think and react. If we train it to think along more positive lines, your accompanying behavior will change too. You will feel motivated to understand the incredible potential that lies within all of us, and by using hypnotherapy techniques you can tap into that potential. Through positive affirmations such as "I can do it" along with powerful visual imagery, self hypnosis programs can retrain your mind into believing that anything is possible, and nothing is impossible. This simply means that yoga in conjunction with hypnosis can help us to achieve success more quickly.