Yoga has developed over a very long time, from the ancient Indian meditating in a forest or cave, to the modern student trying to fit in a yoga class on the way home from the office. One of the reasons why so many people continue to find it helpful is that it looks at people - mind, body, emotions and all the rest. There have been a lot of technological and cultural developments over the last few thousand years or so, but human nature has not changed all that much . We still experience pain, happiness, fear, ambition, desires, dislikes and misunderstandings.

The early yogis (as well as many of the more recent ones) were interested in what lay beyond the body and the mind. But they recognised that as long as they were troubled by physical and mental problems they would be hindered by them. So the first step is an active form of yoga to develop a feeling of integration and to reduce those disturbances. The problems don't go away, but we can be less bothered by them.

The practices that are used to develop this sense of wholeness and well-being are:

• Yoga postures, breathing and meditation performed in a way that respects the health and constitution of the student, together with attention to other factors such as diet.
  
  
• Self-awareness. By looking inwards at our own thought processess we can begin to see the effect our own patterns of behaviour have in our lives.
  
  
• Attitude. Yoga teaches the importance of paying attention to the quality of our actions without being disappointed if things don't turn out as we expect.

If developing a feeling of wholeness and reducing the disturbing effects of your problems is not enough for you, if you won't be satisfied until you have really got to the root of the trouble, then there are further practices. But it is important not to try to skip the preliminaries. Stability and integration will be important qualities for anyone who wants to tackle the challenges of taking control of their unruly mind!