A Few Words About Yoga
Types of Yoga
What is Yoga?
The word Yoga comes from yui, a 5,000 year-old Sanskrit word meaning to yoke, join, or unite. The Iyengar school of Yoga defines yui as the “joining or integrating of all aspects of the individual—body, mind, and soul—to achieve a happy, balanced, and useful life.” Reaching kaivalya, emancipation or ultimate freedom, is the aim of Yoga. The science of Yoga uses asanas (postures), focused concentration on specific body parts, and pranayama (breathing techniques) to unify the body with the mind and the mind with the soul. There are many forms of Yoga practice. Read on for brief definitions of a few of the more popular forms that are experiencing a worldwide renaissance.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha Yoga is gentle with subtle, smooth poses. The focus is on holding the pose while merging your breathing into your movements. Hatha is the foundation of most Yoga styles. During the practice, slow, controlled movements and an awareness of how your body is performing help achieve a calm and graceful state. Hatha stretches you, works your muscles, gets you more tuned in to your body, and helps lower stress.
Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar Yoga is similar to Hatha, but poses are held longer and focus more on alignment and balance. You move slowly into poses, hold them for a minute or so, and then take a few breaths before moving to the next position. The tools of Iyengar Yoga include straps, blankets, and blocks, and these props enable those recovering from injuries, the disabled, and the elderly to practice this form.
Bikram Yoga
Bikram Yoga, also called hot Yoga, is practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat and movement helps loosen the muscles while the sweating cleanses the body. This method is a complete workout for muscular strength and endurance, cardio flexibility, and weight loss. For people with heart disease or high blood pressure, there are risks, so speak to your physician about this practice before starting a program.
Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini Yoga concentrates on awakening the energy at the base of the spine. Breathing, chanting, and meditation give this practice a spiritual component. It fully engages you physically and mentally, and can be practiced with a partner.
Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga, or power Yoga, is an aggressive workout that moves quickly from one pose to another to build strength and endurance. Synchronizing breathing with progressive and constant movement produces internal heat and makes you sweat, which helps circulation, stamina, and calms your mind.
Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti Yoga emphasizes love and devotion. This is a prayerful practice that can include aids to stimulate prayer, such as chanting, singing, and mantras.
The Benefits of Yoga
Yoga benefits go well beyond stress management. Regular practice can increase flexibility and improve balance. The pranayama, or breathing techniques, can have positive effects on asthma, depression, lower back pain, and memory. Yoga, combined with diet, aerobic exercise, and meditation, can help with cardiovascular disease rates and blood pressure levels. Yoga helps people cope better with daily demands and to sleep more soundly.
Traditional Yoga philosophy requires students to reach their ultimate kavalya, or freedom, by adopting a lifestyle of good behavior, diet, and meditation. Consider adding Yoga as a component to enhance your total wellness and fitness program.
Renew, Relax & Reflect with Yoga for life.
Throughout the world, thousands of individuals regularly attend group yoga classes seeking the benefits of this timeless science of self. Oftentimes - initially joining a class with the notion of losing weight, or gaining flexibility, only to find a subtle mingling of mind, body and spirit. Yoga has a profound and powerful effect on the human psyche which is the result of thousands of years of observation, careful collection and comparison of data and meticulous transmission of information from teacher to student. This experiential lineage-based methodology, fully articulated in the Yoga Sutras, is the basis for yoga’s ability to transform individuals and reduce suffering. Yoga’s strategy of guided reflection leading to contrary action extends far beyond the simple level of physical postures into yoga’s more subtle, complex realms: relationships, lifestyle, breath, senses and ultimately the life-shaping patterns of the deepest unconscious mind. Yogic consciousness outlines a relationship between the clear unchanging consciousness at the center of all living things and an ever-changing conditioned mind, subject to addiction, distortion and delusion. According to the yoga sutras, the mind’s inherent tendency to confuse two similar objects, (happiness/money, wisdom/knowledge, need/greed, love/lust, choice/habit, spirit/form, freedom/power) causes us to continuously choose that which leads to suffering over that which leads to joy. Yoga’s solution to this universal dilemma is viveka, the ability to discriminate between two things which are very close together or similar in appearance. One can cultivate abundant viveka, according to Patanjali, the author of the yoga sutras; through long-term uninterrupted, enthusiastic, guided practice of the Ashtanga, or eight limbs of yoga. The eight limbs model presents tools for replacing inefficient, outdated patterns of perception and behavior in six areas of living. The six areas are: relationships, lifestyle, body, breath, senses and mind. The tools include relationship guidelines, physical postures, breath control and various techniques for improving the senses, mind and emotions. Ultimately, all yoga’s tools are aimed at cultivating a balanced mind. Such a stable mind, according to sutra 1:2, can more easily focus on and sustain relationships with chosen objects over time. In a dualistic universe filled with infinite possibilities, our ability to make intelligent choices, clarify values, behave with respect to those values and embrace the consequences of our actions is essential for an individual or society to flourish. The practice of postures (asanas) in yoga is an essential strategy that embodies the spirit of yoga and enables every action, from the extraordinary to the everyday to be highly effective, deeply transformational and utterly joyful.
