Yoga Enjoy – Page 15 – All About Yoga: Poses, Types, Benefits, and More

Pranayama: The 4th Limb of Yoga Explained

March 4, 2017

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It’s not for nothing that the breath plays an important role in asana class. You begin the class by focusing on your breath, and everything kind of settles down. The day and its activities start seeming more distant, and all of a sudden there is no hurry anywhere anymore.

The breath truly is the key in moving distractions from the mind.

What is Pranayama?

Pranayama is the fourth limb of the eightfold path of yoga. Prana is the vital life force and energy that runs through our body. This beautiful energy is constantly flowing through us, and through all living beings.

My yoga teacher used to say that the quality of our breath determines the quality of our lives, and many yogis believed that the length of one’s life is determined by number of breaths, not by number of years. The deeper you breathe, the longer you can live.

Pranayama is the act of controlling and directing this energy, namely by controlling the flow of breath. Pranayama involves many different breathing techniques that aim at slightly different results.

We can use the breath to calm and balance ourselves, to energize the body and the mind, to cool or heat the body, but it always aims at promoting and maintaining our overall health.

The Effects of Pranayama Practice

When we can control the breath, we can control the mind. If the mind is anxious, usually the breath tends to be shallow and fast, which in turn sends a signal to the nervous system that something is wrong.

By focusing and deliberately guiding and con[……]

Power Yoga

6 Tips for Modifying Your Power Yoga Practice During Pregnancy

February 27, 2017

I am almost three years out from practicing and teaching power yoga while pregnant but I still receive questions all the time about modifying power yoga for pregnancy while still maintaining a strong/regular practice. I recently relocated these prenatal yoga photos that Scott Broome shot for me a few weeks before my due date and just received the same question from a fellow expecting teacher and was inspired to write a post on the topic!

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The most important thing to remember is that every single body is different and what feels good for one pregnant woman might not be the right thing for another. Personally, I was able to practice throughout my entire pregnancy and felt really great in my body but I have friends and students who either greatly scaled their practice or stopped practicing all together during pregnancy because it wasn’t working for them. I truly believe there’s not a black and white, right or wrong for practicing yoga during pregnancy and so much of it is unique to the yogi’s body and the baby they are carrying.

And now….here are my top tips for modifying your power practice for pregnancy with the assumption that you are listening to your body, practicing within the scope of what’s reasonable for your body and that your midwife or doctor is on board. Most of these tips are most applicable to the second half of pregnancy when your belly starts to really grow but can be implemented throughout all of pregnancy.

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1. Widen legs and soften knees in forward folds.

Wide[……]

Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga Meditation – Benefits & How to Do?

January 6, 2017

Do you want to achieve enlightenment? Learn Kundalini Yoga meditation, the school of yoga that awakens your full potential for awareness of the spiritual.

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Introduction

Kundalini is a powerful style of meditation that can help you achieve enlightenment through a combination of different techniques. In this article, you will learn everything you need about Kundalini Yoga meditation, its potential benefits, how to practice it, and other meditation styles to help you achieve your goal.

Intro to Kundalini Yoga

“Kundalini” is a Sanskrit term meaning “coiled,” as it lies at the base of your spine (Root chakra), coiled like a snake. It is a specific type of meditation that may help you achieve the ability to have full awareness, awakening, or enlightenment.

Where Kundalini came from is not clear. However, according to studies, it has been practiced in India since 500 BCE. Practitioners of Kundalini believe that everyone has the divine within them. This divine sometimes lays dormant and needs an awakening.

In the west, Yogi Bhajan popularised the Kundalini Yoga meditation. He developed and introduced his style of Kundalini yoga in the United States in the late 1960s. Since then, it has become popular.

Practitioners of Kundalini yoga meditation report the following benefits:

Increase in awareness

Improvement in how they communicate with themselves and others

Being more inspired

Increase in mental clarity

Feeling more self-confidence

Feeling of greater purpose

Kundalini Yoga meditation[……]

Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga and Equanimity of Mind

December 5, 2016

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Developing equanimity that remains steady under all circumstances whether favourable or hostile is a paramount teaching of the Gita. At the same time, cultivation of equanimity is indispensable for practising Karma Yoga. Attainment of liberated status of soul that remains unmoved by what happens in the outer life is the end of all yogic pursuits. This free status of self is attained when one develops the power to remain immersed in his inner life completely surrendered to the Divine. In case of Karma Yoga, one can perform actions in life as given to him by the Divine without being distracted by the outer life disturbances from his immersion in soul life.

Equanimity is difficult to attain, given constitution of human nature. We, the humans, are egoistic, emotional beings. We principally deal with the world emotionally as the power of reasoning is still a very weak force in our life.

However, as we progress in yoga our detachment with life deepens. As we grow increasingly detached, the normal reactions to the life situations fall off from our nature and consequently, equanimity becomes stronger in us. The Gita says that true equanimity comes straight from the soul. Equanimity attained through mind is unstable.

Karma Yoga in its true sense cannot succeed if we fail to attain the free status of our self that is ever unmoved by the caprices of outer life. This free status of self is not affected in the least even if we are dynamically involved in multifarious activities of life.

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Jnana Yoga

The Jnana Yoga of Adi Shankara

November 24, 2016

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Sri Adi Shankara is considered to have shaped the Hindu religion for the 1200 years following his disappearance from the world at age 32 in the early part of the ninth century. Having brought forth the advaita philosophy in its fully systematized and polished form, he is considered one of the greatest Jnana Yoga teachers. Swami Yoganandaji was the first person to be initiated by Swami Satchidananda into the Holy Order of Sannyas. Later, Swami Yoganandaji devoted his life to the study and dissemination of the teachings of Sri Shankara.

Integral Yoga Magazine: How did you meet Gurudev Swami Satchidananda, and could you share some memories of your early discipleship?

Swami Yogananda: I began my spiritual quest around the age of 14 when I discovered the practice of Hatha Yoga, while I was living in Paris. Three or four years later, I heard about Gurudev from a friend of mine who had met him at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center near Paris in 1966, during Gurudev’s very first visit to Paris. I met Gurudev the year after, and I immediately felt he was of a divine nature. He gave mantra diksha [initiation] to me in 1969. A few months later, I went to India and stayed with a sannyasi (monk) in Rishikesh. From there, I wrote to Gurudev that I wished to utter the vow of complete renunciation, as I deeply felt there was no other way to attain peace. In due time, Sri Gurudev graced me with sannyasa diksha in 1971, at his Ashram in Kandy, Sri Lanka. I was 22. I spent one full month with Guru[……]

Jivamukti Yoga

Jivamjkti Yoga: What can you expect from a class

October 5, 2016

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Of the many different branches in the yoga tree, Jivamjkti Yoga may well be one of the lesser understood types of class. Created in 1984 by David Life and Sharon Gannon, it has gained a huge amount of popularity in a short space of time, and has spread worldwide – but what exactly is it, and what should you expect from a Jivamukti yoga class?

It is one of the most powerful and structured practices for experiencing yoga. As well as an intense physical asana practice, it incorporates many spiritual aspects of yoga – making it both physically and emotionally challenging and stimulating.

A Jivamukti session encompasses the 5 core tenets of the Jivamukti practice. From learning more about ancient scripture (Shastra), to offering your intent of devotion (Bhakti), the practice also focuses on practising kindness to others and yourself (ahimsa). We especially love the focus on music (nada) and meditation (dhyana).

What many love about Jivamukti yoga is the richness of the practice. Many teachers start their practice with a scripture of choice, demonstrated in a form of chanting and reading. Even if you are not used to chanting, it is a great way to experience by being in a room of people who are comfortable doing so. Use it as a chance to immerse yourself in the vibes of music and let go a little.

After the initial opening, a class will then move on to warming up to an energetic and stimulating flow of sequences. A Jivamukti sequence is a really great mix of energies – it’s less str[……]

Iyengar Yoga

IYENGAR YOGA SELF-PRACTICE SEQUENCE

September 9, 2016

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The ability to practise yoga alone in your own space, in your own time, at your own pace, with your own feelings and reflections, is beneficial in evolving and deepening one’s practice. Here an Iyengar practice sequence is provided that can be used to develop a self-practice routine.

Benefits of self-practice

Practising within the energy of a group in a class environment, in a dedicated yoga space, and with the direction and assistance of an experienced teacher, is necessary in the beginning, and is vital for generating the impetus, confidence and maturity to practice alone. Moreover self-practice is not something that everyone one wants to pursue. For some, life is busy, and attending classes regularly is aspiration enough! Depending on one’s circumstances, however, self-practice may be more viable for some, and perhaps seem a natural evolution from attending classes.

Practising alone allows for a level of reflection that may not be as possible to achieve within a class context. For the most part, in a class, students are guided by the teacher, both in terms of the sequence and where to direct one’s attention within the pose. Of course, this is all necessary for at least the first few years of one’s yoga journey, to become acquainted with how to do the poses with a sense of competence and what adaptations may be required for one’s individual circumstances. At some stage, however, for the practice to become a true yoga practice space is needed for the reflective (or vairagya[……]