When your brand new to yoga, it can feel intimidating and be difficult to know exactly where and how to get started.
Here is a little sample of what to expect from the 20-day awareness course!
Yoga attains the union of mind-body-spirit through a practice of asanas (yoga postures), pranayama (yoga breathing), mudra (body gestures), and shatkarma (internal cleansing).
Yoga derives from the Sanskrit word, ‘use’ (YUJ). It means to connect, connect, or unite. It is the union of individual consciousness with universal consciousness.
Yoga is a practice that works on eight levels of development in the fields of mental, physical, spiritual, and social health. The mind remains clear and focused as long as physical health is intact. The main goals of yoga include:
Physical Health
Mental Health
Spiritual Health
Sense of Self
Social health
Focus On the Breath
This is a phrase you’ll hear in almost any yoga class you attend. The instructor tells you to flow with your breath. To be in your breath. To deepen your poses on the exhales. When your focus is only on the physical side of the practice, these phrases can be misunderstood as a method for perfecting the pose, deepening flexibility, or becoming better at yoga. This mentality is where people get stuck in achieving and striving instead of finding the inner peace that is the true point of the practice.
Instead, the breath is a method for deepening awareness. When you focus on the breath you are encouraging yourself to perceive your experience rather than becoming stuck in your inner thoughts. The breath is a vehicle for deepening self-awareness and accepting ourselves without judgment. Practicing breathwork gives you a chance to observe and notice – without reacting to – your thoughts and external sensory stimulus.
So instead of focusing on the physical, here are the steps to follow to use the breath to deepen self-awareness
- STEP 1: Bring your attention to the back of your throat (around the sinus area) Slowly, and intentionally, begin to breathe from there. Notice how the breath starts and moves through the throat and how the chest rises and falls with the breath.
STEP 2: Pay closer attention to the inhale – making a soft Darth Vader like sound. Listen to the sound you are making when you breathe in and out. Allow this sound to become your focus and allow the breath to be your focus and do not pay any attention to your thoughts. - STEP 3: Take 5 long deep breaths – paying attention to the sound before you start to move into your physical yoga asana practice See if you can place 75 -80 percent of your attention on the sound of your breath
- STEP 4: Start moving – do your asana practice – but keep your attention on the breath
- Notice when the mental chatter starts – and return as soon as you can to noticing the breath -by listening to the breath.
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