A Beginner’s guide to start Yoga asana practice

by Usha Ramkumar | India | May 21, 2022 | Lifestyle

A Beginner’s guide to start Yoga asana practice

Would you like to start doing yoga but don’t know anything about the practice? Or are you a beginner and would like to enter this world on the right foot? Are you thinking of attending a yoga class but don’t know where to start?

Then this article is perfect for you.

Getting Started

Maintaining the harmony of body and mind is the secret to balancing health and having a peaceful and happy life. And yoga can be of great help for that. This millennial philosophy of life and practice emerged in India and gained even more supporters in the pandemic when many people needed extra help to maintain sanity during isolation. The ultimate goal of yoga is to connect the body with the mind and spirit to release anxieties and tensions and develop the vital energy that everyone has within them.

Hatha Yoga

This style is for beginners who want to start gradually. It consists of a more traditional practice, with poses held for 5 to 10 breaths at a slow, controlled pace. However, it is good to clarify that if you are a person who really struggles to relax and is very dynamic, Hatha Yoga could be complicated because a remarkable ability to concentrate is required.

Vinyasa (Krama / Flow) Ashtanga Yoga

These are two very dynamic types of yoga, where the breath is connected to the movement, which can be more or less fluid depending on the case, without great pauses between one asana and another.

It is important to consider that although they may be similar, these styles have different origins and some substantial differences:

Vinyasa (Krama) Yoga: practice supported and refined by the one who is still defined as the father of modern yoga, T. Krishnamacharya. ‘Vinyasa Krama’ means ‘cleverly constructed progressive sequence. ‘ It is a guided sequence, always in a different way, with some precautions that make it effective for the practitioner, helping him to enter complex positions safely and gradually. The classes are dynamic but maintain the asanas for several breaths, so they can also be challenging from the point of view of concentration.
Vinyasa (Flow) Yoga: deriving from the more traditional Vinyasa Krama style, Vinyasa Flow has evolved in the West as a mix of yoga asana, contemporary dance, conscious movement, martial arts, and much more. All the styles derived and invented by Western teachers, such as Power Yoga, Prana Flow, Rocket Yoga, Anukalana Yoga, etc. These types of classes may vary depending on the teacher, but in general, the common feature is that we move (and sweat) a lot!
Ashtanga Yoga was developed by one of T. Krishnamacharya’s students, namely Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. In this case, a specific sequence of asanas is performed, which always remains the same: in fact, it always starts from the first series and continues to do it and repeat it until it is fully learned, and then moves on to the next one. I do not recommend the type of class called “Ashtanga Mysore” for beginners because it requires knowledge of the sequence already practiced individually without the teacher’s help.

Choose a suitable yoga style

Today, there are tons of types of yoga that you can choose from.

Some are calmer and more static such as Hatha Yoga, others are much more physical and dynamic, such as Ashtanga, and still, others are completely different practices from others, such as laughter yoga.

Choosing the most suitable style for you is very important, because in this way you will be able to experience greater benefits and in less time.

There are many factors that can influence the choice; let’s see together the most important ones:

Age: The expectations of a young person are totally different from those of someone who is older in age. Usually, young people prefer a much more vigorous and dynamic practice, while as we age, we prefer a much calmer and more relaxing style of yoga. But there are many exceptions.
Purpose: What people want to achieve with yoga can be very different from one individual to another. Some try to lose weight; others try to get stronger; still, others try to eliminate stress. The choice of a style also depends on this. Certainly, if you want to increase your strength, you will have to orient yourself towards a much more dynamic and rigorous style such as Ashtanga; however, if your problem is stress, you will have to move towards a more calm and relaxing style. However, many benefits are common, only that you get there through different paths.
Specific problems: if you have a specific type of problem, certainly the right choice for you is a type of therapeutic yoga, where the teacher focuses on you and your specific problem, making you do a different practice depending on your need.
Work: by this, I mean that depending on the work you do, you may choose a different style. For example, if you do a very physical and stressful job, you could opt for a calm and relaxing style. On the contrary, if you sit at a desk all day, the best option, in my opinion, is a more rigorous and physical practice.

So get informed and make a choice that suits you.

How to tell if you are practicing yoga correctly

Already after a few weeks of constant practice, you can have visible results such as a more correct posture, an increase in concentration, and a decrease in stress.

With yoga, the body regains its harmony, and one feels relaxed and at the same time full of energy and vitality.

If at the end of the sessions you do not feel regenerated, but you feel tired and have a sense of discomfort or malaise, you are probably not doing the exercises well, or you do not have the right attitude towards the discipline.

It is important to perform the positions taking into account your limits and abilities, especially at the beginning. Feeling pain during the first lessons is absolutely normal because the body has to get used to the new movements.

You should never overdo it or want to get a certain result quickly, everyone has their own time, and yoga is by definition the discipline of slowness and calm.

With perseverance and commitment, enormous benefits can also be obtained in everyday life.

Finally,

When you start this journey, it is vitally important to find the right teacher you like and who is connected with you.

ASHAexperience is a healing community platform that connects people and Ayurvedic Doctors with experienced yoga teachers. ASHAexperience’s ever-expanding teaching and healing community is trained to understand body anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, and traditional yoga practice.

And with this strength of knowledge, they are able to create personalized and effective yoga programs for each student. So, are you ready to channel your inner yogi?

We believe in collaborative relationship-based care where our Ayurvedic Doctors, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Ayurvedic Supplement Brands, Ayurvedic Nutritionists & Chefs, Yoga, and Meditation Trainers are in sync. Contact the team who passionately works together to hold your hand in this healing journey.

Embrace Yoga with rhythm of music and dance

by Midhat Zehra | UK | Apr 21, 2022 | Lifestyle

Embrace Yoga with rhythm of music and dance

How can we embrace yoga with the rhythm of music and dance? We all know the benefits of yoga on elasticity, balance, joints and mental well-being. But imagine these, enhanced by soft and influential music, which allows you to perform the typical movements of Indian dance.

Dancing, in Western culture, is a widespread form of entertainment, both for the dancer and the spectator. But in its origins, dancing was also a way to connect with people in the same community and celebrate. Dance can be a manifestation of harmony and peace with the environment, and in this way, it can be easily linked with yoga.

Yoga and its healing power

Yoga is an ancient philosophy that takes us to the state of Union or Integration with ourselves and with everything around us. In the view of Yoga, there is no separation between body, mind and spirit. Through some tools like pranayama (breathing), asanas (physical postures), meditation and others, we can experience presence and awareness from moment to moment. The practice of Yoga takes us to bring the outside look into ourselves, connecting with the present moment and discovering a little more about the limitless nature of our own Being.

Thus, Yoga leads to self-knowledge, making us increasingly skilled in dealing with life and living one day at a time with awareness, tranquility, and balance. Practice does not transform us into something we are not but reveals our true nature that is often hidden by the confusion and distortions of the mind.

Dance has been an ancestral art and expression of humanity since its beginnings. When we dance, we are not just doing something physical but also moving the whole story and emotions stored in our cells. We are letting all this content come to the surface through body movements.

Yoga Dance has its roots in Indian mythology where dance is sacred. When a god dance, everything that exists enters a continuous transformation process. In this tradition, every human being is considered divine in its essence, and dance provides the possibility to access the spiritual potential of the body. In addition to Indian culture, Yoga Dance has influences from tantra, Vedanta, shamanism, cultural dances, and spontaneous movement, thus uniting all ancestral wisdom with contemporary experience.

How are dance and yoga related?

Yoga does not exclusively represent doing postures and meditations, all on the mat. If we take into account that the word yoga itself means union (union with consciousness). It is a great fortune that this ancient science unites with other disciplines to help us experience our spirit. Currently, different philosophies and arts have been integrated into yoga to enrich the experience of all the branches that invite awareness and exploration of being. Among them is dance.

You are probably wondering how dance and yoga could be mixed to create a yoga of dance. Well, this fusion is based on the movements, styles and rhythms of dance integrated with yogic tools such as breathing, focus, mudras and awareness of the energy centers in the body (known as chakras). The result is Shakti Dance or Yoga Dance.

Yoga Dance is defined as “a style of yoga that combines fluid movement with music in a yoga practice.” In it, yogis practice postures to the beat of the music, which can be as simple as drumming or traditional chanting (such as mantras).

As an emerging style, it has many ways to be practiced; instructors who take it for their daily practice do so based on their criteria, tastes, or class needs. Therefore, we can find various fusions—for example, fluid yoga with hints of artistic gymnastics.

Benefits of Yoga Dance

Since the dawn of our culture, dance has strengthened social ties and emerged as one of the most therapeutic and healthy movements. Dancing provides great benefits on a physical level, such as giving us stronger muscles and bones and improving our balance and coordination. Also, on a mental level, dancing gives us energy and improves our mood, reduces stress, and even helps us with memory, reducing the risk of dementia. If we add to this the benefits that yoga brings, it seems that combining both disciplines can bring us quite close to full well-being.

Yoga Dance is a discipline that merges both worlds to bring fluidity and naturalness to movement in search of a deep connection with our interior.

This type of yoga creates a creative, energetic, devotional and spiritual space that connects the practitioner both with their physical body and with the conception they have of it and the free expression of their own language, which makes it yoga that balances the body-mind-spirit to expand consciousness, increase the possibilities of body movement, and promote physical, mental and emotional health.

Yoga Dance includes everything from gentle stretching exercises to dynamic movements, free dance, relaxation and meditation, as well as choreography with mantras to reorganize energy not only individually but also in groups. Its benefits are multiple and very enriching: it invigorates all body systems, increases cardiovascular health, circulation and breathing, improves posture and coordination, increases flexibility and muscle tone, reduces stress and increases vitality, and also increases self-esteem.

The Ultimate Guide to Unleash Your Spiritual Power in 5 Easy Steps

by Hubert Patry, Founder | Switzerland | Dec 15, 2021 | Lifestyle

The Ultimate Guide to Unleash Your Spiritual Power in 5 Easy Steps

Whenever someone mentions the word “spiritual power”, the first thing that comes to many minds is running off to Peru, or maybe even an Indian Ashram like The Beatles did!

This misconception is widely spread. But you might be surprised to know that spirituality can be found even in your own home.
You do not have to leave your comfort zone to find it. There are various ways to be spiritually awakened and realize one’s higher power, such as through practices like Yoga and Meditation, just like I did.
We’ll go into all the details of just how simple the process is in this blog.

How to attain Spiritual Power?

To begin with ,

Be Mindful of Your Intention

The first step of being more conscious is to simply acknowledge that you want to open yourself up to gain a new awareness level. This realization and intention itself is the start of a lifelong journey.

You will then consciously accept your yearning for learning about topics related to consciousness, energy, the study of the human mind and explore topics related to karma or the cause and effect theories, spirituality, meditation & mindfulness, love & relationships etc.

It’s almost like opening Pandora’s box where you will explore life with an infinite amount of knowledge waiting for you ahead.

Boost Your Mind

As you start your spiritual journey, let the solid pillars of knowledge and curiosity be the constant guides to help you grow as an individual.

Start absorbing all sorts of knowledge from everywhere! Try your best to listen to TED talks, read books and listen even more to podcasts!

You may ask why should you expand your mind?

When you read, learn or listen to others, you get to learn more about people and their life experiences. You get to learn about the different perspectives in this world, which you might otherwise never have been aware of.

Only when you break away from the sweet slumber can you experience a spiritual awakening!

Put Your Well-Being First

If you’re putting off those early morning walks, not eating right or making no time for the gym, then you cannot connect with your higher power -because you are not respectful to the body!

Be mindful of what you put in your body and stay active. When we allow our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects to become overwhelmed, we block holistic growth opportunities.

Keep your spirit clean by feeding it well, moving along, communicating with colleagues, taking breaks, attending the yoga class or meditation retreats if possible, or simply deep breathing regularly.

Go Out

Nature has a miraculous way of getting rid of the energy and stress from your mind. There is so much magic to be found in nature – from trees to flowers, grass–all you have to do is walk among it.

Also, meet people- we as a race have become so accustomed to relying on technology that sometimes you forget how integral a connection to people is.

Text or call an old friend; drop hints that you want to hang out and see if they bite!

Also, have that alone time to contemplate. Go to a place where there’s no one around and enjoy some solitude. Walk barefoot on the grass- it’s an extremely grounding experience.

Be Still

In the previous point, we mentioned that you should keep yourself busy and continue your spiritual growth by reading and doing activities. But learn to be still, too.

Spirituality is best experienced when we allow ourselves to be silent and still – so even if just for 15 minutes each day – it’s crucial that you “sit” down in a quiet spot where you’re comfortable, turn off distractions such as phones or other electronic devices (because they will get in the way of your concentration), set a timer for how long you’d like to meditate, and take 15 – 30 minutes (or more) using your breath as an anchor.

If your mind seems to be raging with thoughts, it’s okay- it’s normal, just bring the focus back to your breathing. If you find silent meditation tough, try guided meditation; there are plenty of apps and online sources that are free on the web.

Final Say

It’s almost like opening Pandora’s box where you will explore life with an infinite amount of knowledge waiting for you ahead.

Yoga in my life

by Yashica Dalal | Switzerland | Nov 12, 2021 | Experiences

Yoga for Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

Yoga in my life

“In the body and mind, lies the power to self-heal….”

I come from a family of athletes and was brought up with the philosophy that nothing is more important than your own physical & emotional well-being. As a child, I had a very active lifestyle and some of my favorite activities included swimming and football. Yoga and I go way back when I was 14 and my mom’s friend introduced me to it. Physical or mental discipline did not come naturally to me at that time and hence yoga didn’t instantly fit in, especially with my outdoor activities and energy levels. I was not very regular with yoga until a few years later.

Fast forward to student life in Switzerland, everything was awesome, new people, beautiful culture, and food, until one day I experienced very sharp lower back pain due to a 5 year old injury, which not only caused movement restrictions but also caused immense pain even for the simplest of tasks, such as sitting or leaning forward. Initially it was just a back pain, until not so soon after, it started radiating down my legs. Not only was I facing physical imbalance, but it also reflected on my emotional state of mind. Pain medications were prescribed which would only block the pain and help relieve temporary inflammation, but as soon as I stopped having them, the pain would return back with full intensity. Then I recalled my family’s words, “your body has the strength to rewire itself, just support it as it supports you”.

Yoga Increased my Metabolism

That brings us to a few weeks back when I started with basic yoga stretches for mobility, and then I realized not only did the pain go away, but I also got better at swimming, my breathing gained a rhythm better than before even while swimming and I was in charge of my fitness. Along with all that, my digestion was better than ever before, my metabolism increased and I could even see the change in my skin for the better.

My Wellness Experience with ASHAexperience

“Wellness” is a wholesome term that cannot be simply described by exercising alone. In order to be physically and emotionally balanced, not only do we require physical activity, but we also need the right nutrition that helps us balance the activity and promotes healing. This is where “the ayurvedic way of life” became an integral part of my life and I would like to thank Dr. Chitra V. Menon (Ayurvedic doctor) and Bijoya Mohanty (Co-founder) of ASHAexperience, for helping me take my healing experience even further. With the help of Dr. Chitra, I was able to identify my body type, identify the imbalances, and how simply by certain modifications, they can be corrected.

Ayurveda is more than 5000 years old ancient healing science, which works on the root cause of imbalance in our bodies, promoting a sustainable healthy lifestyle. Recently, during my first ayurvedic consultation, I got to know about my body type for the first time and how simply altering certain eating habits combined with yoga and pranayama, can create a huge positive impact in my life. Ayurveda says no food is bad food, but according to one’s body type, certain foods are better suited than others. This promotes a better functioning environment for our bodies, which in the long run, also promotes great emotional well-being.

Ayurvedic Diet Advantage

An ayurvedic diet is also known to be extremely gut-friendly. Personally, I’ve experienced when my gut is happy, my day goes happy. Some of the benefits of good gut health include clear skin, anti-aging, no indigestion which in turn leads to a satisfied mind and a healthy neurological function, also eliminating the possibilities of hormonal imbalances and stress, anxiety, depression. The benefits are a chain reaction to promoting a great sustainable environment for our wholesome wellness.

ASHA platform has a very experienced panel of doctors, yoga therapists, and nutritionists, who work together to design a customized plan for you and help you identify and rectify the imbalances in your body, for a sustainable lifestyle.