Perhaps you have just started yoga, but each time when you
enter a yoga class, you feel a little out of place by all the people there who
seem to be way ahead of you in their yoga practice. You decide to stay through
the class, but you feel that between all the poses with its names sometimes
called out in Sanskrit, and the speed that everyone is moving from one pose to
the next, you end up feeling confused. Or perhaps you have begun to entertain
the thought of exploring yoga for the first time, but you have doubts for
several reasons.
A beginners’ course or an open class, which one is right for you?
As a yoga instructor and a yoga practitioner, myself, I have
seen over the years, how vital information is lost in the instructions from the
yoga teacher who is calling out the asanas during a yoga class. This is not
because the yoga teachers were unskilled in teaching yoga, quite the
contradictory, the instructor was knowledgeable and gave an excellent class,
but due to a large number of mixed level students, and the duration of the yoga
class, there is not much time to communicate the theory of yoga and its
philosophy. More importantly, it is not much time to teach or mention the
importance of yoga breathing and without it, a yoga asana practice is pretty
much lost. After all, K. Pattabhi Jois, a well-known yoga master, said it all
when he so famously stated that: “yoga is 99 percent practice and 1 percent
theory.”
As stated above, a regular yoga class is design to mainly focus
on the practice and less on the theory of yoga. This is why yoga workshops and
yoga courses are created, to break down the fundamental characteristics of yoga
with its many aspects, all equally important. In a beginners course offered by My global Yoga Trail at
Healthwork Yoga and Massage Therapy, we explore the fundamentals of yoga. The
fundamentals are important and set a strong foundation in the yoga practice for
a yoga novice. A brief history of yoga will be introduced. This course will
put a strong emphasis on yoga breathing. You will learn ujjayi breath and how
to synchronize this yoga breathing method with the yoga movements; when you
move into a pose, while you hold the pose, and when you move out of the pose;
this is called vinyasa. Vinyasa links one pose to the next, and without the
correct breathing method, it virtually impossible to practice vinyasa, or any
yoga for that matter.
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Thank you for taking
the time reading my blogs. These are views that reflect my thoughts from my own
experience traveling through this great journey that is life. Sharing this
amazing philosophy of yoga which have become a way of life, has been and always
will be the greatest privilege.
Although I take life
as it comes, still, I am so thankful for yoga that found itself into my life. I
am grateful for living in beautiful New Mexico where I never get tired of
looking at the sky and the beautiful nature of the wild west. Such striking
natural design can persuade anyone to dream, heal, and inspire to experience
the thirst for more that comes after a yoga practice.
I AM A LICENSED
MASSAGE THERAPIST AND A CERTIFIED YOGA TEACHER. I HAVE PRACTICED YOGA MOST OF MY
LIFE WHICH EVENTUALLY LEAD TO A DESIRE TO SHARE MY LOVE OF YOGA WITH OTHERS BY
BECOMING A CERTIFIED YOGA TEACHER ~ TONE JACKSON
