There are many types of yoga. They do not all achieve the same thing, so many people try or consider yoga and decide it's not for them. Yoga has the power to heal the body and harm the body in equal measure, it's so important to practice in the right way so that we don't fall into the trap of thinking it's just not for us. That is why yoga is also a practice of the mind, you move with intention, understanding and choice.
It wasn't until I did my training and found Viniyoga that I could create a yoga practice that actually worked for me, I know it could work for so many other people to.
There are four key points that make Viniyoga different to most other yoga that we see in our western world.
Function over Form - Yoga is not all about the fantastical imagery we see online today, it's not about how the pose looks. It's about how we move through each posture, how our body feels, interpreting this and deciding whether to pull back or push further, or to move in a slightly different way to attend to our own individual pain or tension, strength or flexibility.
Breath & Adaptation - Our breath aids in the functioning of our body, firstly by assisting the movements and development of our spine, and secondly by being used as our feedback for if we're pushing too hard or not. When we practice over time and we notice our breath slowly becoming smoother and steadier we know that we are making progress, our body and our mind are becoming more capable, our strength, flexibility and health are improving.
Repetition & Stay - We repeat a posture a number of times before we have an extended stay in the posture of a few breaths. The repetition acts as a warmup for our body and our mind, it prepares us to then have a longer stay of a few breaths, where we can improve our strength, deepen our stretch, develop our breath.
The Art & Science of Sequencing - It is not just a matter of randomly throwing postures together. We work into every area of the body in a set order, this prepares our body better for the stronger postures in the middle of the class and then after our more intense work, we warm down.
The Yoga Time Warrior classes have been very carefully planned so that each one is different, but still covering all the problem areas. This means after every class your whole body should feel stronger, more flexible, with less pain, refreshed and energized.
Absolute Magic!
There are subprinciples that go deeper than these overarching foundations, they are just as valuable, keep your eye out for these in the future.
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