Recently Added in Yoga Poses Firm + Tone Glutes for Safer, Stronger Yoga Practice

Yoga teacher Leslie Howard recommends this 7-pose sequence to firm and tone glutes for a strong, balanced backside.

Partnering exercises in yoga class can deepen your practice and connect you to yourself and your fellow yogis.

This post-flight practice helps you get grounded to enjoy your destination.

Shiva Rea recommends infusing asanas with affirmations to call forth your deepest intentions.

Prana Vinyasa founder Shiva Rea has an Earth Day eco-challenge for you: 10 body mudras and eco-actions to help you connect to the Earth.

Yoga Teacher Paige Held reveals her sequence perfect for traveling yogis on the go.

Release stress and tension by learning the yoga practice for ultimate relaxation.

Our home practice teacher Rina Jakubowicz demonstrates a short sequence of yoga poses to clear your mind and prepare your body for meditation.

Yoga teacher Andrea Ferretti offers a short 10-minute sequence of yoga poses to help ease tension in your back and find better posture.

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Yoga Poses | Basic to Advanced Yoga Poses | Asanas

What is Yoga

Through various yoga modalities ranging from bikram yoga (also known as hot yoga), to power yoga, ashtanga yoga, and prenatal yoga, yoga has many healthy benefits for the mind, body, and spirit. Originating in ancient India, the word yoga means to unite or to join, and in yoga, we unite our minds and our bodies through breath. Most Western yoga derives from hatha, one of the six major branches of yoga. Traditional hatha yoga consists of asanas (physical yoga postures) and pranayamas (breathing exercises). With over 100 yoga poses, it's no wonder yogis never get bored. Like many calming spa treatments, yoga is a discipline that utilizes the mind-body connection to reduce stress, increase flexibility, and enhance wellbeing.

From kundalini, which incorporates mantras and meditation, to strength-enhancing power yoga, yoga has many healthful benefits for the mind, body and spirit. In addition to improving flexibility, strength and balance, yoga utilizes the mind-body connection to reduce stress and enhance wellbeing. Yoga studios, spas, and fitness centers offer a wide variety of yoga workouts so you can always find one that's best for you.

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Yoga at Spafinder Wellness

What Is Yoga?

If you think of people in seemingly impossible and weirdly twisted poses when you think of "Yoga", then you may have an inkling of what yoga is, just an inkling that's it. Yoga is much more than those poses. Derived from the Sankrit word "yuj" which means "to unite or integrate"; yoga is a 5000 year old Indian body of knowledge. Yoga is all about harmonizing the body with the mind and breath through the means of various breathing techniques, yoga postures (asanas) and meditation.

The Art of Living Yoga is a holistic way of life that integrates all elements of ancient knowledge of Yoga, to make a prayerful discipline uniting the body, mind and soul. Along with the series of simple, yet effective yoga postures and breathing techniques, a greater emphasis is placed on the inner experience of meditation, for the well-being of mind and other hidden elements of human existence. We believe when one is in harmony within, the journey through life becomes calmer, happier and more fulfilled.

In The Art of Living Yoga programs, the wisdom and techniques of yoga are taught in a pure, joyful and thorough manner. The programs restore balance by helping to strengthen our body, calm our mind, regain our focus and improve self- confidence. It is a complete package for beginners as well as regular practitioners and has something for everyone - of all age groups.

Regular practice of The Art of Living Yoga has brought remarkable lifestyle changes in the practitioners. They have experienced relief from chronic illnesses and have observed behavioural changes. Participants have reported a healthy, happier living with reduced anxiety, increased tolerance and mindfulness.

The Art of Living Yoga is the secret to better health and greater sense of happiness.

Yoga has never been alien to us. It's a way of our life. We have been doing it since we were a baby! Whether it is the Cat Stretch that strengthens the spine or the Wind-Relieving pose that boosts digestion, you will always see kids do some form of yoga throughout the day. Yoga works for everyone from people engaged in desk jobs to professional cyclists to runners to people looking for weight loss to housewives to students. This section mostly explains how yoga can improve the quality of life for everyone who adopts this practice.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system of natural and holistic medicine. Ayurveda means "the science of life" (the Sanskrit root "ayur" means "longevity" or "life" and "veda" means "science"). Ayurveda provides guidance on how to improve our lifestyle while living a healthy and zestful life. Practicing ayurveda also improves your yoga practice, a perfect win-win situation! This section sheds light on how ayurveda can uplift our life in every sphere.

Pranayama is the art of effective breath control. Practicing proper techniques of breathing can help bring more oxygen to the blood and brain, eventually helping control prana or the vital life energy. Pranayama also goes hand in hand with various yoga asanas. The union of these two yogic principles is considered as the highest form of purification and self-discipline, covering both mind and body. Pranayama techniques also prepare us for a deeper experience of meditation. Know more about various pranayama techniques in these sections.

This section lays an exclusive commentary by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the ancient scripture, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, which will enlighten you on the knowledge of yoga, its origin and purpose. The goal of this rendition of the Yoga Sutras is to make the principles and practices of the Yoga Sutras more understandable and accessible. The descriptions of each sutra offered by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar attempts to focus on the practical suggestions of what can be done to experience the ultimate benefits of a yogic lifestyle.

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Yoga : What Is Yoga? | The Art Of Living Global

By #DailyCupofYoga 5 Comments

Whether youve been having trouble sleeping, your range of motion simply isnt what it used to be, or youre interested in deepening your spirituality and inner strength, its never too late to better your life. Become a happier, healthier version of yourself today by taking up a new pastime: yoga! First off, dont get worried about the hype. Yoga is a discipline that anyone can get intoyour age doesnt matter and you will not be judged for how close you can come to touching your toes. With the right yoga teacher and a set of techniques that are built for individuals just like you, you can accomplish anything. Start the new chapter of your life today and youll be on the road to feeling even better tomorrow.

Yoga for Seniors: Build Your Outer and Inner Strength

Have you ever heard the saying that if you dont use it, youll lose it? It may sound cliche, but those words ring very trueand in more areas of your life than one. From physical strength to mental sharpness, seniors who take part in yoga classes have proven to have the upper hand. Not only will they likely maintain their physical strength, mobility, and flexibility for much longer, but they can increase it as well.

If your body is feeling stiff and restrictive, yoga is the key to revitalization. The same goes with your brain. By meditating, practicing relaxation skills, and shielding your mind from the chatter and buzz of the chaotic world around you, youll be able to turn your thoughts inward, reflect, and become more attuned to your own body.

Keep Your Body Healthy and Disease at Bay

Yoga is a full mind and body practice, and while it will help to give you a peace of mind and even help you keep control of your weight, it can also keep a variety of chronic diseases at bay. If you are plagued with stress and hypertension, practicing yoga on a daily basis can decrease your nervous systems activity, ease high blood pressure, and reduce the amount of medicine that you have to take. For those with a history of heart disease in their family, yoga can also help you reduce your risk factor. For those who are in the beginning stages of osteoporosis, yoga can also help to slow the thinning of your bones.

Practicing yoga as a senior can strengthen your body in countless ways, from alleviating depression and pain, to even depleting your bouts of insomnia. See how yoga can help you keep your own body healthy today!

Not All Classes are the Same. Find the Perfect One for Your Needs!

Beginning a new chapter in your life may seem a little bit daunting, but finding your bliss is most definitely worth it. To find the right class for you, there are two separate paths you can take. For the adventurous souls out there, you can begin by asking around about senior-focused yoga classes at your local community center, health club, or yoga studio. If you are more timid or youre having a tough time finding the right class for your needs, you can bring your new pastime to the comfort of your own home by investing in a yoga DVD or two.

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Daily Cup of Yoga | tips, tools, & wisdom on yoga, books ...

Yoga Meditation is the art and science of systematically observing, accepting, understanding, and training each of the levels of our being, such that we may coordinate and integrate those aspects of ourselves, and dwell in the direct experience of the center of consciousness. (There is a 16-page description of traditional Yoga Meditation, which explains the process in practical terms, and simple language.)

Yoga Meditation is not actually a separate aspect of Yoga, due to the fact that traditional Yoga virtually is meditation. However, the phrase Yoga Meditation can be used here to discriminate between traditional Yoga Meditation and the now popular belief that Yoga is about physical postures. Yoga or Yoga Meditation is a complete process unto itself, only a small, though useful part of which relates to the physical body. (See the article Modern Yoga versus Traditional Yoga)

3 Stages of Awareness

Yoga, Sankhya, Vedanta, and Tantra view the human as manifesting outward step-by-step, whereby the subtler consciousness projects evermore outward, and then gradually forgets those subtler levels. Genesis also explains this outward movement when seen through the eye of the Yogi or mystic. (Sankhya, Vedanta, Tantra, Adhyasa)

2) In Yoga Each Aspect is Trained

Yoga is complete unto itself. In Yoga, each level of our being is trained independently, while also being trained to flow together. The systematic processes deal one-by-one with our actions in the world, senses, body, breath, and and both the conscious and unconscious aspects of mind.

3) Awareness Recedes to the State of Yoga*

Yoga or "Union" is attained by first training, balancing, and purifying each of the aspects of our being individually, and then systematically receding attention inward through those levels, expanding so as to experience the state of Union, Yoga, Samadhi, or Turiya.

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Yoga Meditation

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In the practice of Yoga, Asana denotes the art of sitting still[1] and also any posture useful for restoring and maintaining a practitioner's well-being and improving the body's flexibility and vitality, cultivating the ability to remain in seated meditation for extended periods.[2] Such asanas are known in English as "yoga postures" or "yoga positions". Any way that we may sit or stand is an asana while a posture used in yoga is called a yogasana. Modern usage includes lying on the back, standing on the head and a variety of other positions.[2]

In yoga asana refers both to the place in which a practitioner (yogin or yogi if male, yogini if female) sits and the posture in which he or she sits.[3] In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali defines asana as "to be seated in a position that is firm, but relaxed".[4] Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system, known as Raja yoga,[5] but does not mention standing postures. Beginners generally find it surprisingly difficult to sit still for the one hour (as practised in meditation methods such as Vipassana).

Yoga in the West is commonly practised in physical exercise or alternative medicine rather than as a basic meditation skill.[6]

Asana (//; listen(helpinfo) Sanskrit: sana [sn] 'sitting down', < s 'to sit down'[7]) originally meant a sitting position. The word asana in Sanskrit does appear in many contexts denoting a static physical position, although traditional usage is specific to the practice of yoga. Traditional usage defines asana as both singular and plural. In English, plural for asana is defined as asanas. In addition, English usage within the context of yoga practice sometimes specifies yogasana or yoga asana, particularly with regard to the system of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. However, yogasana is also the name of a particular posture that is not specifically associated with the Vinyasa system, and that while "ashtanga" (small 'a') refers to the eight limbs of Yoga delineated below, Ashtanga (capital 'A') refers to the specific system of Yoga developed by Sri Krishnamacharya at the Mysore Palace.

Yoga first originated in India. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the eight limbs of classical, or Raja Yoga. Asanas are the physical movements of yoga practice and, in combination with pranayama or breathing techniques constitute the style of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga.[8] In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samdhi; transpersonal self-realization.[9]

The eight limbs are, in order, the yamas (restrictions), niyamas (observances), asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), pratyahara (sense withdrawal or non-attachment), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (realization of the true Self or Atman, and unity with Brahman (The Hindu Concept of God)).[5][9]

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali suggests that the only requirement for practicing asanas is that it be "steady and comfortable".[5] The body is held poised with the practitioner experiencing no discomfort. When control of the body is mastered, practitioners are believed to free themselves from the duality of heat/cold, hunger/satiety, joy/grief, which is the first step toward the unattachment that relieves suffering.[10] This non-dualistic perspective comes from the Sankya school of the Himalayan Masters.[11]

Listed below are traditional practices for performing asanas:[13]

Pranayama, or breath control, is the Fourth Limb of ashtanga, as set out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra. The practice is an integral part of both Hatha Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in the execution of asanas.

Patanjali discusses his specific approach to pranayama in verses 2.49 through 2.51, and devotes verses 2.52 and 2.53 of the Sutra to explaining the benefits of the practice.[14] Patanjali describes pranayama as the control of the enhanced "life force" that is a result of practicing the various breathing techniques, rather than the exercises themselves.[15][16] The entirety of breathing practices includes those classified as pranayama, as well as others called svarodaya, or the "science of breath". It is a vast practice that goes far beyond the limits of pranayama as applied to asana.[17]

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Asana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre.

Le yoga (sanskrit devangar: ; union, joug)[1] est l'une des six coles orthodoxes de la philosophie indienne stika. Il est devenu, particulirement en Occident, une discipline visant, par la mditation, l'ascse morale et les exercices corporels, raliser l'unification de l'tre humain dans ses aspects physique, psychique et spirituel[2].

Il n'existe pas de date atteste pour les origines de la conception du yoga. C'est entre le IIesicle av.J.-C. et le Vesicle que Patajali codifie la philosophie du yoga en rdigeant les Yoga Stra, texte de rfrence et synthse de toutes les thories existantes[3].

Les quatre voies (mrga) traditionnelles majeures de yoga sont le jnana-yoga, bhakti-yoga, karma-yoga et raja-yoga.

Le terme yoga est communment utilis aujourd'hui pour dsigner le hatha-yoga, mme si cette discipline n'en est qu'une branche.

En 2014, l'ONU dcrte le 21 juin Journe internationale du yoga[4].

Le mot yoga (devnagar: ) est, dans la langue sanskrite, un nom masculin construit par adjonction la racine YUJ- d'une voyelle thmatique -a [5]. Lorsque cette drivation primaire s'effectue sur une racine porte au degr plein (dit aussi degr gua), elle fournit le thme d'un nom d'action gnralement masculin. Porte au degr gua, la racine YUJ- devient YOJ-. Les lois phontiques du sanskrit demandent de prononcer, dans certains cas, la palatale sonore j- sur le point d'articulation de la gutturale sonore g-[6] .

Le radical YOJ- devient donc YOG-. Ce radical provient du mot Indo-Europen *yugm, lui-mme drive de la racine *yeug-. En Indo-Europen comme dans la plupart des langues filles, ce mot a gard son sens originel de joug (par exemple: yukan en hittite, iugum en latin, en persan, etc.)[7].

YOG- permet ensuite diffrentes drivations primaires, dont celle du thme nominal yoga- qui, dment dclin, peut alors exercer une fonction nominale dans une phrase sanskrite, tel le stra que voici: yoga cittavttinirodha. Ce verset de Patajali, qui dfinit prcisment ce qu'est le yoga, est une phrase nominale compose de deux termes, un nom simple yoga et un nom compos de trois thmes juxtaposs cittavttinirodha[8] tous deux dclins au nominatif (la dsinence -s du nominatif parait ici, pour des raisons phontiques, sous les formes - et -).

La racine sanskrite YUJ- signifie "atteler, unir". Le mot "yoga" a, en sanskrit, les sens suivants: "1) action d'atteler; 2) mthode pour dresser les chevaux; 3) mode d'emploi, technique; 4) discipline spirituelle; 5) rja-yoga; 6) hatha-yoga; 7) tat d'union ou d'unit de l'tre subjectif avec le suprme (selon Shr Aurobindo)"[9].

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Yoga Wikipdia