Related Posts

• Teaching Yoga: Sanskrit Terms Explained

  

  As a yoga teacher, there may come times where you would use Sanskrit terms during class, whether you like it or not. This is because it is often the case where most Sanskrit words don’t have an English equivalent that fully explains the meaning of the terms.

• Exploring Common Sanskrit: Om, Spanda, Sutra, Dharma… WHAT?

  

  This month I have the pleasure of taking part in a writing experiment. Susanna Harwood Rubin, a yoga teacher and writer on the East Coast, is prompting students every day with a new Sanskrit word to explore with a few of their own words. I’m less than a week into this experience, and am already surprised how it has enabled me to look inward and apply the words and concepts to my life personally. Following are a few of my word explorations, with more to come. OM

• Yoga en Español

  

  Here at YogaDownload.com, we love to help make yoga available to as many people as we can, all over the globe. This week, we are thrilled to introduce our first dedicated Spanish Language Yoga Program: Yoga en Español. According to the World Economic Forum, the world’s most spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish, and English. As of 2018, that means Spanish is the second most spoken language, by roughly 437 million people, primarily in Spain, Latin America, and parts of the United States. Currently, most yoga classes are offered in English, Sanskrit, or some combination of the two. Many students find learning the Sanskrit names for the yoga asanas or postures to be a daunting challenge. Sanskrit isn’t a spoken language, only existing in written form, so it takes a great deal of memorization to learn the pose names. If English isn’t your first language, practicing yoga can be even more challenging due to language barriers.

• Everything About Uttanasana: Standing Forward Fold

  

  What is Uttanasana? Uttanasana might be known to you as a ‘Forward Bend’ or a ‘Standing Forward Fold’, but the Sanskrit name literally translates as ‘Intense Stretch Pose’. This is translated from the three Sanskrit words; “Ut’ which means ‘Intense’, “Tan” which means “to stretch” and “Asana” meaning “pose”. This pose is great for a deep stretch to the hamstrings or back, but should also been deeply relaxing, despite the name ‘intense’! The more you relax into the pose, the better the benefit will be. Uttanasana is found in most yoga sequences, but is a key component of sun salutes and vinyasa flow. It’s usually found as part of the transition sequence between standing poses and chaturanga dandasana, or the four-limbed staff pose. While it can be used as a transition pose, taking the time to practice this pose stand alone, or as part of a slower flow, can help to give more time to work on the technical aspects of the pose.

• How Yoga Can Help Things Fall into Place

  

  Yoga can be a magnet for you to attract the things you dream of. Unfortunately, it is not a fairy dust you can sprinkle on your mat. The shifts do not come overnight. And, you cannot simply mutter a Sanskrit mantra for your hopes to manifest. It is a journey of work, of love, and of intense self-reflection. It takes tapas - the yogic ethical concept of discipline and austerity. For many people yoga is nothing more than a fancy workout, or maybe a few calm moments of de-stressing or elaborate stretching. However, yoga is much more. It is a science, a wellness system, a lifestyle, a philosophy, and more than anything a path to clarity and joy. The beauty of yoga is that is flexible to your life and needs. There is an infinite number of ways to practice as there is to interpret the meaning of the word. The word yoga is derived from a word meaning to yoke or to unite. One encompassing way to conceptualize this is to think of uniting the self with all - to connect with the source of all possibilities. The true magic of yoga can happen with the sincere realization of the concept "Namaste" - the light in me recognizes and honors the light within you."

• The Ritual of Yoga Asana: Making Our Bodies a Temple

  

  Fifteen million Americans practice yoga today. They set foot inside yoga studios, roll out their mats and move to their breath in a ritualized action that lasts usually between 60 - 90 minutes. Whether they practice Ashtanga yoga, Bikram yoga, Kundalini yoga or another variant of hatha yoga, these students are all participating in a modernized physical form of a millenia-old philosophical technology, which originated in India. Within the last 100 years, yoga’s face has changed dramatically as it has migrated and settled into the west with its modern day practitioners. Its evolution has led to a focus on the physical practice, known as asana, and for many who practice today’s version of yoga, the asana practice has become a powerful ritual in their lives. They honor their practice by carrying around yoga mats, drinking out of water bottles with their favorite studio name on it and wearing yoga pants from the studio out to their social events. The hallmark of the modern day yoga practitioner is that we commonly see the trappings of their practice extending into their lives, but there is a deeper and more elevated result of their practice that also extends its way into their lives, which is that yoga practitioners will commonly achieve an elevated state of mind that allows their ritual to manifest itself as a view of themselves and their life-experience as sacred.