What is Beginners Yoga?

If you are new to the practice of yoga, then it is important for you to understand the basics and essentials of beginners yoga. Basically beginners yoga is simply the most novice form of yoga, and it is the place where anyone who wants to participate in yoga or make the activity a part of their life needs to start. Yoga exercises strengthen your body and make it more flexible. Beginners yoga starts to calm your mind and gives you energy. In active sports or strenuous exercises, you use up energy. In beginners yoga classes, students report that they feel tranquil after a class, yet have more energy. One of the first lessons in beginners yoga is to use a slow and steady motion  going into or coming out of the postures. You hold a yoga pose for several seconds or even minutes and give attention to full, quiet breath.

While all yoga styles seek the same thing, which is to seek balance in the body, mind, and spirit, they all tend to go about it in different ways, and the same applies to that of beginners yoga. For instance, different yoga styles and levels may also make a difference in how the poses or positions are done, as well as in regards to where the focus the attention.A beginners yoga session is designed for balance. You stretch to the right and then to the left. You bend back and then forward. You learn to recognize when one side is stronger or more flexible than the other. Thus harmony and balance are achieved with yoga practice. As well, some types of yoga will use props in their practice, while others will not. In beginners yoga, regardless of what actual type of yoga is being practiced, there are usually no props used as this is the simplest form of yoga

What Types of Yoga are There?

There are many different types of yoga that are available, and if you are starting beginners yoga you will need to ask your yaga instructor what type of beginnners yoga he recommends. For instance, some of the available options are: Ananda, which puts the emphasis on meditation; Anusara, which is heart-oriented; Ashtanga, which is considered as being the power of yoga; Bikram, which involves increasing the temperature in the work during practices; and Integral, which involves the healing power of relaxation.

Don’t be put off by the difficult looking postures you may see in a yoga book. A skilled teacher can adapt most asanas by using chairs, cushions, even a wall or other props. A beginners yoga practice can be tailor-made just for you. If something is really impossible for you to do, just forget it. Never compete with yourself or others. Yoga is a stress-free but powerful way to exercise.

Regardless of what type of yoga you decide on,  with beginners yoga the most important thing to remember is that regardless of your choices, the art of yoga in itself will allow you to reap more benefits than perhaps you ever thought possible with any sort of exercise program. Yoga is good for increasing your flexibility and relieving stress, but it doesn’t take the place of aerobic exercise. You should still do regular, aerobic exercise, which increases your cardiovascular fitness, helps you lose weight, and, for people with non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes at least, improves blood glucose control. So why not take the plunge and start at a beginners yoga class. The easiest way to find your nearest beginners yoga class is to check out their addresses on the web.

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When I was 21 I suffered a slipped disc in my lower back. I couldn’t sit down during the acute phase, only lie or stand, though standing itself was uncomfortable at the time. Once the acute phase had passed (with rest, although acupuncture and shiatsu are great), I had the fortune to meet some yoga teachers and I started going to their classes. I started out with Oki yoga, which is a Japanese form of yoga, and very good for healing the body.

I was given a series of correcting and strengthening exercises designed to improve my back and specific to the meridians that were in need of attention in my particular case. Oki yoga has postures classified on how they affect the meridians, which are like energetic pathways within our body. And that was the one thing that helped restore my back completely, to a state that was actually better than it was before I injured myself. When you are suffering an acute injury though, yoga really shouldn’t be attempted until that stage has passed.

That introduction to yoga ignited a deep love of it through which I began to see the more subtle health benefits it brought to my life. Yoga can help with a wide spectrum of physical issues and injuries, but it is also an excellent alternative to the gym for those that find the repetition and distraction of it not to their taste. It is great for toning up your body, whilst gaining flexibility.

Yoga has a reputation for flexibility, and deservedly so. But it can also develop strength. Developing strength is particularly important for women. Women tend to be more flexible than men, but not as strong, unless they have been involved in fitness regularly. But unlike many traditional forms of exercise, yoga also strengthens the inner muscles and organs in our bodies. It makes a great preparation for childbirth!

Yoga also develops discipline. This comes in making the time on a regular basis to either go to classes, or practice yoga in your living room, or in the morning sun in the garden. But there is a more subtle level of discipline. It starts with bringing your mind to focus on your breathing, and then feeling the effects of a posture on your body. This conscious exploration is quite a different experience of fitness than usually seen at the gym - where loud music, televisions and other external stimuli fight for your attention. You won’t see people with headphones on, or reading a magazine, whilst doing yoga.

This conscious exploration establishes a relationship with your body, and its importance cannot be overstated. So often, parts of us are frozen, or numb in some ways. This can express physically as pain, coldness, or stiffness. Energetically, it is as though despite trying to concentrate on an area, we just cannot feel connected to it.

In a more subtle way, when we feel the points of resistance within our body as we do a pose - when we breathe into that stiffness, and sometimes pain, we develop a resilience and mental fortitude. Yoga does, of course, help with concentration. But that process of releasing and going beyond the point of physical limitation is not limited to the body. It develops a quiet confidence and knowledge about one’s own capacity that is not held back by the boundaries we may have falsely believed about ourselves before. With a yoga practice, we can get back in touch with what yogi’s call our dharma, our purpose in life. And we find in ourselves, by virtue of our growing strength, the courage to follow that path.

And finally, a quote from a yoga teacher from Sydney, Australia, Eileen Hall, printed in the Australian Yoga Life magazine:

“Yoga is not about relaxation, it’s not about losing weight, it’s not about learning meditation. It’s about discovering the divine being within ourselves.”

References: Yoga Journal, November 2005

Australian Yoga Life, Nov 2005 - Mar 2006

If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of yoga, click here. The article talks about the psychological, physiological, and biochemical benefits a regular yoga practice can bring. Rebecca Prescott runs the website Yoga To Health.

http://www.yogatohealth.com

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The practice of Yoga has been used for centuries to promote a sense of physical and spiritual well-being. Although the origins of Yoga are shrouded in mystery, it is generally accepted to have begun at the dawn of civilization some 5000 years ago. A number of respected scholars have suggested that Yoga grew out of the shamanistic culture of Mehgarh, located in the region now known as Afghanistan. In fact, many facets of Hindu culture have their roots in Mehgarh.

The principle goal of the practice of Yoga is to assist practitioners in the transcendence of the human condition. It was an attempt to discern the order of the cosmos, and to apply those principles to daily living. Yoga has been linked to the Indus-Sarasvati civilization, which was one of the oldest and most advanced of the ancient cultures. This civilization also gave birth to some of the oldest scriptures ever discovered in modern times. The Vedas are considered by many as a form of divine revelation, and contain many references to a higher power and to the practice of Yoga.

On the physical plain, Yoga has shown incredible promise in treating and managing many illnesses. The practice of Yoga has a number of physical benefits for practitioners. It facilitates flexibility, and assists in the lubrication of joints, tendons, and ligaments. Many of the poses and positions work to massage the organs, thus stimulating the body’s detoxification process. The physical benefits of Yoga are often considered secondary to the spiritual development. Yoga has the incredible ability to bring into harmony the physical and the spiritual elements of the individual experience.

Meditation also plays a significant role in Yoga. By combining intense meditation with specialized physical exercise, practitioners are able to achieve a unity of body, mind, and soul. The intent is to create a sense of balance and harmony, both internally and externally. The emotional calmness associated with meditation works to reduce stress, which is considered by many as one of the root causes of physical illness. The primary goal of Yoga is to empower the individual to transcend the physical world and to achieve a sense of enlightenment or self-realization. For those interested in understanding and fully realizing the oneness of all things, a commitment to the principles and practice of Yoga will undoubtedly unlock the secrets of the cosmos in all their wondrous glory.

Brodi Saatpha has been practicing Yoga for a number of years. When she is not striving to transcend reality, she writes for yoga-insight.com - an enlightening and refreshing website with information about the history of yoga, yoga certification, worldwide yoga retreats and more.

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