Answer To Your Fitness Questions" />How Asanas In Yoga Actually Benefit You
April 24, 2007
What are the Asanas and what do they produce?
Standing poses usually enhance the vitality.
Seated poses are most calming and serene.
Balancing poses are to create lightness and buoyancy.
Prone poses are energizing and revitalizing.
Supine poses are restful and peaceful.
Twists are very cleansing and purifying.
Inversions are about changing perspective and increase mental strength.
Jumping develops agility and dexterity.
Backbends are invigorating and enlivening.
The asanas each with their own form and shape has a clear action and sense of direction and center. The muscles must be aligned properly and stable from the foundation. Stability from the pelvis and shoulder girdles are essential to balance the spine and produce symmetry of it.
Remember the goal of the asanas is not the pose itself but the process of meditation within the pose from going into it to coming out and reflecting while in the pose to gain the full effects of the asanas.
The Eight Limbs Of Yoga
April 19, 2007
There are eight limbs of Yoga. The word “limb” is used to describe different aspects of your yoga practice. When you put them together you make up one whole body in Yoga. Astanga Yoga literally means “8 limbs” in Sanskrit which means an eight fold path to bringing the mind, body and spirit into harmony or a whole. Together they develop spontaneously in a process that is organic, harmonious and beautiful.
The limbs are describes as:
Yamas: These are your attitudes toward others outside yourself.
Niyamas: This is your attitude about yourself or your personal observances.
Asanas: All of your physical poses.
Pranayama: Regulation or controlling your breath.
Pratyahara: The withdrawal of your senses.
Dharana: Concentration or focus.
Dhyana: Meditation
Samadhi: Self-realization or enlightenment.
You can begin with any limb and experience each limb individually at any time. Samadhi is where you end up, state of bliss.
