About Ashtanga Yoga
If you would like to learn this practice, I am offering 8-week courses in studio locations soon. contact me if you are interested...............
Ashtanga yoga is a practice with a specific sequence of poses that are designed to strengthen, align and detoxify the body. Beginning with Sun Salutations, then a series of standing postures, then seated postures with vinyasas in between the postures and then finishing poses. The entire practice takes 90 minutes including sivasana, the final relaxation pose where you will rest, relax and absorb the new energy created by the practice.
from Karen....
More About Ashtanga Yoga: In 2003, as I was completing my yoga teacher training, I was browsing yoga books on the internet, looking for a yoga sequencing book. In teacher training, we learned yoga asana (poses) - yet not a lot was said about sequencing poses.
I found David Swenson's book and looked through the online pages and read that the sequence is designed to strengthen, align, detoxify the body, inside & out. I looked at the sequence of the poses briefly, and imagined myself doing them and got very excited. I realized that this practice looked incredibly challenging - exactly what I was looking for.
That day I drove to a bookstore and bought my first copy of the book. "Ashtanga Yoga - the practice manual". I began to read about the practice, then within a few hours, I had my mat out and did the first 6 sun salutations (surya namaskar A - 5, surya namaskar B - 1). I was done. Tired. I lay down to rest. I was hooked!
From then on, my practice was from this book. I got through most of the practice after practicing it for a few months. I was ready to attend a class. My first class I attended, I kept up with the class as best I could. I made it through almost every pose, and most of the vinyasa's. After the class I went home and took a 3 hour nap. The following week (the classes were late Sunday mornings) I did the class again. I again made it through most of the poses and vinyasas, went home and took a 2 hour nap. It took me about 5-6 weeks of this (including practicing during the week at a little slower pace), to be able to complete the entire practice and not need a nap afterwards. While I was attending these classes, I noticed great strength, flexibility, my muscles became leaner & more defined. I realize now after doing this practice for the past 8 years (and teaching yoga for 10 years), that there is no yoga practice or sequence like it.
What happens? What is so unique about Ashtanga Primary Series? Each pose in this sequence prepares the body for the next pose in the sequence. The whole practice is not meant to be jumped into and done fully the first few times. The practice develops as you develop. Someone new to the practice should not skip any poses. You are supposed to do 5 each of the Surya Namaskar A & B, then begin the standing poses. If you fatigue, it is time to stop, rest, and then pick it up at the beginning the next day. In this way, you slowly gain strength & endurance. Muscles are stretched, detoxified (from internal heat) and organs become healthier too. The breathing with the movement (vinyasa) utilizes Ujjayi breathing. This type of breathing makes sound in your throat, helps you to develop concentration, helps you slow down, be present, and fill your cells with more oxygen.
As you develop concentration and begin to be able to do the poses, your concentration goes deeper into the body, internally. After many years of practice I can feel the "unlocking" effect the sequences have on my body. When I begin the practice, some days I feel very stiff, my mind tells me I am aging. Muscles don't want to move as easily as they once did. By the middle of the practice, I begin to experience heat and energy has become released. I realize that the stiffness was simply energy that was stagnant in my body, waiting to be released.
What happens when this energy does not get released and move? I get stiff and tired. In the practice I concentrate on directly my breathing into those stiff "dark" areas. It is like I am shining the light of my consciousness into my body - it frees me up. I feel lighter, more youthful once more. We all know that we are not just a body. We have an energy body, a "light body", a mind, a spirit, an emotional body. When we stay present to just the material or even go unconscious and ignore our bodies, something happens - the body is no longer infused with prana (energy) or your spirit. It becomes stagnant.
This practice, for me, unlocks and releases this stagnation. I begin to feel all of me, once more, back in my body. I am more aware, awake and alive. I am ready to shine.
It is not easy to get there. Every day I start from the beginning. It is work, it takes commitment, motivation, self-discipline. It takes a burning desire to be alive each and every day. I sometimes must re-direct my mind to remember what I am here for - why I wake up each day. My faith keeps me going, my love for my family, my commitment to my yoga studio business. My life is for "to be a contribution to the world". That is what keeps me going. Sometimes we must dig deep to find that reason, that commitment - that motivation. It is worth digging for - within each one of us there exists a spark of the divine. As long as you are making the effort to connect with that, Grace will step forward and give you a boost. - Karen KinnardMore info on Ashtanga yoga can be found at http://www.ashtanga.net
Ashtanga yoga is a practice with a specific sequence of poses that are designed to strengthen, align and detoxify the body. Beginning with Sun Salutations, then a series of standing postures, then seated postures with vinyasas in between the postures and then finishing poses. The entire practice takes 90 minutes including sivasana, the final relaxation pose where you will rest, relax and absorb the new energy created by the practice.
from Karen....
More About Ashtanga Yoga: In 2003, as I was completing my yoga teacher training, I was browsing yoga books on the internet, looking for a yoga sequencing book. In teacher training, we learned yoga asana (poses) - yet not a lot was said about sequencing poses.
I found David Swenson's book and looked through the online pages and read that the sequence is designed to strengthen, align, detoxify the body, inside & out. I looked at the sequence of the poses briefly, and imagined myself doing them and got very excited. I realized that this practice looked incredibly challenging - exactly what I was looking for.
That day I drove to a bookstore and bought my first copy of the book. "Ashtanga Yoga - the practice manual". I began to read about the practice, then within a few hours, I had my mat out and did the first 6 sun salutations (surya namaskar A - 5, surya namaskar B - 1). I was done. Tired. I lay down to rest. I was hooked!
From then on, my practice was from this book. I got through most of the practice after practicing it for a few months. I was ready to attend a class. My first class I attended, I kept up with the class as best I could. I made it through almost every pose, and most of the vinyasa's. After the class I went home and took a 3 hour nap. The following week (the classes were late Sunday mornings) I did the class again. I again made it through most of the poses and vinyasas, went home and took a 2 hour nap. It took me about 5-6 weeks of this (including practicing during the week at a little slower pace), to be able to complete the entire practice and not need a nap afterwards. While I was attending these classes, I noticed great strength, flexibility, my muscles became leaner & more defined. I realize now after doing this practice for the past 8 years (and teaching yoga for 10 years), that there is no yoga practice or sequence like it.
What happens? What is so unique about Ashtanga Primary Series? Each pose in this sequence prepares the body for the next pose in the sequence. The whole practice is not meant to be jumped into and done fully the first few times. The practice develops as you develop. Someone new to the practice should not skip any poses. You are supposed to do 5 each of the Surya Namaskar A & B, then begin the standing poses. If you fatigue, it is time to stop, rest, and then pick it up at the beginning the next day. In this way, you slowly gain strength & endurance. Muscles are stretched, detoxified (from internal heat) and organs become healthier too. The breathing with the movement (vinyasa) utilizes Ujjayi breathing. This type of breathing makes sound in your throat, helps you to develop concentration, helps you slow down, be present, and fill your cells with more oxygen.
As you develop concentration and begin to be able to do the poses, your concentration goes deeper into the body, internally. After many years of practice I can feel the "unlocking" effect the sequences have on my body. When I begin the practice, some days I feel very stiff, my mind tells me I am aging. Muscles don't want to move as easily as they once did. By the middle of the practice, I begin to experience heat and energy has become released. I realize that the stiffness was simply energy that was stagnant in my body, waiting to be released.
What happens when this energy does not get released and move? I get stiff and tired. In the practice I concentrate on directly my breathing into those stiff "dark" areas. It is like I am shining the light of my consciousness into my body - it frees me up. I feel lighter, more youthful once more. We all know that we are not just a body. We have an energy body, a "light body", a mind, a spirit, an emotional body. When we stay present to just the material or even go unconscious and ignore our bodies, something happens - the body is no longer infused with prana (energy) or your spirit. It becomes stagnant.
This practice, for me, unlocks and releases this stagnation. I begin to feel all of me, once more, back in my body. I am more aware, awake and alive. I am ready to shine.
It is not easy to get there. Every day I start from the beginning. It is work, it takes commitment, motivation, self-discipline. It takes a burning desire to be alive each and every day. I sometimes must re-direct my mind to remember what I am here for - why I wake up each day. My faith keeps me going, my love for my family, my commitment to my yoga studio business. My life is for "to be a contribution to the world". That is what keeps me going. Sometimes we must dig deep to find that reason, that commitment - that motivation. It is worth digging for - within each one of us there exists a spark of the divine. As long as you are making the effort to connect with that, Grace will step forward and give you a boost. - Karen KinnardMore info on Ashtanga yoga can be found at http://www.ashtanga.net
