New & with questions

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#1

Hello everyone!

I have really been interested in practicing yoga for a long while now, and have tried it a few times here and there. However, as the school year is coming to a close, and summertime is approaching, I would like to take this opportunity to begin incorporating it as a more regular, if not daily, part of my life.

Right now I have “The Beginners Yoga Handbook” by Swami Omananda Saraswati… I found it online and it looked fairly promising. It has information on Yoga Nidra, Asanas, Pranayama, and Mantra Japa in it. However, he has the “course” outlined to include about twenty minutes of one of those things each day, for eight weeks… and I guess I was hoping to sort of pack it all together a bit more and get it done quicker.

It’s not that I’m in a rush to finish it exactly, it’s just that I think I would like to spend more time with Asanas and the physical part of yoga than the handbook provides me with. The asanas he uses are very basic, especially at first, and I don’t feel that practicing them just twice a week for twenty minutes will be enough.

Any ideas for how I might combine the information he gives to me into one day? Ie: Asanas, followed by pranayama, followed by meditation…? Or do you think it is best to just follow the course he has outlined and worry about doing more at a later point in time?

I was also wondering about the best time to practice yoga. I’ve often heard that first thing in the morning is best, but is this true for all aspects of yoga? And what does first thing in the morning even mean… immediately after waking, after taking a shower and brushing my teeth, before or after breakfast? Aren’t people usually very stiff, tired, and weak in the morning, or is that the point – that yoga can wake you up?

Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. Thanks in advance!

#2

The sequencing of yoga practice- first, you wash yourself, make yourself fresh, open the windows, have a good air, and make sure you are after four hours after your meal, minimum 3 hours after your meal. Then it begins. First, you calm down yourself. Calm down yourself means, you relax. You relax the whole body as well as you concentrate and relax your breath rhythm. After that you practice asanas which has three movements. Dynamical movements for body warming, then the stretching to remove the stiffness of the body, then follows the postures- asanas. While doing this, we influence our entire system of the body, and also what we call the blood cells. After little relax for a while, then practice pranayams. Practicing of pranayams main reason is to purify all toxins from respirtatory process though breathing techniques. Therefore after asanas is advised to practice pranayams. After practicing pranayams, then follows the concentration and meditation.

#3

Thanks for your response!

If I were to practice first thing in the morning, like you mentioned, I can imagine that breakfast might not be for another two hours after waking. This isn’t such a daunting problem for me, since I’m usually not hungry until at LEAST an hour after waking, however, I was just wondering if you ever hear your stomach growling during the practice or if it affects your concentration/performance in any way.

The way you described it, if I were to combine them all into one it would be possibly yoga nidra, followed by asanas, followed by pranayama, and then mantra japa/meditation. This is fine with me, however, the way the course is outlined, EACH method takes about twenty minutes, instead of most time being dedicated to asanas, etc. Is this a problem in any way? And if I were to follow this routine, would I still practice every day, or once a week, twice a week…?

If I were to split them up and just do one aspect every day until the end of the course (8 weeks) is that alright too? Maybe just to introduce me to yoga and actually get me in the habit of a daily practice…