Your perfect yoga blend

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I don’t know about you, but I can never find the perfect yoga class (though I have fun trying to find it).

I think my perfect combination would be Iyengar for precision, Ashtanga for strength and focus and Kundalini for the more medatitive side of things. Obviously some elements overlap a little, but if I could practice those three, taught by really awesome teachers then I think I’d be in yoga heaven.

I love other kinds too, but these are my favourites, I think.

What are your favourite styles? What do they offer?

#2

Fun post…In my practice right now I have to say that I love Iyengar Yoga because I learn so much about me and my body. Also Anusara because the alignment principals are similar, however the “languaging” is different and it offers a more flow style practice. My home practice encompasses both of these styles.

#3

My practice serves me in the ways you outline Hanu. It took time to find, indeed.
But since Purna means “whole” or “complete” the practice I’ve gravitated to encompasses asana/pranayama (from the Iyengar system), the meditation and applied philosophy from Sri Aurobindo, and the lifestyle/nutrition from Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and modern science. I feel I’m being nourished in all areas of my living.

Thank you for asking.

#4

Great answers so far! I hope there will be more. I’ve never tried purna or anusara, but they sound great. I’m moving to Cambodia in a few months, so hopefully there will be more of a variety of yoga available there than in my sleepy English village.

Gordon - as an unrelated thing - I am hoping to get into yoga therapy. I wondered if I could maybe ask you some guidance and a few questions?

#5

[QUOTE=Hanu;32503]I don’t know about you, but I can never find the perfect yoga class (though I have fun trying to find it).

I think my perfect combination would be Iyengar for precision, Ashtanga for strength and focus and Kundalini for the more medatitive side of things. Obviously some elements overlap a little, but if I could practice those three, taught by really awesome teachers then I think I’d be in yoga heaven.

I love other kinds too, but these are my favourites, I think.

What are your favourite styles? What do they offer?[/QUOTE]

Personal, I do not like giving yoga a tags, so to say brand names. Yoga is yoga and there is usually so little difference between styles. (except maybe Bichram:)

In my class I like to mix everything. (I get really pissed off when people making faces when I say that I do not teach any Brand Name yoga style).

I was raised in Iyengar tradition, but I like sun salutations for warm up, and we do meditation and “energy (kundalini) practice” 30 minutes before class, sometimes mixed with chanting. Sometimes I do “Bichram breath” for the warm up in class.

Yoga means Union. Take meditation away (like some power yoga schools did) and you can’t call it yoga any more. It becomes just an aerobics. Take away holding the pose - and again you can call it yoga any more. Take away yoga diet, cleansing, yama and niyama and you can not call it yoga.

Yoga poses is just a tiny piece of yoga practice. You will not get 100% benefits if you apply pose incorrectly, ignoring bandhas and mudras.

I think that we are blessed to see all different styles around and we can chose practice whatever is suitable for us. at least you can perform some pieces of the practice you like at home on your own.

#6

Interesting reply CM. Seems to be the same one you offered in another thread. Less work for you:-)

You make very good points; brand names, diversity of practice and the blessings from them, the entirety of yoga, etcetera.

It is relevant to add that lineage of yoga predates brand name marketing. Obviously a contention that a practice based solely on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is “the same” as one based ONLY on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali would be very, very difficult to support. And yet yoga is yoga - though it is clear it has been watered down by some and that, in our world seems to still be called “yoga”.

In addition, the diversity of practice you mention is not a one-sided coin. Taking from here and there can be wonderful and it IS wonderful when the student doing the taking has a level of discernment in their body so that they are being served by spirit rather than Ego. However, we have also discovered that too many ingredients can spoil the stew - or in the case of yoga practice, confuse the practitioner thus mudding the waters one so anxiously hopes to clarify.

All practice should grow, be malleable and have transformation within it. The question is who should be guiding that direction, what should their study and practice look like, and how should yoga itself be held in the process - otherwise we merely contribute to the diluting rather than the essence.