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Mountain Pose - Tadasana

Mountain Pose - Tadasana

• Spread your toes and plant all four corners of your feet solidly beneath you.  Imagine roots growing out of the soles of your feet grabbing deep into the earth below you.
• Lengthen and lift your straight spine and feel your head floating evenly above you. 
• Tuck in your tailbone as if you were carrying a full bowl of water in your hips you do not want to spill.
• Pay subtle attention to your breath.
• Expand your side ribs with each inhale and let your roots grow deeper into the earth, sucking in earth energy.  Exhale and soften your belly.  Feel energy flowing in through the crown.
• Allow your in-breath and out-breath amplify svaha ("Hail" or "So be it")
• Accept each inhale as a divine blessing and with each exhale surrender to the present moment.
• Feel a sense of weightlessness and connectedness with all beings and all energies in the universe.

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Downward Facing Dog

Downward Facing Dog - Adho Mukha Svasana

• Releases and lengthens neck and spine
• Calms & stimulates the mind and CNS
• Balancing
• Strengthens shoulders & arms
• Cleanses and massages internal organs
• Tones the sciatic nerve
• Improves the flow of blood & prana to thyroid, thymus, pituitary, and pineal glands
• Stimulates the Endocrine system
• Improves strength of spine and increases bone density in the spine
• Stretches shoulders, wrists, ankles, and hamstrings
• Stimulates the 4 upper chakras

Buy on ETSY!

Asana

3. ASANA: The third limb of The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Asanas are the exercise postures of yoga.  Mountain pose, tree pose, child's pose, happy baby pose, warrior I, warrior II, downward dog, and plank are all examples.
Patanjali compares the asanas to resting like the cosmic serpent on the waters of infinity.  Asanas prepare the body for meditation by freeing the body and mind from tension and restlessness.  Then you can meditate on the infinite.
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The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali

The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
This eightfold path of yoga describes the Hatha yoga we practice today:

1. Yama- non-violence, truth, non-stealing, non-lust, non-possessiveness, honesty
2. Niyama- purity, contentment, austerity, study of sacred text, awareness of divine
3. Asana- postures, exercise positions
4. Pranayama- life force or energy
5. Pratyahara- withdrawal of the senses
6. Dharana- concentration
7. Dhyana- uninterrupted meditation
8. Samadhi- absolute bliss, enlightenment

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Patanjali

Patanjali, a humble physician, lived sometime between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. and is considered the father of modern yoga.  He compiled 195 sutras or concise aphorisms called The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, which is a fundamental text on the system of yoga, yet it does not describe postures or exercises.  Rather, it is a guide to help you cultivate body, mind, spiritual awareness, achieve a meditation practice, and ultimately attain enlightenment.

Asana

Asana
Originally meant the seat of yogi's.  In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali suggests that asana is "to be seated in a position that is firm, but relaxed" for extended, or timeless periods.
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Yoga Teacher Training - Day 3

Yoganize Teacher Training - Day 3
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Yoga is not simply an exercise, a work-out, or even a meditation.  Yoga is a state of mind- a stillness of our thoughts; a quietening.  It releases us from stress and illness, bringing us back to our pure existence.  We maintain a practice to achieve this state of mind by focusing on the body, mind, and breath.  We arouse a sense of peace, harmony, and balance.  We feel centered when we are calm and we quell any trace of Ego.  It is in humility that we connect with the divine light in ourselves.
Yoga encourages:

• movement that works to relax the body
• relaxation to quiet our frantic minds
• chanting to arouse and release emotions
• meditation to center the spiritual elements

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Hatha Yoga

• Consists of 8 limbs of practices.
• Branches that need attention and exploration.
• Hatha yoga is practiced in the West.  "Ha" meaning sun and "tha" meaning moon, thereby uniting pairs of opposites.
• Haṭhayoga is translated by the Monier-Williams dictionary as "a kind of forced Yoga or abstract meditation (forcing the mind to withdraw from external objects.
• Swatmarama introduces his system as preparatory stage of physical purification that the body practices for higher meditation or Yoga. It is based on asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing techniques, also known as shatkarma). Hatha Yoga became popular in the west beginning in the second half of the 20th century, and is often referred to simply as "Yoga" in the context of health and physical exercise.

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Always Go Back to Neutral

Anytime you're practicing a back bend, return to neutral before doing it's counter pose and stretching the back in the other direction.  To prevent injuries, go slow into a neutral back, and maybe even practice a Twist before practicing the counter bend.

Vocabulary

Class

1. Flexion- the angle formed at a joint decreases. Flexing the muscles.
2. Extension- the angle that the joint increases.
3. Abduction- any movement away from the midline of your body.
4. Adduction- any movement towards the mid-line of your body; "adding" to yourself, bringing something in towards your body.
5. Rotation- a movement around.
6. Supine/Supination- facing upwards, lying on your back. Body on floor.
7. Prone/Pronation- facing downwards, lying with your front on the ground. Body on floor.
8. Planter-flexion-  pointing the foot; toes forward.
9. Dorisiflexion- press forward through your heel; foot flexed.
10. Inversion- internal rotation.
11. Eversion- external rotation.

The Key Muscles of Yoga pg. 8

1. Medial- closer to the mid-line of the body.
2. Lateral- away from the mid-line of the body. Side stretch.
3. Proximal- closer to the trunk or middle.
4. Distal- Away from the trunk or mid-line.
5. Superior- Above or toward the head.
6. Inferior- Below or away from the head.
7. Anterior- Toward the front of the body.
8. Posterior- Toward the back of the body.
9. Ventral- On the front of the body.
10. Dorsal- On the back of the body.
11. Superficial- Towards the skin.
12. Deep- Inside the body.
13. Antagonistic- muscles that oppose while working in synergy with each other. "Biceps and Triceps" - you extend one while flexing the other.  "Back and Core."  "Quads and Hamstrings."