One of the things I appreciate the most about Kripalu yoga is the philosophic clarity that it is possible to bring the ancient wisdom tradition of yoga into our contemporary, and sometimes chaotic lives with balance and grace. What a relief!
I can call asanas by their Sanskrit names or by their English names, or, when I am teaching my classes in the juvenile jail, by whatever name the kids want to call them. (My favorite these days is Utkatasana--in English we call it Standing Squat--my juvie class calls it Thunder Thighs).
I didn't have enough yoga ties in my home studio, so I got some used men's suit ties at the last clothing exchange I attended, and we use those too. I'm big on avoiding fancy yoga clothes, special props, or dedicated spaces. If there is room to throw down a mat, great! No mat handy, no worries, I can do without. My yogini friend Lauren and I have discussed this on numerous occasions, and we both agree that daily sadhana can be an any-time-any-place practice for a minute, or for an hour. No rules frees me up to experience yoga whenever the urge strikes in whatever setting I find myself.
When people ask me about Kripalu yoga, they often want to know how it is different from other, more popular forms of yoga that they may already know. After talking about the importance in Kripalu yoga of warming up the body, connecting with the breath, and supporting a compassionate heart, I like to mention that Kripalu yoga allows each person to find their own way into a yoga practice, honoring where they are in body, mind and spirit, with lots of room to show up however they happen to be that day.
As I have deepened my experience of Kripalu yoga, both in teaching classes and in my practice, I have allowed myself more and more room to find balance in my life across many settings--family, home, workplace and community, and have become happier and more content as a result. What a gift to give ourselves--an ancient wisdom tradition finds its way into our modern lives at a time when we need it most.
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Yoga holds that a person’s health condition depends on himself. It lays emphasis on physical, mental and emotional balance and development of a sense of harmony with all of life. There’s nothing mystical about it.Nor is it external. Rather it is an inner faculty. Yoga endeavors to re-establish inner balance through a variety of ways, ranging from the gross to the subtle. Which is why it is considered a holistic art.Rather than prescribe treatments, yoga therapy encourages awareness. Through age-old yogic techniques, we get to know ourselves better.From that knowledge, comes the ability to more easily accept and adapt to change, resulting in enhanced well-being in body, mind, heart and spirit. Hence its applicability to almost all chronic conditions.
What approach does yoga therapy take?
Contrary to modern medical science that tries to identify the pathogenic factor (be it a toxic substance, a micro-organism, or metabolic disorder) then eliminate it, Yoga takes a totally different point of view. It holds that if a person is sick there must be a deeper reason behind it – that illness doesn’t arise by chance. It is the result of an imbalance, a disruption in the body-mind complex that creates the condition. Here the symptoms, the pathogenic factors, are not the issue. Yoga believes that the root cause lies somewhere else.
yoga therapy
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