Developing a home slow yoga practice

The Ancients describe the ideal slow yoga practice as one revolving around the four-fold classification of asanas or yoga postures. In the beginning do two asanas from each of the four groups and you have your own, personal slow yoga practice!

The four fold classification is based on the position of the body at the beginning of the asana. It is as follows:

a. Belly up
b. Belly down
c. Standing
d. Sitting

a. Belly up
Starting on your back you may move into the Bridge Pose. Remember to have your feet on the mat a few inches below your buttocks, hip distance apart. Your prana or life force is directed downwards through your heels pulling your buttocks and hips up towards the ceiling. Your hands are by your sides, palms active, facing down. Next you may come down and bring your knees to your chest, wrapping your arms around your legs just below the knees and play with rocking yourself side to side and forward and back in Little Boat.

b. Belly down
Starting with your hands and knees on the floor, arms and thighs perpendicular to your torso, you may move into a Cat Curve on the outbreath, curving your spine upwards, dropping your head. You would follow this with a Dog Tilt on the inbreath, your spine now sinking down towards the mat, your head is raised, looking up. Rhythmically move back and forth between these two asanas, allowing your prana or life force to move up the entire length of the spine. When you feel nice and warmed up you may want to slowly move into the wonderful asana, Downward Facing Dog. To move into Down Dog you would start from the Dog Tilt position and keep the hips in the open position, sitting bones pointing towards the ceiling. Next your arms move forward 45 degrees. Finally you come up on your hands and feet allowing your head to relax. Remember to visualize the line of prana energy is slowly sinking down your heels into Mother Earth, whether or not your heels touch the mat! 

c. Standing
Standing with your feet together, you may want to bend the right knee and bring the right foot to rest on your left thigh, a namaste mudra or Prayer Posture at your heart. Next your namaste moves to the ceiling, and hands come apart, palms facing each other at shoulder distance while your fingers curl like lotus petals. Look forward with a soft gaze and allow a smile to play upon your lips. This is the tree asana. When you are ready, switch legs. Also read my article "Get to know your tree" on this website. You may want to then move into Warrior I and II asanas on both sides.

d. Sitting
Lastly, sit in meditation in Lotus, Half Lotus, Open Lotus, or Vajrasana. For the Lotus variations you sit directly on your sitting bones with each foot on top of the other thigh. For Half Lotus, only one foot is atop the other thigh, with the other foot tucked under the opposing thigh. Or open up your Lotus and allow both feet and calves to rest comfortably on your mat. Now meditate focusing on your slow breathing. After a while, and you must be patient, you will feel as though you are one with your prana or life force. You ARE breath and nothing else matters.

Peace and Love,

Slowly, move as slowly as a bee collecting honey,

Abhay

Imaginary Yoga and the 4 yoga cycles

The new student of yoga is pleasantly surprised to find that the yoga postures are named after animals, plants, and objects: Cat, pigeon, tree, plough. While these names are to be seen as metaphors rather than be taken literally, there is no hidden mystic meaning behind these names. The Ancients were simply experimenting with things they saw around them. And so can you! You can make up yoga postures by studying the world around you and creating postures that emulate or express the inner essence of things you observe. Call it Imaginary Yoga.

When you practice your Imaginary Yoga just make sure you use the 4 yogic cycles. My students are closely familiar with them: they are the basis of the yoga I teach.

1. Breath cycle.
One of my teachers used to say that yoga was an excuse to breathe. What he meant was that the deep, even breathing in yoga is at the heart of the practice. Fill your entire torso with breath and then gently let it all out.

2. Expansion and contraction cycle.
In moving postures, breathe in when you expand, as in looking up or bending backwards. Breathe out when you contract, as in looking down or bending forward. When you get to a posture that is held in stillness you don't need this principle.

3. Internal rhythm cycle.
On the outbreath you contract the anal sphincter. On the inbreath you relax it.

4. Effort and relaxation cycle.
Effort is used on the outbreath both in still postures and moving ones. The inbreath is never accompanied by an active movement or effort in stillness: it is accompanied by relaxation.

The four cycles work together to create a Gestalt, or whole, so it is important to combine them.

After all the word yoga in Sanskrit means, to join.

Peace and Love,

Abhay