Asana and Reading for May 2011

Namaste all yoginis!

I hope that all of you were able to use the golden week time to wind down, relax and connect with friends and family. We often get so caught up in our routines that we forget how good it is to stop those routines momentarily and place our focus on something more personal and closer to the heart. Thank goodness for holidays!

During last month’s class, the topic of different types of yoga came up. The yoga we practice at Imagine* is of the vinyasa kind, but apart from the workout-kind-of-yoga, many other forms of yoga exist, all with the final purpose of bringing a union between the body, mind and soul.

There is a type of yoga that requires not even one asana (pose) to be done, and that is much more focussed on making the mind flexible, rather than the body. This is Karma yoga, and in May I would like to talk about this yoga, the yoga of action.

Karma yoga is the practice of gaining awareness through action. By practicing karma yoga in everything you do from your 9-5 job to washing the dishes, you bring your awareness closer and closer to the present moment. If you do everything you do with full awareness, and without expecting any kind of reward, you remove the ego from the equation and daily upsets, big or small, tend to affect you less and lead to more efficient and powerful actions. The beauty of karma yoga is that you can practice this every moment of every day. All it is is a change of mindset.

On the yoga mats, we will be focussing on asanas that are called heart openers. By practicing these poses, we learn to open ourselves up to others, which in turn helps us to start living a more selfless, serving life. The karma yoga way.

Some of the heart-openers we will be doing include:

Cobra pose

Camel pose

Bound bridge pose

Tree pose

Open side twists

Spinal twists

Wheel pose

Waterfall warrior

Proud pigeon pose

Our reading for the merry month of May is by an unknown author, but it is something that every single person should keep in mind. Especially if they are on a quest to increase their awareness.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Namaste,
Marilu

月毎に行うポーズ名をご紹介します。レッスンの状況により多少変更することがあります。