Reverse and repeat with the right leg on top. Bring the right knee as close the left as possible and keep the soles of the feet perpendicular to the floor. With your hands on the underside of your left shin, bend your left leg and slide it gently on top the right. Bend your right leg and bring your foot as close to the left groin as possible. Clasp your hands over your shin and rock your leg gently side to side. Warm up by bending your left leg and place the sole of your foot into the crook of your right elbow. Sit on your mat with your legs straight in front of you. Here are some asanas to introduce you to or rejuvenate your passion for Hatha yoga. Hatha may be billed as “gentle,” but the wide range of poses and the length of time these yoga poses are held can make it as intense as any Ashtanga or Power class. However, if you enjoy a fast practice that flows from one asana to the next, you may prefer a Vinyasa class. The Lowdown: Hatha yoga classes are both accessible to nearly every student and widely available. On a deeper level, Hatha invites you to find calm in stressful situations, to be present in the moment and to break through the barriers that stand between you and your full potential. The emphasis on bringing the body into balance may aid in controlling diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The Benefits: On a physical level, a Hatha practice can help to improve muscular strength and flexibility, relax the body and brain, massage and tone vital organs, relax your body and create open channels for energy and breath. Poses are often held for 30 seconds to one minute in the standing sequences longer in some of the seated stretching poses. Students are directed to connect with their breath as they move into each pose. After seated meditation and breath work, students will move through the asana sequence. The Class: Generally, Hatha classes have three components: Pranayama, asanas, and meditation. The sequences of asanas (postures or poses) used in Hatha yoga work to align skin, muscles, and bones in order to open the body and allow energy to flow freely. The focus: To create balance and unify the opposing aspects of mind, body, and spirit. Hatha combines the third and fourth of the eight limbs of yoga: Asanas and pranayama (breath work). But, the term has come to be associated with a slower-paced practice which combines poses to enhance strength, balance, and flexibility. Technically it is not an individual type of yoga but any practice of yoga postures. The term Hatha comes from two Sanskrit words: ha meaning sun and tha meaning moon. The basics: Hatha yoga is said to have been introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a Hindu sage of 15th century India and compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (a classical Sanskrit manual on Hatha yoga). Since Hatha is the most popular approach to yoga in the West, it’s a great place to start this series-and a yoga practice. So, which one is right for you? Hatha? Ashtanga? Kundalini? All of the above? This blog series on leading yoga styles can help get you on the right path(s). It seems like the menu of yoga classes gets longer every year. Since each individual has a unique yoga practice, it’s only natural that styles would evolve to meet the needs of students who prefer to hold poses to reach deeply within as well as to others who benefit from the current of swift, intense motion. But, not surprisingly, the physical practice has. Their goal, to find unity through these studies, has not changed as yoga has grown to connect people over five millennia and around the world. You share the same intention as the rishis who were exploring the nature of reality and human beings’ inner worlds through meditation and the physical practice of yoga. Every time you step onto your mat, you link into a tradition that reaches back more than 5,000 years.
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