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Yoga Basics: Your guide to the Practice of Yoga

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Did you know that the basic yoga postures are quite easy to learn and do? Many people who are new to Yoga do not know what the yoga poses really are. There is absolutely nothing to worry if you are new to the practice.

Yoga is a practice where unification of the body, mind and spirit takes place. This total sense of unification of the body mind and sprit can be achieved through the constant and repeated practice of yoga postures and techniques.

Many people who are new to yoga are always dumb struck when they see others doing the various postures and often wonder how to do them. A beginner to this kind of practice will want to know which yoga positions would be most suitable to them.

People who are yoga exponents or Yogis as they are referred to are of the firm opinion that yoga helps to unify the body and mind. This opinion has not undergone any change even after so many years. It is believed that when one does the yoga poses, the body gets healed automatically especially when one is in an environment which is serene.

Doctors are of the opinion that yoga has many therapeutic benefits and those people who are suffering from incurable illnesses have actually benefited from practicing yoga postures. If you are new to yoga and have been suffering from a long time illness then doing the basic yoga postures is really going to help you get better. To get yourself relieved from the disease you must have complete faith that doing yoga is going to rid you of it making you feel all the more healthy.

Yoga is not an exercise system that has been around for centuries and has been practiced and tried by many who have benefited from it. Research and investigation into the system of yoga has proved beyond doubt that it indeed heals the body.

People who are new to yoga and have just begun to practice the postures have found that their joints have become very flexible. The yoga positions meant for beginners are simple exercises which can bring about a healthy change in their present lifestyle. But the benefits become manifold the more they practice.

A new yoga student will find that the exercises are not only easy to perform but are also stimulating and interesting. Yoga helps to massage the internal organs and glands thus making them work efficiently. It also stimulates those parts which are hardly put into use.

Yoga positions for beginners can be learnt from home or at any yoga school nearby. The basic yoga poses for beginners include exercises like standing postures, sitting postures, forward and back ward bends, balancing and twisting. Once the student has mastered these easy yoga postures then they can move on to the more difficult poses which will certainly be not that difficult when they begin to practice them.

The beginners are not made to hold the yoga positions for longer periods as most will find it difficult to do so. Also they would need enough rest in between each posture so that they will have enough energy to get into the next position with ease.

Self discipline is very important for a beginner in yoga. Yoga does not mean just performing the poses it is much more than that. If you are a beginner make sure that you learn the basic poses well before you proceed to learn and master the more difficult positions.

chanchal asked:


India is often recognized as the center of the Yoga world. Certainly, there are more practitioners here than anywhere else. However, the practice of yoga has spread throughout the world. As it has spread, it has been changed and modified through experimentation and the application of creative approaches. In the West, yoga practice has taken on many different dimensions. Yoga purists may find it easy to be critical of many of the new ways and would not agree that these ways are “real” yoga. Be that as it may, the experiments in West have come up few very unique aspects, which have the potential to deeply impact your yoga practice and your relationships. One the these is “Couple Yoga”. It is one of the most successful techniques used by the Yoga teachers in USA and Europe.

Couple yoga is a method in which you team up to learn and practice yoga. Most often, the “couples” are what we understand by the traditional interpretation of the term – a man and a woman. In fact, most of the couples who are practicing couple yoga are men and women who are involved in a loving relationship. But, the term “couple” here can also mean two people. They can be friends of the same gender, a girlfriend or a buddy. They can be a parent and a child. What seems to be most important to a successful yoga “couple” is that they share a caring relationship.

In the practice of couple yoga, each person not only performs individual Asanas, but also performs many yoga exercises together with their partner. Some couple postures involve only minor physical contact, like holding your partner’s back as they bend. Others are such that they cannot be performed alone. A Pascimottanasana is an example in which the couple is seated on a mat with the bottoms of there feet together and their hands clasping their partner’s wrists. Together, they perform a double forward bend and help each other stretch leg, back and arm muscles.

One might ask, “what are the advantages of practicing couple yoga? There are many.

Couple yoga helps each person to perform the most difficult postures with greater ease.

Mutual practice creates a greater level of intimacy. It can take the relationship to a different level and helps develop deeper understanding of ourselves and our partner.

In our busy lives when we do not know how to create time for rejuvenation of our own individual health, sharing the practice of yoga with a loved one can become an important means of improving both personal health and the strength of a relationship.

Practicing couple yoga helps each partner to understand their own and their partner’s strengths and weaknesses and creates the opportunity for each to add to their own and their partner’s strengths and to help improve each other’s deficiencies.

Couple yoga can create a surge of energy in the relationship. It can improve the way you “dance” together. The supportive hand of a partner helps to unlock all those blocked energy areas in your body.

It is difficult for many people to perform postures like chakraasana alone. When you have a partner to give you a helping hand you can do it without any effort at all.

Doing yoga with your kids enhances their feelings of being safe. Your loving touch and protective presence will make them confident and will help in them to grow into healthy adults.

We all know that there are two basic forms of communication – verbal and non-verbal. Doing yoga with your partner will improve the quality of your non-verbal communication and this communication without words gives another dimension for the expression of emotions.

Doing yoga with your partner will help you become sensitive to when your partner is in need and aware of how to help. The combination of touch and caring adds to the healing capacity of your shared yoga relationship. Because partner yoga creates the space and the opportunity to hear each other beyond words, each will be able to hear “inner sounds” of the other. This heightened awareness adds to the feelings of peace and grounding often noted as one of the main benefits of traditional yoga.

Couple yoga creates a feeling of mutual harmony and helps each partner stay in touch with the other. It is one of the best ways to sustain health on physical, emotional and spirit to spirit levels..

The yoga couple will be more flexible and together they will have more energy.

One of the most important advantages of couple yoga is the atmosphere it creates. Humor and laughter are not characteristics of traditional yoga. They are common in couple yoga. They contribute to an atmosphere of lightness, which is one of the best signs of health and happiness.

Couple yoga is not for everyone.

Many people benefit from their daily, solitary practice of yoga or from the yoga classes they attend with others. Many need the individual time as much as they need the benefits they derive from yoga practice. Some people are not comfortable with physical touch or with performing asanas with others watching.

For those who are beginning a new relationship or have been in a comfortable and caring relationship they would like to take to another level or for people, who are looking for a unique and mutually beneficial way to be with their children, couple yoga can open the door to wonderful new relationships.

Partner or couple yoga is about health and happiness and caring.