Yoga For Beginners Guide

By Jenny Park This article will either make you laugh or make you mad. My intention is to make you laugh. Right now, we live in a world of selfies. People are taking pictures of themselves all the time. I know someone who has hundreds of her own pictures doing yoga poses for wallpaper in her bedroom. She is naturally flexible, doesn't put any effort into practice, can do a variety of postures well, and she is obnoxiously proud of herself. Her pictures are all over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Therefore, I devote this article to people who practice postures only for their ego's sake.

By Faye Martins Children's yoga classes are a wonderful way to introduce kids to yoga poses, breathing, and philosophies. Classes can easily be modified to suit many different ages, from babies to tweens. Children can begin to feel the positive results of a yoga class, making them more likely to choose yoga as a lifelong activity. There are many different ways to keep children engaged and interested in the class. Yoga instructors can build a class around an animal theme, encouraging the children to voice animal sounds, make a game out of the poses, or create an interactive story with yoga poses incorporated throughout.

By Shahid Mishra There was a time, when I was young, that I thought yoga props were for people who were in need of them. As a young Yoga teacher, I was indeed arrogant and my Guru asked me to work at the back of the class assisting, until I learned patience. Frustration filled me, but I remained with my Guru, Paulji for many years. He pointed my eyes toward the type of student who has improved his or her quality of life because props helped with mobility, disease, skeletal alignment, or gave this person self-confidence. I became a believer and now I see yoga props can help anyone.

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 250 If you have ever seen a master yoga teacher at work, you probably gazed in wonder as he or she created an inviting, calm class atmosphere; put people at ease with a smile, gesture, or comment; or flowed through a series of poses, detailing modifications and potential risks, without a hitch. Although, for some of us teaching yoga comes naturally, there is much to be learned about teaching skills and methods simply by observing others. The best yoga teachers are never satisfied with their own methods, but seek to constantly improve by watching other master yoga teachers in practice. Teachers themselves, then, are nothing more than lifelong students. This is a point that Paulji makes many times.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 The difficulty and complexity of Yoga techniques can range from quite simple to potentially complex. One of the tasks of a Yoga instructor is to simplify the process of executing the postures. It takes a bit of practice to be able to lead the students into a more complex pose or pranayama technique, step-by-step. You want the movements to be smooth and easy, the verbal cues to be concise, and your physical demonstration to be accurate.

By Sangeetha Saran Does meditation during childbirth have benefits? Few people would dispute childbirth as one of the reigning champions in the area of human pain. Modern medicine has come a long way and pain medications are fairly effective in alleviating the pain of giving birth, but there are some unpleasant side effects for the mother and baby both when these are heavily used. For this and other reasons, more and more mothers are looking to give birth in a more drug free manner. Meditation is a powerful method for pain tolerance during childbirth.

By Dr. Rita Khanna To live in peace and harmony, without being thrown out of balance by the ups and downs of life is really not so hard and yet not so easy though it is the aim of every living being. From a Yogic perspective this means to live life fully, to flow with life and to accept whatever life brings, rather than fighting against life and the circumstances that we live in. Yoga, as an age-old system, has always been a practical science of living which teaches us the tools for a balanced, harmonious life. It is a system which explains the functioning of the human mind and the various levels of consciousness with the aim of unfolding the dormant potential in everyone.

By Bhavan Kumar One of the key elements to using Yoga as a therapeutic tool to heal traumatic memories is to remember to breath throughout your Yoga practice. If you forget to breath, you are still somatizing and freezing the feelings, memories and emotions in your muscle tissues. Somatization is often an unconscious protective mechanism for many trauma survivors. Unfortunately, it keeps the traumatic memories just below a conscious level and perpetually recycling in the mind and heart of a trauma survivor. Yogic pranayama exercises that teach you how to breath fully and deeply are very important for trauma survivors. Intermediate pranayama exercises that purify and energize the entire body/mind system are also very effective tools for releasing traumatic memories.

By Bhavan Kumar The fall and winter seasons bring with them great beauty, a chance for introspection and an opportunity to slow down. The fall and winter are also a time when many of us catch colds and seasonal flues. If you find that you get frequent colds during this time of year, you may want to consider incorporating Yoga asanas that are inversions into your practice in order to enhance the functioning of your immune system. Our immune systems are detrimentally affected by a poor diet, lack of restorative sleep, high stress and toxins in the environment. Prescription and non-prescription drugs and an unhealthy level of alcohol consumption can also negatively affect the immune system.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 There comes a time in every Yoga instructor's practice where they must learn how to correct others in a way that is tactful, informative, and gentle. Forming a good technique for correcting others takes time and practice. It is often helpful to watch more experienced Yoga teachers in action. Inexperienced teachers should mimic how more seasoned Yoga instructors interact with students, correct form, or guide them into proper positions. You can learn a lot by watching master teachers in action.

By Faye Martins Yoga teachers know that pre-existing physical conditions are important when teaching students. This is covered in a basic 200-hour yoga teacher training. Yet, there are a few new students who may manage to slip by an orientation. Maybe they arrive late, or the staff is helping other new students, but each student should be made aware of precautions for his or her health. Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the many ailments that teachers and students should talk about before practice.

By Sangeetha Saran All of us go through times when we feel overwhelmed by the trauma, stress, or loss in our lives. What makes one person persevere and overcome obstacles while another gives up at the first hint of failure? Many Yoga classes are filled with students who are developing the inner strength to deal with stress. Chances are that it is not the stressful circumstances, but the way we react to them and the solutions we discover that determine the outcome. While each of us is born with certain personality traits, we can learn from Yoga and meditation to be more resilient by embracing new opportunities, being open to challenges, and learning from our mistakes.

By Faye Martins Yoga is great for people of different ages, but is it beneficial in a preschool setting? The answer is a resounding yes, and here's why. It might be hard to imagine preschoolers successfully performing a discipline like yoga, but with the proper modifications it's excellent for younger children. Preschoolers often have a hard time focusing during the school day, and this is usually because the child has pent up energy that needs to be spent.

By Claude Aoukar 200 hour yoga teacher training programWhen teaching yoga, I used to start the session in Tadasana asking the students to breath in and out, feeling each vertebra of the body in order to achieve focus, concentration and stillness of the mind. One day I was interrupted by a young athletic lady who asked me, "What were the advantages of going so slow?" I felt that a few notions of chakras and band has would be necessary to answer her demands.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 Yoga has been proven as an extremely effective way to relieve stress, strengthen the body and mind, and improve overall health. Those who practice Yoga, on a regular basis, understand just how powerful the effects can be. Over time, the body seems to crave the feelings of strength and limberness a Yoga session brings. Yoga also provides a feeling of peace and well-being to the mind. Employees with high stress levels can benefit greatly from regular Yoga routines.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 Professional development is an important aspect of any career. Professionals from all disciplines seek to gain more knowledge, or to develop knowledge in a specific area of their field. Doctors, teachers, business people, and other professionals, know the importance of staying current with industry related trends and developments. Yoga teachers are no exception. It is important for instructors to stay abreast of any changes in the field of Hatha Yoga, as well as to educate themselves on the various aspects of living a Yogic lifestyle as a path to wellness and personal development.

By Kimaya Singh For thousands of years, sages have taught that meditation increases positive emotions and decreases negative ones. In our chaotic modern world, we use the word "depression" to describe a wide gamut of conditions ranging from temporary blues to disabling illnesses. Because it means so many things to so many different people, statistics dealing with diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments can be confusing or even misleading. While mild forms of depression often respond well to healthy diets, exercise, and meditation, others are more resistant to treatment and less likely to go away on their own.

By Faye Martins The regular practice of sitting Yoga asanas can help trauma survivors to relax and release deeply held muscular and emotional tension. Trauma survivors often experience a rigid sense of holding in order to prevent themselves from remembering the painful experiences they have been through and to protect themselves from further pain and trauma. This holding or freezing is a basic instinctual reaction during a terrifying and painful situation.

By Gopi Rao Modern psychology is largely concerned with fixing or curing the ego. There is what is considered a healthy ego and then there are various expressions of unhealthy ego development. These unhealthy ego types are given labels and terms with the goal being to bring these unhealthy expressions of personality into a more healthy mental alignment.

By Faye Martins We've all had a bad yoga class. Sometimes the mistakes or problems were obvious, and sometimes we just left with a vague feeling of unease. Most likely, after a bad class with a new yoga teacher, we decided to try something else next time. If students seem to be dropping away from a class, perhaps some of the common mistakes of yoga teachers are being made. Here are some of the mistakes, and how to correct or avoid them in our yoga classes.