Hatha Yoga and other Exercise
by Sri Swami Satchidananda
Hatha Yoga is a form of meditation. Every posture, every breathing practice is a form of meditation. It calms your body, breath, and mind. After only an hour of practice, you walk away with all peace and serenity and usually feel relaxed for hours. It is a very great practice.
The asanas are completely different from other forms of exercise, which are usually done with quick movements and a certain amount of strain. Exercises accelerate your breathing, waste your energy, and draw your circulation to the surface of the body. They develop the muscular part of the body. That means your vitality goes to the muscles at the cost of the inner glands and nerves.
According to Sri Bhagavan Patanjali, the Father of the Yoga teachings, asana literally means a posture that brings steadiness and comfort. So, the Yoga asanas should be practiced with utmost ease and comfort. We are very, very careful not to make Hatha Yoga another exercise. That’s a great difference between many other types of Yoga and the Integral Yoga technique. Only very few do it in a nice, gentle way. It is not our interest to make you an acrobat or a gymnast and teach you 150 asanas. Still, they will give you all the strength you’ll ever need — and mental strength as well.
Never forget that health is much more important than muscular strength. You might be able to lift heavy weights, run long distances, jump to extreme heights, break chains, or swim for miles, but are you immune to illness? Even great mental ability comes second to health. Having phenomenal powers of memory is of no use without a balanced mind, one that can accurately weigh pleasure and pain, praise and censure; one that is fearless, residing in permanent peace and bliss.
Have some other kind of exercise if you want; it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t have time for that, at least do the Yoga practices. Hatha Yoga is a must. It is the main meal. The various exercises are like desserts, side dishes.
If you want to combine other exercises and asanas, do the exercises first, relax, and then do the asanas afterward. End with the asanas. If instead you practice the asanas first and then do the exercises, you will disturb what you have built by the asanas.
The Pradheepika, an ancient Hatha Yoga scripture, states that: “Anyone who practices Yoga properly and sincerely becomes a siddha (an accomplished one); be he young, old or even very elderly, sick or weak.” From prince to peasant, child to grandparent, ailing to robust, all can practice these Yoga postures with maximum advantage.
Posted in Integral Yoga Teachings
Hatha Yoga is a form of meditation. Every posture, every breathing practice is a form of meditation. It calms your body, breath, and mind. After only an hour of practice, you walk away with all peace and serenity and usually feel relaxed for hours. It is a very great practice.
The asanas are completely different from other forms of exercise, which are usually done with quick movements and a certain amount of strain. Exercises accelerate your breathing, waste your energy, and draw your circulation to the surface of the body. They develop the muscular part of the body. That means your vitality goes to the muscles at the cost of the inner glands and nerves.
According to Sri Bhagavan Patanjali, the Father of the Yoga teachings, asana literally means a posture that brings steadiness and comfort. So, the Yoga asanas should be practiced with utmost ease and comfort. We are very, very careful not to make Hatha Yoga another exercise. That’s a great difference between many other types of Yoga and the Integral Yoga technique. Only very few do it in a nice, gentle way. It is not our interest to make you an acrobat or a gymnast and teach you 150 asanas. Still, they will give you all the strength you’ll ever need — and mental strength as well.
Never forget that health is much more important than muscular strength. You might be able to lift heavy weights, run long distances, jump to extreme heights, break chains, or swim for miles, but are you immune to illness? Even great mental ability comes second to health. Having phenomenal powers of memory is of no use without a balanced mind, one that can accurately weigh pleasure and pain, praise and censure; one that is fearless, residing in permanent peace and bliss.
Have some other kind of exercise if you want; it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t have time for that, at least do the Yoga practices. Hatha Yoga is a must. It is the main meal. The various exercises are like desserts, side dishes.
If you want to combine other exercises and asanas, do the exercises first, relax, and then do the asanas afterward. End with the asanas. If instead you practice the asanas first and then do the exercises, you will disturb what you have built by the asanas.
The Pradheepika, an ancient Hatha Yoga scripture, states that: “Anyone who practices Yoga properly and sincerely becomes a siddha (an accomplished one); be he young, old or even very elderly, sick or weak.” From prince to peasant, child to grandparent, ailing to robust, all can practice these Yoga postures with maximum advantage.
Posted in Integral Yoga Teachings
The giant hatha yoga family tree: it's ALL hatha yoga
By Tobye Miller
I was at a yoga event recently.Waiting to register and pay, I heard a woman ask what Hatha yoga was, and the official answered, “Hatha is more of a classical style of yoga and tends to be slightly easier for beginners than some of the advanced styles.”
I felt a little twinge of energy hearing this and had to let it go, breathe out, smile and walk away.
Since yoga came to the west, it has been taken further and further away from what it actually is. At least, as far as Hatha yoga is concerned. Hatha yoga you see, is the postural work, the physical, exercise part of yoga, the “asanas.” There are myriad of different styles of Hatha yoga with the most popular styles pretty much all coming from the lineage of Krishnamacharya.
The styles that became popular in the west first were brought here by Krishnamacharya’s students; Iyengar, Jois, Indra Devi and TKV Desikachar. Ashtanga vinyasa is the full term, now usually shortened to just Ashtanga. It differs from Iyengar because, instead of holding each posture, yogis “flow” through a pre-determined series of postures. Whereas, with Iyengar, postures can be held for up to 20 minutes.
Krishnamacharya had a certain reason for developing the style of Ashtanga vinyasa. His school was in a gymnasium in Mysore, India and he was teaching young boys about fitness. Because the boys were also studying wrestling and gymnastics, the fast, energetic flow of Ashtanga vinyasa suited them best. He developed the style to suit a certain physique.
But when he taught Indra Devi, Krishnamacharya used a completely different style of Hatha yoga. Devi had to push Krishnamacharya to teach her Hatha yoga, he wasn’t willing to teach her at all but, when he finally did, he taught a style specifically for her.
This is the classical guru/student connection. The student asks to be taught yoga and it is up to the guru whether the student is worthy or, not. The guru might not even start with yogasana. The student may first be taught mantra or pranayama, or meditation, depending on the abilities of each individual.
I would hazard a guess that a large percentage of people that have a regular Hatha yoga practice, might well not be allowed anywhere near yogasana if they were studying with a guru in the classical sense!
The different styles all born from Krishnamacharya’s modern Hatha yoga—Hatha yoga was a long forgotten style of yoga until he revived it—have evolved because of the need of each individual teacher.
Anusara for instance, may well have evolved from Iyengar to suit a specific need that John Friend had…possibly a need to open the heart center more.
I personally teach an Iyengar inspired style called “Karuna” yoga, which was developed by my guru, Ruth White, because back in the 60′s when she was studying with BKS Iyengar, he did not want to teach meditation. Ruth and her husband John had a passion for Advaita and set up the style of Karuna to accommodate their love of Iyengar’s Hatha yoga and meditation.
It is “mind stuff” and the work of the ego that makes yogis seperate the different styles of Hatha yoga. The particular style they practice might be better for them, but that does not mean it is better than another style of Hatha yoga.
I have had certain yogis tell me that the style they practice is better than my style, even though they’ve never been to a Karuna yoga class and have actually never even heard of it, even though our styles have the exact same root. This is the same form of group ego that creates the thuggery and vandalism of opposing teams of football fans.
Yoga means to unite, to yoke together, and if the various different styles of Hatha yoga are going to evolve in the west, we all need to be aware that it is all one. We have all branched off from the same source like a giant Hatha yoga family tree.
I felt a little twinge of energy hearing this and had to let it go, breathe out, smile and walk away.
Since yoga came to the west, it has been taken further and further away from what it actually is. At least, as far as Hatha yoga is concerned. Hatha yoga you see, is the postural work, the physical, exercise part of yoga, the “asanas.” There are myriad of different styles of Hatha yoga with the most popular styles pretty much all coming from the lineage of Krishnamacharya.
The styles that became popular in the west first were brought here by Krishnamacharya’s students; Iyengar, Jois, Indra Devi and TKV Desikachar. Ashtanga vinyasa is the full term, now usually shortened to just Ashtanga. It differs from Iyengar because, instead of holding each posture, yogis “flow” through a pre-determined series of postures. Whereas, with Iyengar, postures can be held for up to 20 minutes.
Krishnamacharya had a certain reason for developing the style of Ashtanga vinyasa. His school was in a gymnasium in Mysore, India and he was teaching young boys about fitness. Because the boys were also studying wrestling and gymnastics, the fast, energetic flow of Ashtanga vinyasa suited them best. He developed the style to suit a certain physique.
But when he taught Indra Devi, Krishnamacharya used a completely different style of Hatha yoga. Devi had to push Krishnamacharya to teach her Hatha yoga, he wasn’t willing to teach her at all but, when he finally did, he taught a style specifically for her.
This is the classical guru/student connection. The student asks to be taught yoga and it is up to the guru whether the student is worthy or, not. The guru might not even start with yogasana. The student may first be taught mantra or pranayama, or meditation, depending on the abilities of each individual.
I would hazard a guess that a large percentage of people that have a regular Hatha yoga practice, might well not be allowed anywhere near yogasana if they were studying with a guru in the classical sense!
The different styles all born from Krishnamacharya’s modern Hatha yoga—Hatha yoga was a long forgotten style of yoga until he revived it—have evolved because of the need of each individual teacher.
Anusara for instance, may well have evolved from Iyengar to suit a specific need that John Friend had…possibly a need to open the heart center more.
I personally teach an Iyengar inspired style called “Karuna” yoga, which was developed by my guru, Ruth White, because back in the 60′s when she was studying with BKS Iyengar, he did not want to teach meditation. Ruth and her husband John had a passion for Advaita and set up the style of Karuna to accommodate their love of Iyengar’s Hatha yoga and meditation.
It is “mind stuff” and the work of the ego that makes yogis seperate the different styles of Hatha yoga. The particular style they practice might be better for them, but that does not mean it is better than another style of Hatha yoga.
I have had certain yogis tell me that the style they practice is better than my style, even though they’ve never been to a Karuna yoga class and have actually never even heard of it, even though our styles have the exact same root. This is the same form of group ego that creates the thuggery and vandalism of opposing teams of football fans.
Yoga means to unite, to yoke together, and if the various different styles of Hatha yoga are going to evolve in the west, we all need to be aware that it is all one. We have all branched off from the same source like a giant Hatha yoga family tree.
Penetrating Postures: The science of Yoga
(from a 2012 Forbes magazine article)
This is the first of a two-part series on yoga: the second, “The Psychology of Yoga,” looks at the psychological changes that yoga has been shown to bring about.
Judging from the number of yoga mats I’ve seen toted aroundManhattan in the last 15 years, I’m pretty sure I was the last person on the island to try it. My relationship with the practice started about six months ago, and I must admit, I fell for it – and hard. I was amazed at the changes it was effecting in my body, and even better, my mind. But the science nerd/Western medicine part of me wondered how, exactly, it was doing this. I could wager some guesses based on what I know about the body, but wanted to talk to some people who actually study this stuff for a living.
Where is Yoga Headed These Days?
Stephen Cope is a therapist and director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. He heads a program at the Center entitled “Yoga and the Brain,” in which researchers are studying yoga’s effect on the brain with MRI and other clever techniques. Cope explains that yoga brings about measurable changes in the body’s sympathetic nervous system – the one charged with propelling us into action during the “fight or flight” response to stress. However, because our lives today include business emails at 10 o’clock at night and loud cell conversations at the next table, our stress response often lingers in the “on” position at times it shouldn’t. Yoga helps dampen the body’s stress response by reducing levels of the hormone cortisol, which not only fuels our split-second stress reactions, but it can wreak havoc on the body when one is chronically stressed. So reducing the body’s cortisol level is generally considered a good thing.
Yoga also boosts levels of the feel-good brain chemicals like GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, which are responsible for feelings of relaxation and contentedness, and the way the brain processes rewards. All three neurotransmitters are the targets of various mood medications like antidepressants (e.g., SSRIs) and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs. The fact that yoga is linked to improved levels of these coveted chemicals is nothing to sneeze at.
Yoga has another bonus, says Sarah Dolgonos, MD, who has taught at the Yoga Society of New York’sAnanda Ashram. She points out that in addition to suppressing the stress response, yoga actually stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms us down and restores balance after a major stressor is over. When the parasympathetic nervous system switches on, “blood is directed toward endocrine glands, digestive organs, and lymphatic circulation, while the heart rate and blood pressure are lowered,” says Dolgonos. With the parasympathetic nervous system in gear, “our bodies can better extract nutrients from the food we eat, and more effectively eliminate toxins because circulation is enhanced. With parasympathetic activation, the body enters into a state of restoration and healing.”
There is also consensus that yoga boosts immune function, says Dolgonos. This benefit is probably due to the reduction of cortisol, mentioned earlier: too much of the pesky hormone can dampen the effectiveness of the immune system “by immobilizing certain white blood cells.” Reducing circulating cortisol “removes a barrier to effective immune function,” so yoga could help prevent illness by boosting immunity.
So let’s zoom in on yoga’s effects on the body even more (bear with me, this is really interesting). Researchers have discovered that yoga improves health in part by reducing a major adversary of the body: inflammation. Chronic inflammation, even low grade, is responsible for a litany of health problems from heart disease to diabetes to depression.
Paula R. Pullen, PhD, Research Instructor at the Morehouse School of Medicine, studies yoga’s effects on inflammation by looking at what’s happening in the bodies of heart failure patients who enroll in yoga classes. She has shown that after being randomly assigned to yoga or to standard medical care, patients taking yoga have significantly improved levels of biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). If your eyes just glazed over, these findings are quite remarkable because they illustrate that yoga can actually affect the tiniest molecules, the ones that are widely known to predict risk for serious disease. Pullen underlines that reducing the body’s level of inflammation is incredibly important from a preventative standpoint. And yoga can help with this. “Yoga balances the body, the hormonal system, and the stress response. People tend to think of yoga as being all about flexibility – it’s not. It’s about rebalancing and healing the body.” Though it’s been around for thousands of years, Western science is just beginning to understand how yoga exerts its effects. It will certainly be interesting to follow the research as it continues to reveal just what yoga is doing in the body and brain.
Judging from the number of yoga mats I’ve seen toted aroundManhattan in the last 15 years, I’m pretty sure I was the last person on the island to try it. My relationship with the practice started about six months ago, and I must admit, I fell for it – and hard. I was amazed at the changes it was effecting in my body, and even better, my mind. But the science nerd/Western medicine part of me wondered how, exactly, it was doing this. I could wager some guesses based on what I know about the body, but wanted to talk to some people who actually study this stuff for a living.
Where is Yoga Headed These Days?
Stephen Cope is a therapist and director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. He heads a program at the Center entitled “Yoga and the Brain,” in which researchers are studying yoga’s effect on the brain with MRI and other clever techniques. Cope explains that yoga brings about measurable changes in the body’s sympathetic nervous system – the one charged with propelling us into action during the “fight or flight” response to stress. However, because our lives today include business emails at 10 o’clock at night and loud cell conversations at the next table, our stress response often lingers in the “on” position at times it shouldn’t. Yoga helps dampen the body’s stress response by reducing levels of the hormone cortisol, which not only fuels our split-second stress reactions, but it can wreak havoc on the body when one is chronically stressed. So reducing the body’s cortisol level is generally considered a good thing.
Yoga also boosts levels of the feel-good brain chemicals like GABA, serotonin, and dopamine, which are responsible for feelings of relaxation and contentedness, and the way the brain processes rewards. All three neurotransmitters are the targets of various mood medications like antidepressants (e.g., SSRIs) and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs. The fact that yoga is linked to improved levels of these coveted chemicals is nothing to sneeze at.
Yoga has another bonus, says Sarah Dolgonos, MD, who has taught at the Yoga Society of New York’sAnanda Ashram. She points out that in addition to suppressing the stress response, yoga actually stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms us down and restores balance after a major stressor is over. When the parasympathetic nervous system switches on, “blood is directed toward endocrine glands, digestive organs, and lymphatic circulation, while the heart rate and blood pressure are lowered,” says Dolgonos. With the parasympathetic nervous system in gear, “our bodies can better extract nutrients from the food we eat, and more effectively eliminate toxins because circulation is enhanced. With parasympathetic activation, the body enters into a state of restoration and healing.”
There is also consensus that yoga boosts immune function, says Dolgonos. This benefit is probably due to the reduction of cortisol, mentioned earlier: too much of the pesky hormone can dampen the effectiveness of the immune system “by immobilizing certain white blood cells.” Reducing circulating cortisol “removes a barrier to effective immune function,” so yoga could help prevent illness by boosting immunity.
So let’s zoom in on yoga’s effects on the body even more (bear with me, this is really interesting). Researchers have discovered that yoga improves health in part by reducing a major adversary of the body: inflammation. Chronic inflammation, even low grade, is responsible for a litany of health problems from heart disease to diabetes to depression.
Paula R. Pullen, PhD, Research Instructor at the Morehouse School of Medicine, studies yoga’s effects on inflammation by looking at what’s happening in the bodies of heart failure patients who enroll in yoga classes. She has shown that after being randomly assigned to yoga or to standard medical care, patients taking yoga have significantly improved levels of biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). If your eyes just glazed over, these findings are quite remarkable because they illustrate that yoga can actually affect the tiniest molecules, the ones that are widely known to predict risk for serious disease. Pullen underlines that reducing the body’s level of inflammation is incredibly important from a preventative standpoint. And yoga can help with this. “Yoga balances the body, the hormonal system, and the stress response. People tend to think of yoga as being all about flexibility – it’s not. It’s about rebalancing and healing the body.” Though it’s been around for thousands of years, Western science is just beginning to understand how yoga exerts its effects. It will certainly be interesting to follow the research as it continues to reveal just what yoga is doing in the body and brain.
