Yoga does not change the way we see things. It transforms the person who sees. -B.K.S. Iyengar When I first started practicing yoga, it is fair to say I didn’t know anything about yoga philosophy, or really what I was getting into. The year was 2008 and yoga was starting to get popular, and with …
Continue reading “Seeds of Discipline: How Eating a Pomegranate Embodies My Yoga Practice.”
In 2016, I had the privilege of spending two weeks at a Sivananda yoga ashram in Western Australia. Although everyone who entered the ashram were initially strangers, we quickly formed a tight knit community based around morning meditations, shared meals and through daily karma yoga, or volunteering freely and without expectations. We were assigned daily …
Bandha translates to lock, to hold, or to tighten. I was first introduced to the concept in a Forrest yoga class, where the teacher instructed us to engage the uddiyana bandha, a lock located in the abdominals and extending to the diaphragm. As a fairly novice yogi, I interpreted this action as simply “sucking in” …
Continue reading “Enhance Your Yoga Practice with the Bandhas”
Mantras, or repeated phrases or words, are a great way to focus the mind and calm the sympathetic nervous system. They are often utilized in meditation practices, though can be inserted into yoga practices as well. Some mantras are ancient, such as the prolific mantra Om. Others can be generated based on what you need …
Kosha translates to “layer”, and according to yogic philosophy, we are comprised of five layers working together to make up our being. The concept of koshas has improved my yoga practice, as not only look at my physical and mental wellbeing, but the wellbeing of each of the layers. Thinking of the body in five …
In order to own your yoga, you need to have a good understanding of where you are in your yoga story. We will be exploring the concept of a story and how it can empower our practice in the next few blog posts. Read on and start exploring, discovering and empowering yourself! How do stories …
laurajayyoga.wordpress.com 