I knew I needed to stretch, and at the same time I was inspired most by classes that made me move and sweat (even without a hot Yoga room). The continuous movement made the classes fly by, until the final resting pose – savasana. I loathed the end of class. It meant I needed to lie in stillness, be quiet, and attempt to meditate. The five minutes felt like twenty minutes with my monkey mind moving so fast I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t see the point. I was finished with my work out and I wanted to be the first to the showers so I didn’t have to queue up while attempting not to get my clean towel wet with sweat.

One morning a teacher played a song during savasana that stirred up meaningful memories. Tears dripped from the corners of my eyes. I felt my entire body on the mat that day including the emotions that were being released from me. I stayed behind until the room was cleared out and slowly I rolled up my mat. I felt lighter. I was more aware of my surroundings. My body and my emotions felt connected.

The experience intrigued me and I started to attend more Yoga classes. The final resting pose began to feel comfortable. The brief morning meditations became something I yearned for at the end of class. They helped me begin my day with a clean slate.

My restless mind was ready to be free and my spiritual journey had begun.

About the Author:

Melanie Krepp is a Certified E-RYT 500 and Sober Coach residing in Kelowna, British Columbia. Her Yoga journey began in 2008 and she became a certified teacher in 2015. Her teaching includes Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Restorative, and Alignment Yogas, as well as pranayama.

The post My Restless Savasana appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Some stories about a well-known Tamil saint named Thirullavar say that he used to meditate for a whole year, without opening his eyes or saying a word. As one story goes, after a year, he would  open his eyes and express a single beautiful idea in the form of a small composition before sinking back into meditation again for another whole year. In one of these he says, “When the body dies, the life departs, and therefore it cannot attain liberation or supreme knowledge.” That means that the body is needed for each of us to complete our spiritual journey and that is the ultimate reason why we are given a physical body in the first place.

As the Pure Essence, when we desired to have certain experiences for our spiritual growth, Mother Nature gave us a body, which developed from a single cell. We have actually passed through many different bodies, gaining all kinds of experiences and, ultimately, we are given the human body.

Only through the human body, can we experience final liberation or the final knowledge. In the Bhagavad Gita there is a sloka that states that the highest realization is to know That, by which, knowing it, everything else can be known. But if the body falls ill, you miss many of the joys in life, many of the experience in life. Therefore, we should make every effort to develop the kind of regular practice that will help us to remain in good health. And Hatha Yoga is one such approach.

In my own experience, I have not seen any better way of preserving the health of the body and keeping it in good condition than Hatha Yoga. And the benefits of such a practice are not limited to only the physical level. Hatha Yoga harmonizes the positive and the negative forces within us. Ha is the sun, tha is the moon and through your regular practice, those two opposite forces are harmonized. Hatha Yoga also includes certain dietetic principles. Without a proper diet, Hatha Yoga alone will not be as helpful. That’s because people don’t fall sick just because they don’t practice Hatha Yoga. The cause of ill health is often rooted in improper eating habits. You might have heard the common expression “You are what you eat.”

The ancient yogis referred to the physical body as “The city of nine gates.” We must be careful about what we allow to enter our “city.” Each opening is a “gate.” We should not allow anything and everything to enter the mouth, the ears, the eyes and so on. Instead, we should place a gatekeeper at each gate. Then we can control what comes in and only allow in those things that are helpful to us.

We should be very careful about what we eat, what we listen to, and even what we look at. Think of everything that goes into your system as a kind of food. That is the meaning of the age old saying, “See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” At the same time, remember that what comes out of the mouth is even more important than what goes in. We are given two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, but only one mouth—for a good reason. The sense of taste and the words we use when we speak are very hard to control. Our gatekeepers must be vigilant at all times!

To maintain optimal health—physically and mentally—we should watch everything that goes in or out very carefully. If that is done we probably don’t even need to talk about Hatha Yoga because you wouldn’t need any of those practices. If you already have good health, you don’t need a doctor and you don’t need medicine.

In the past, most of us have allowed unhealthy things to enter our bodies and so there are many toxins in the system. I often put a twist on the word “toxins.” You can call them toxins, or just “xins/sins” because these impurities go “in.” And we have saturated our system, with these “sins” through our eating, thinking, and hearing. Hatha Yoga practices help us to eliminate toxins. Then, once the body and mind is relaxed, refined, and cleaned it becomes a beautiful instrument, ready to receive fresh energy and to function better.

The postures or asanas, are not physical exercises. Exercise involves a lot of vigorous movements, but in Hatha there are no vigorous movements; it is all done gently, with grace. You bring the body into a position, and you stay there for a few seconds. In fact, asana means a steady, comfortable position. Whatever position brings steadiness and comfort, is a Hatha Yoga position.

Sometimes we see all kinds of jumping around, doing rigorous things, and someone calls it “Hatha Yoga.” This is incorrect; a misconception. Certainly you can do a few preliminary movements to “warm up” the muscles a bit, but these are not part of Hatha Yoga. Most of the postures are connected with the spine, the nerve centers, and the glands. The yogis believe that the greater part of our ailments are caused by the improper function of the nerve centers, glands, and also the rigidity of the spine. This situation develops due to all the accumulated toxins and causes health problems.

Once, in Connecticut, many chiropractors assembled for an annual conference and they invited me to come and give them a talk. When I arrived, no one was sitting erect in their chairs. Most of them were leaning this way and that way. So I asked, “Are you chiropractors, or do you all need some chiropractic adjustment? You speak about the spine but none of you seem to be having a spine. Come on, sit straight!” Of course, they all laughed as they got the message!

The spine is very important. You are only as young as your spine. When people grow old, you call them “aged” people. That’s because the spine gets rigid. Who is a human being? The one who has a vertical spine. So keep the spine supple because it’s from the spine that almost all of the nerves emanate. They extend out from in-between the vertebrae, controlling our entire body. And when the spine becomes rigid, the flow of energy gets blocked. The nerves suffer from lack of energy and lack of proper movement. Then the pads between the vertebrae become hardened. Calcium deposits form and the spine becomes so rigid that you cannot stand up straight or bend anymore. The Hatha practices take care of the spine and keep it supple. Then, the energy flows freely again, contributing to optimal overall health.

By Sri Swami Satchidananda

The post How to Care for the Physical Body appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

Original artwork used with permission by Sara Kear, sarakearyoga.art

Last Halloween, one of the teachers here at OM Yoga Center began his evening class by inviting the students to request the Yoga poses they found scary. He was not surprised by fancy suggestions such as bending backward to touch the head to the floor, handstands, five-minute headstands and, of course, various pretzels of the leg-behind-the-neck category. But the entire class was a little surprised when one of the students requested meditation, saying, “That’s the most scary part of Yoga.”

Pema Chodron, in her book, The Places That Scare You, reminds us how the Buddha taught that flexibility and openness bring strength, and running from groundlessness brings pain. She asks, “But do we understand that becoming familiar with the running away is the key? Openness doesn’t come from resisting our fears but from getting to know them well.”

Some of us run away by avoiding our own mind and others run from external environments. Once a year you can find me off to lead a Yoga retreat in Costa Rica, leaving New York City with a dharma book, a Yoga mat and a tension headache. The open-air studio where I teach in Central America is filled with a sensuous composition of sweet birdsong, ripening fruit and fragrant flowers. I cross my legs, sit down on the beautiful wooden floor and feel healthy, inspired and nurtured by the quiet and the space…

Read the rest of this article by Cyndi Lee on LionsRoar.com

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When we take Cat/Cow pose (marjaryasana/bitilasana) and choose to mindfully push our hands, shins and tops of the feet into the ground, the earth will push back with the same force. This is the opposite and equal reaction. We can let the feeling of this force travel up our limbs and use it to maximize the flexion, or forward bend cat stretch, of our spine. We are literally drawing forces from the earth to help us in our movements.

The Earth’s atmospheric pressure is another area of physics that we use unknowingly in Yoga. Pranayama often involves mindful inhaling and exhaling, but the cleansing kapalabhati (skull shining breath) focuses on the exhale only. How can we not need to inhale in this breath? The answer lies in the atmospheric pressure all around us. When we have exhaled and the diaphragm moves down and intercostal muscles move out, the chest volume increases and pressure decreases, as Boyle’s law states, the pressure of a gas tends to decrease as the volume of the container increases. Air moves from high to low pressure, therefore our inhale happens automatically. The atmosphere breathes for us!

This could be the reason that many people tend to find kumbhaka (breath retention) more challenging after an inhale (antara) than after an exhale (bahya), as the air wants to find its way in to equalize the pressure. Staying with the idea of breath, have you ever noticed that kind of buzzing energy vibration during or immediately after practicing the ‘bee breath’ of brahmari? It’s not in your imagination, it’s actually happening! Sound travels by vibrating from the source of the sound and bumping into the air molecules around, these then bump into their neighbors and this pattern continues, making sound waves or sound energy. When sound energy travels through the air and reaches our eardrum, it makes that vibrate too, allowing us to hear the sound. When this happens we may also feel that buzzing sense of energy vibration too.

Now let’s consider gravity. It’s not something that we may usually be aware of, but when we understand the effects it can have on our practice, it can transform how we experience it. The force of gravity is everywhere, it keeps the planets orbiting around the sun and also keeps objects and us from floating around uncontrollably, by pulling objects towards one another.

Developing awareness that there is a force that holds us safely to the Earth can allow tadasana (mountain pose) to feel like our feet are being firmly held on the mat. This also works for savasana (corpse pose), as we lay down, we can purposely surrender all our weight to the force of gravity and know that we will be safely held by the Earth. This can give poses a real sense of grounding.

We can also consider our center of gravity (COG), which is thought to be the point where gravity acts on the body. The taller we are, the higher our centre of gravity. When we adopt poses, such as garland pose (malasana), often called Yoga squat, we lower our centre of gravity. A lower COG increases balance and stability in the body. Any poses where we have bent knees or take our weight lower to the ground should feel more stable. This is another way we can make these forces work with our bodies to take our practice to another level.

We can also defy gravity, by taking inversions, where our head is taken below our heart and hips. In poses such as downward facing dog (adho mukha svanasana), we are using our strength to push the hips and body away from the force of gravity. This can mean that we need to work quite hard to maintain the pose for any length of time, increasing our strength and muscle which can, among other things, help to reduce the risk of injury.

However, gravity doesn’t mean that all inversions have to be hard work. In fact, gravity can have wonderfully beneficial effects for our heart health with no effort required! When practicing legs up the wall pose (viparita karani), a favorite of restorative classes, gravity helps our circulating blood to return to the heart. When we are upright, the heart has to work harder to bring the blood back from our legs as it is working against gravity, with our legs up the wall, gravity works for us. This allows the heart to not work as hard, which in turn decreases our blood pressure, lessening our risk of heart-related issues.

So next time you lay out your mat, you may want to take a moment to consider how the invisible forces, energy and waves all around you are silently influencing your Yoga practice.

About the Author:

Vicky Richings, founder of Equanimity Yoga and EQYoga Training, is an experienced, 500-hour qualified Yoga teacher, educator, mentor and YTT tutor.
(Reprinted from Om Yoga & Lifestyle magazine)

The post Hatha Yoga and Physics appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

We all build careers, nurture families, foster friendships, finance lifestyles, and juggle myriad responsibilities. It’s stressful, especially when multi-tasking has become a standard way of life. One of the places in the body where we habitually hold this stress is in the shoulders and upper back. Hours of hunching over computer screens and cell phones can lead to a buildup of shoulder pain, tightness, stress, and tension.

The burden of this unending cycle can feel overwhelming. Releasing our mental, emotional, and physical stress helps us maintain and even thrive amidst life’s challenges. These days, more than ever, we need the peaceful and unifying power of Yoga to empower our practice well beyond the physical asana — to penetrate our heart, our soul, and our lives.

Here are some of my go-to shoulder savers for shoulder pain.Garudasana: Eagle pose

• Standing tall, bring your arms in front of you at shoulder height, palms turned upward
• Cross the right elbow over the left, then bend your arms
• Bring the palms up to 90 degrees with the backs of the hands touching
• If it is available to you, try touching your palms together
• Mindfully create a stretch through healthy opposition by pressing the shoulder-tops away from the ears as you lift the elbows
• Continue to stretch the back body by guiding the forearms away from you
• Repeat on the other side, left over right

Benefits: The energy of eagle arms moves the rhomboids, posterior deltoids and the top and back of the trapezius through a range of motion different from our habits, allowing us to stretch, relieve shoulder pain, and release tension.

Awareness Tip: This pose assists in introspection. With our hands blocking our external drishti (gaze or focal point) we are guided to turn our gaze, and thereby our attention, inward.

Natarajasana: King Dancer pose

• Standing on your right leg, bend your left knee, and reach for the inside of your foot with your left hand
• From here, lift and expand the upper chest and reach your right arm upward
• Hinge from your standing right hip and hug the muscles of your standing leg and hip in for support
• While continuing to lift the front of the chest, create strength by imagining the foot is trying to escape the hand, engaging a deeper stretch across the front of the shoulder and along the hip flexor
• Repeat on side 2

Benefits: This is the ultimate posture of expansion, balance, and self-expression, which are important qualities for building vitality. When we engage the muscles while in the pose, it trains the core and encourages joint stabilization.

Awareness Tip: Dancer offers us an opportunity to express ourselves; as we expand the body physically, we expand into the truth of our being, celebrating everything we are in this moment.

Balasana: Child’s Pose with Arms Extended

• Kneeling with your knees slightly wider than your hips, drop your hips toward your heels
• Hinge forward and lengthen your spine
• Reach out to rest your palms and forehead gently on the mat (support as needed)

Benefits: Child’s pose is an opportunity to rest, allowing us to release the frenzied energy of multi-tasking and tension. It calms the nervous system and allows a passive stretch of the lumbar spine, particularly the upper back, and helps to alleviate shoulder pain.

Awareness Tip: The shape of child’s pose evokes a gesture of honoring through the prostration and bending forward. One way to reduce stress is through recognition. Here, we honor ourselves in a physical gesture of self-love.
About the Author

About the Author:

Elise Joan is the co-creator of the best selling, inaugural Yoga program for Beachbody, and a top lifestyle/Yoga influencer for LIVESTRONG. She travels the world leading international retreats, and teaching all around the globe on the festival and event circuit. She’s been a headline teacher for Wanderlust, and a Yoga & lifestyle contributor for dozens of publications. (To find more poses to relieve shoulder pain, read the full article here in LA Yoga magazine.)

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It wasn’t until I started my Yoga teacher training that I was informed that I was a big-time hyper-extender, and that this is not a good thing. Up until that point, about two years into my Yoga journey, I had never even heard of hyperextension.

Hyperextension is the excessive movement of a joint, so the angle of the bones of the joint extends further than the normal, healthy range. It can be caused by loose ligaments, sometimes, but not always, due to a condition called hypermobility. It can also be made worse over time  with poor alignment and posture: it becomes habitual and as a ligament is stretched repeatedly, it can lose its elasticity and the joint will extend even further.

Hyperextension can lead to injury. As a big hyper-extender, I have struggled with many little injuries caused by the stress put on various parts of my body because of hyperextending. I spent an entire summer unable to go into downward facing dog because I had overstretched my Achilles tendon. I get pains in my wrists and had to stop handstand drills because I hyperextend my elbows and this causes extra strain on my (already weak) wrists. It is so easy to tweak, pull, overstretch, or even tear something when stretching to end range of motion.

Which asanas are the worst offenders for hyperextension?

In Yoga, hyperextension is most commonly a problem for elbows and knees but can occur in other joints. Any shape that requires full extension of a joint with weight bearing can cause problems, especially if repeated over time. This is why it is so important to listen to alignment cues, but also to be aware if you are a hyperextender so that you can correct the problem yourself.

Trikonasana (Triangle), Ardha chandrasana (Half-moon) and Virabhadrasana III (Warrior 3), for example, are particularly easy to hyperextend the knee in. These shapes all require a straight leg which has weight bearing down on them, so if you hyper extend at the knee in these asanas, the weight will effectively encourage further hyperextension. If you notice that you fully lock out your knee in these shapes, try putting a micro-bend in your knee and rest your supporting hand on a block rather than on your leg. This will take the pressure out of the joint and build strength in the muscles around the joint. If the muscles around the joint are stronger, they will take the strain out of the ligaments and provide support, therefore reducing the chances of injury.

Adho mukha svanasana (Downward facing dog), Phalakasana (Plank) and Bharmanasana (Tabletop) are an open invitation for elbow hyperextension if you are not careful. Again, these shapes require straight arms with weight bearing and it is really easy to lock out your arms and dump into the joints. If you feel like this is you, try unlocking your elbows and turn your elbow creases slightly towards each other. You will instantly feel the arm muscles switch on and everything has to work much harder. Suddenly, Downward facing dog does not feel like a rest pose! But the good news is that if practiced often enough, it will become muscle memory and will get easier.

Here are some other tips for hyperextension and Yoga:

 There are things that can be done to help prevent injuries caused by hyperextension. The first is awareness. If you are aware that there is a problem, you can take the steps necessary to fix it. I was practicing Yoga for years before I was aware that I hyperextend. If you are a Yoga teacher and you spot a hyper-extender, please don’t just assume that they know. I had a conversation with one of my Yoga teachers about this and she thought I was aware of it, but I had been completely clueless even though she had offered alignment cues.

The second thing I would suggest is to work on building strength. If the muscles around the joint can provide support, it will take some of the strain off the poor, overworked ligaments. This is vital for minimizing risk of injury.

Thirdly, learn good habits. Micro-bend that knee, don’t be afraid to use props and stop dumping into the joint (even if it feels good, know that it is not good for you).

Lastly, listen to your body! Don’t push to the absolute end range limit as this is where you are more likely to cause injury. As lovely as it feels stretching as deep or as far as you can go, remember that if you get injured it could be months of no practice at all. Sacrifice those extra few inches of stretching for a more consistent, regular, safe practice.

About the Author:

Emma is a Cornwall-based Yoga and meditation teacher and positive mental health ambassador for WarriorKind. Follow her @emma_west_yoga. (This article first appeared in Om Yoga & Lifestyle magazine)

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Online Yoga has been a lifesaver, without a doubt. It has slotted into our working day with ease, especially since the commute to work may be no more than the distance from our bedroom to our customized home office. And, for those who have accessibility or travel challenges, online Yoga may continue to be a godsend, while for others leaving Zoom world is a welcome relief. This article is more geared to those who are able to get to a physical Yoga studio or center.

As a studio owner, I recently surveyed my clients about returning to the studio post-lockdown and was quite surprised with the results. So many students said they would like to keep or even preferred online life. Some felt unsafe ahead of restrictions lifting and some just felt that online access had revolutionized the way in which they accessed their at-home workday.

On the other hand, I was able to connect with those who had not taken up online and were missing their practice. The virtual world just wasn’t doing it for them and they couldn’t wait for studios to reopen. While online Yoga has been a great resource and something that you may be looking to keep in your daily schedule, here is a little reminder about all the wonderful things you may be missing from a physical space and some reasons why, although you might keep your virtual practice, heading back into a studio should be top of your list post lockdown.

1. Nothing beats the atmosphere
   Having designed one myself I know how much love and attention goes into creating the welcoming vibes of a Yoga studio. Your body instinctively knows that this is a place to practice and relax. Our homes are still our homes and associated with all our everyday activity; your Yoga studio, however, is dedicated to just that and has its own set of unique sounds, smells and decor that will trigger your brain into a deeper practice.
2. You can’t beat in-person guidance
   However good your physical practice or your online teacher, nothing will ever replace the caring scrutiny of a great teacher in the room with you. They identify your challenges and temper their cues to navigate your success.
3. Reconnecting with your Yoga community
   A Yoga center is more than a space. It’s a whole community; the people you see week-on-week that provide that connection to a world bigger than yourself. One thing lockdown has taught me is not to take the people I see daily for granted; when I don’t see them the world feels a lot more insular and harder to connect to.
4. Avoid your daily distractions
   One of the pitfalls of an at-home, virtual practice is the ease at which you can be distracted. There is no whole class or social accountability, so checking your phone, going to the bathroom, dealing with the kids, the dog, the spouse or even just wandering off your mat for no reason are all far too easy. Being in one space forces you to move away from those distractions and focus on you and your practice. Powerful stuff.
5. Take yourself away from technology
   Even the most avid Zoom user will hopefully not spending all your life on this technology will be a welcome thing. A meeting or class is a great addition but when your work and your passions are all in one virtual place life does become a bit repetitive.
6. Be held accountable
   How many times have you not shown up to your Zoom class? It’s so much easier to brush off a virtual class than a physical one. We know our tangible presence will be missed in class by those around us and the teacher.
7. Show your support
   This is a biggie. Your Yoga centers and studios need you to help them get back on their feet. They have suffered this past year and adapted amazingly well to try and stay afloat so you have a space to return to. Show them some love when you return.
8. Come back from Covid
   My final point is one of reassurance. Covid has done its best to distance us from each other. We’ve fought hard to keep our contact and humanity alive and well with the constant lockdown measures. Whether it’s a Yoga space, a cafe, a theatre or gym, getting back to a more varied and connected life is both needed but terrifying. Be kind to each other as we transition through the next phase of this pandemic. Help each other come back from Covid.

About the Author:

Hannah Glancy is the founder and owner of Proper Northern Yoga (propernorthernYoga.com). She also enjoys running mountains and running her unruly English classrooms in special education! Find her on Instagram @propernorthernYoga. (This article originally appeared in Om Yoga & Lifestyle magazine.)

The post Eight Reasons to Return to Yoga Centers and Studios appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

The first one is the power of intention. This intention through the practice of Yoga comes straight from the heart towards freedom of the physical body and mind. Intention means to focus your mind on desirable action that will bring you a fulfilling outcome and your intent must be very clear in order for you to get the results your heart is longing for.

The second one is attention to the breathing. As you get deeper into your practice, you start realizing that your breath has four basic qualities that you must develop and make them your own. The four qualities are the length, sound, depth, and sweetness of your breath. At the very beginning your breathing may be rough, short, and lacking rhythm and depth, but as you bring more awareness into your breathing and you increase your desire to do better, you start transcending your short and out of rhythm breathing into a more effortless state. With time, your breath will become sweet—that’s when you start realizing you are diving deep into your soul.

The third thing to remember is the movement of the body. In my experience, I noticed that the way an individual moves their body very much reflects the way the individual thinks. Through the coordination of thinking and breathing, the result is movement. This movement is an extension of your thoughts. We must pay a lot of attention to how we occupy space, our bio-location, and how we use this space in time. We must also pay a lot of attention in how this space that we are occupying with the body is conscious of itself.

Most of us are physically here on the physical plane, but we are not conscious about our bodies, internal organs, thinking, feeling, or sensing. We must develop our ability to sense and feel as well as our ability to tap into our intuition when it comes to our physical bodies. It’s through the conscious movement of the body that we will be able to transcend time and space.

About the Author:

Jhon Tamayo is the founder and director of Atmananda Yoga Sequence and the Atmananda Yoga alignment based mat. He currently has a studio in Queens, New York. For more info visit his website. (Reprinted from Om Yoga & Lifestyle.

The post Freedom through Hatha Yoga appeared first on Integral Yoga® Magazine.

The traditional thickness of a Yoga mat is about 4-5mm. You just want enough cushioning so that the floor doesn’t feel too hard, and you can kneel without discomfort, but not so much that your feet are encased in the mat when standing, as this will make it hard to do balancing postures. If you like a bit of extra cushioning and you shop around you can find a Yoga mat that is a bit thicker than average: 6-8mm. Note that once you start getting to 15mm, you are in Pilates mat territory, and this will be too thick. That said, I do have a few students who use a thicker mat and it suits them fine.

The size of Yoga mats is fairly universal. However, if you shop around you will be able to find one that better suits your longer legs, or wider shoulders (we are all unique!). Grip is my pain point, as I suffer from slippery hands! This means that I prefer a mat that is super non-slip, or ‘sticky’ in Yoga speak, and designed for use when doing hot Yoga. The best non-slip mat that I have bought is made predominantly from latex, natural rubber. So, if you suffer from slippery hands like me, look out for a mat made from this material. Most other Yoga mats are made from something like PVC, but constructed to be ‘sticky,’ or non-slip, although I’ve never found them to be quite as good as my latex one.

Most Yoga mats are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is made from fossil fuels. As you already know, fossil fuels are not sustainable, and have a negative impact on the environment when processed, used, and disposed of. But have you heard of phthalates, or dioxins, or considered what happens to your Yoga mat when you are finished with it? You want to avoid PVC, but it’s not the only plastic.

Plastics!

Polymer Environmental Resin (PER) is touted as clean PVC, but it is still PVC, just with different additives instead of phthalates. And just like regular PVC, there are problems for the environment and human health associated with production and disposal of this material.

Ethylene-vinyl Acetate (EVA) is a plastic, but not based on PVC. Mostly, it is constructed to act as foam rubber, with applications in craft, and padding in sports equipment and shoes. EVA hasn’t been found to have any detrimental effect on human health, however, it doesn’t biodegrade, and it is not currently recycled or recyclable.

Polyurethane (PU) is also made from fossil fuel, and, depending on how it is processed can turn its hand to many uses. It is said to be chemically inert, so there is no limit to how much you can be exposed to, and no evidence that exposure is harmful to human or animal health. However, to be able to turn it into wheels for your shopping cart, foam insulation panels, or a Yoga mat necessitates the addition of many and varied chemicals. On the plus side, unlike other plastics, PU does biodegrade in landfill conditions within one to five years, so you could consider it the best of a bad bunch.

However, if you come to the conclusion that plastic is best for you, you may want to find a mat that is made of recycled materials. You’ll not only be stopping new plastic being produced, but also helping the recycling of PVC take off. On the other hand, you’ll be pleased to know you can find more natural alternatives to plastic!

Eco-friendly

Natural rubber (not synthetic!)

Rubber is one of them, as the raw material it is made from comes from trees. This raw material is a milky substance called latex that some plants naturally produce as a response to damage. Commercially, it is collected from the Brazilian rubber tree by making incisions in the bark and collecting the liquid, which then sets, and is sent for processing. All-in-all it’s a natural product, and also 100% biodegradable.

However, there are some downsides. For instance, during the processing which turns latex into rubber, chemicals are added to make the resulting material stable, strong, and durable. There are also concerns over the environmental impact and ethical values of companies harvesting, and producing natural rubber. For example, there are problems around deforestation of rainforest for rubber plantations, the use of herbicides or burning to keep the land clear, and unethical treatment of farm workers, such as the use of methamphetamines to make them work faster. If you’re interested in rubber, check the credentials of the company producing and selling the mat, to try and find the best option from an environmental, and social point of view.

Cork

Another alternative material to PVC for making Yoga mats is cork, which comes from the Cork Oak tree. To obtain cork the bark of the tree is gently removed when it is mature enough, usually around 25 years old. This doesn’t kill the tree, it just grows another bark skin, which can then be removed after another nine years. Cork seems a particularly environmentally-friendly option: the mixed forests that cork grows in are ecologically diverse, the denuded tree can absorb more CO2 than one not stripped, and the workers are paid fairly for their labour.

Premium products are punched straight out of the raw material once it has been cured, so there is no need for any chemical additives, making it 100% natural, and 100% biodegradable. The only slight downside is that less pricey products are bonded with glue, or plastic, and watch out as some cork mats are backed with a plastic material to provide grip and cushioning.

Other considerations

When you are thinking of purchasing an eco-friendly Yoga mat, it is not just the material that counts. You could also consider:

• Packaging. Preferably minimal and recyclable.
• The business ethics of the company producing and selling the mat. Look out for companies that have a wider social conscience such as looking after their workers, or giving back to the community.
• A ‘take back’ scheme for your old mat. Some Yoga mat companies will take back your old mat when you are buying one of their new ones. However, find out what they will do with it!

As people who do Yoga, we can reduce our environmental impact through our practice as well; only buy a new mat when you really need it; consider carefully which mat you choose, and what it is made from; use that mat for as long as possible; and finally dispose of it in an ethical manner when it has come to the end of its life. Good luck, and do your best!

About the Author:

Bethany Norman’s Yoga teaching journey was a roundabout one. She started her working life in 2003 as a trained nurse. From 2006 she worked exclusively as a cardiac nurse. During the years that she worked full-time as a nurse, doing Yoga was one of the things that helped her to stay sane, and fit and healthy. After 14 years of practicing Yoga as a student, she decided to do Yoga teacher training as a way to learn more about Yoga for herself. However, she got the teaching bug pretty, so in 2016 she went part-time as a nurse, and took on some Yoga teaching as well. And then, at the beginning of 2020, she took to big plunge into full time Yoga teaching. More info here. (Excerpted from Om Yoga & Lifestyle magazine)

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I love Yoga, and if I was a really inspired yogini, instead of my occasionally reluctant self, I would always be motivated to practice asana, meditation, and pranayama, but I am not, I just do it anyway—even when I don’t feel like it—as has been my habit for the last almost 60 years. As Curtis Mayfield advises in song, “I just keep on keeping on.” Let me tell you about it.

I always have time to do something at home; even it’s just a little bit. Since I don’t automatically want to practice Yoga every morning, I like to make my practice easy to get into. For example, when I’m home I don’t use a mat; it feels like too much trouble; I just lie down on my rug, like in the old days before Yoga mats were invented. My home routine takes less than an hour every morning, and then later on I might take a Yoga class at my local studio.

The essence of my home practice starts from the basics that I learned in Integral Yoga Teacher Training. Most mornings I start with supported back bends, deep breathing, then tougher core work, hip openers, and a few twists. Right now I’m also concentrating on opening my shoulders, chest and arms; these are all moves my body really needs; I can always do more if I feel like it and I have the time. The physical practice probably lasts about 20 minutes, wakes me up, and is a prelude to pranayama and meditation, which can be sweet, or boring and tedious—it doesn’t matter one iota. It’s the doing that counts.

A program on my very smart phone helps me keep track of the meditation part of my practice, kind of like a techy sadhana chart. Since I can’t bear to disappoint my phone I have to meditate, even though I’m beginning to suspect that my phone doesn’t really care very much about my spiritual development. And if I want to meditate I need to do pranayama first, and really, a little movement before that wakes me up and helps me sit still, and I breathe better. One thing leads to the other, like beads on a mala.

After my home practice, when able to take in-person Yoga classes, I often take a class which includes asanas I may not have done earlier in the day. I enjoy the camaraderie of seeing my friends. I like relinquishing my process to the teacher’s sequences, imagination, and directions, and the personal connection I feel with my community is vital. I have support if I reach tough, sad, frightening, angry parts inside; after all none of us is filled only with peace, joy, love and compassion. We all have to travel through the desert before we can find an oasis, and sometimes traveling companions help.

I used to think my home Yoga practice was too simple to count for much. When I thought it over, though, I figured out that simplicity is what makes my practice work.

1. I keep it simple on purpose—the practice is elegant and accessible.
2. Conditions are never perfect. That’s real life- street noise from construction (I live right near the 2^nd Avenue Subway in New York City), it’s too hot, too cold, I’m not in the mood, and I’ll start tomorrow when everything is under control—but everything will probably never be completely under control, so I accept and continue.
3. Speaking of control, when my grandchildren are visiting my practice is very different: home Yoga becomes group practice and an opportunity for me to feel grateful and be flexible, and play with the kids. There are many kinds of Yoga, and kids’ Yoga is fun!
4. When my grandchildren are not visiting, which is most of the time, I have an opportunity to do a more solitary and concentrated practice, but I am still not home alone, my husband and our cats are there too. I let my husband know ahead of time not to disturb me. I used to feel a little guilty about this and worry that it would have a bad effect on our relationship, but it shouldn’t and in fact it doesn’t. This is called mutual respect. My perceptive cat, Bella, lies down and meditates to keep me company; Fifi is more active, so she leaves the room on her own just before I shut the door and begin.
5. I am lucky enough to have a door that I can shut. In the past I used a corner of the living room. Yoga doesn’t take up much space.
6. I pretend I’m away someplace else. This means that my husband gets to decide on his own if his tie goes with his shirt, and he knows he can’t expect me to be social and discuss the latest headlines in the morning paper. In short, he also makes believe I’m not home, but he knows that I will be there for him later. And I know that too.
7. The ringing phone? I don’t answer it. In fact, I shut it off. This is called the “just because the phone rings, it doesn’t mean you have to answer” asana. I make my environment conducive to my practice. (This phone ring asana works in many contexts: just because the first cookie tastes good, doesn’t mean I have to eat three more, just because my right shoulder and then my ear itch when I’m meditating, doesn’t mean I have to scratch, I’m not a computer constructed to simply react to a stimulus.)
8. The words “home Yoga practice” are intimidating, to me, at least, because they sound so official. Doesn’t it mean that I should be doing lots more, longer, harder, better, etc.? (Can you tell I’m from New York?) Just as I eliminated outside demands, I can eliminate the inner ones and relax and enjoy the sensations of breath and movement. When I do Yoga asana, at home and in class, I often have my eyes closed, so I can go deep and not be distracted.
9. I practice in the morning, because I know the longer I wait, the more excuses I’ll find to skip it. And those excuses get more convincing as the day goes on. Also, later in the day I have less energy. Other people may find afternoons or evenings more conducive.
10. I don’t always have the time. I get up pretty early and mostly do have the time—if I’m pressed, I do less—but I always do something. This is thanks to Swami Satchidananda, who taught that a little every day is better than a lot once in a blue moon. Consistency creates its own energy.
11. Some of my friends and colleagues literally give themselves a class, talking out loud to themselves as though they were the students in their own class. I prefer to be silent—I get closer to what I need, to who I am, minute by minute when I am quiet—but there are many ways and they are all valid.

Learning your way to practice Yoga is vital to developing a close following of your inner needs. The teacher is providing nourishment for a whole class, after all, not just for you, and what’s on the menu that day may not be entirely satisfying or even appropriate. In your private home practice you can learn to feed yourself more exactly what you need in the moment and you can work out deeper understandings of what you’re doing. You can work on something you find challenging or you can relax into the asanas that you love best.

If you are like me, scared to open your mat on the floor, at home and by yourself, try doing just a little bit, nothing too intimidating, and see what happens. How about simple stretches, a few cat/cows? Many of us know sequences we can follow, or we can go where our body leads us. Your practice doesn’t have to be long, unless you want it that way. Stay flexible and committed, doing your best, and doing what suits you. Let go of expectations, release thoughts about the past, leave behind fears or anxieties about the future, with or without a teacher. This is the art and the heart of Yoga.

There are many roads, as Sri Swami Satchidananda said. Try them.

About the Author:

Lynn Anjali Somerstein, PhD, RYT, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and studied and taught Yoga at  the Integral Yoga Institute of New York. She was the Director of the Institute for Expressive Analysis for six years. Her interests include using the breath and meditation to allay anxiety, stress and depression. She’s published many articles and addressed many conferences in the US and abroad, including India, Turkey and at the University of Beijing, where she taught how to use the breath to allay anxiety in the psychotherapeutic encounter. For more information, please visit: lynnsomerstein.com.

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With his unique humor and enormous depth of wisdom, Swami Asokananda is a master in presenting the great teachings of Yoga in ways that are deeply relevant to key issues in modern life. In this article, he shares the benefit of his experience from his personal journey on the mat and in front of a classroom for five decades.

There are different intentions that people bring to Hatha Yoga practice. My personal experience has been that asanas lead me into a higher state of awareness. I’m using the body as a portal, or doorway, to connect with my true Self. It’s good to have some clarity and a stated intention for our practice—not that we can’t have multiple intentions. In my own case, I do want to maintain a flexible, strong, and healthy body, and sometimes I want to address some therapeutic things. But my main intention is to connect more deeply with my Self. The intention of your practice has an impact. If you start your sadhana with a specific goal in mind, it does help you to reach that end.

The main thing I share with students is that asanas are a journey and to really enjoy and pay attention to each moment of the journey. Don’t wait until you have achieved the pose; move into it as a living, organic experience. Feel every moment and with each breath, feel that there’s a shifting of that experience so there’s no time when you say,  I’ve reached the end of this asana—you are still traveling in the asana.

A part of deepening one’s practice, as we move from a beginner’s level into a more advanced asana practice, is to look at how we react to resistance we may feel in a posture. If we back away from any sensation that is different and always go to comfort, we don’t find the place where we need to grow. I want my Hatha Yoga experience to be fully enjoyable. A part of that for me means learning to distinguish between the resistance to going deeper vs. the body defending itself and contracting because it’s in pain.

I think we have to develop a healthy relationship with our edge. If we rush toward it, the body contracts. If we ease ourselves toward it, stay with our breath, and listen with great sensitivity, the body will find no cause to offer resistance. We want to respectfully approach what feels like our limit, rather than to bull past it, either due to unconsciousness or aggressiveness. By acclimating to the sensations and relaxing into them, often the edge will shift and we can comfortably move a little deeper into the pose–into the next edge. The distinction I make is one of pain vs. good discomfort. You should be able to breathe comfortably in the asana—use that as an indicator. If you can develop this attunement to your edge, with meditative wakefulness, then your asana practice becomes a living experience and you’ll love it even more.

As my practice has deepened and evolved over the years, I have found it helpful to, once a year or so, find a teacher whom I feel is moving in a direction that feels right to me. Then, I take a workshop or a few classes with that teacher. I think it’s valuable to keep learning and see what others are doing to connect to a higher source. It keeps my practice from becoming stale, and I can learn from that.

The power of asana, for me, starts with practicing with ahimsa and satya. Ahimsa means no violence or harming the body in any way. The first principal of practice and of teaching is: Do no harm. Practicing with satya means to be truthful about where I am in a pose rather than thinking what the pose should be or how it should look. This is the starting point, which leads me to the place where I begin to feel the pranamaya kosha or energy body. When you start to practice from this kosha, you begin to discover your Yoga—it’s not coming from someone else, your teacher, or anything outside of you. The energy is discovering the optimal way to move and you are sensitive enough to pick it up and smart enough to follow it.

There’s a lot of discussion in asana practice about alignment. Alignment usually means that someone, who knows a lot, is helping you find the way to stack bones, ligaments and muscles so that your prana flows most freely. I define alignment as the place where your prana flows optimally. The Integral Yoga approach says that we find the place where we’re in touch with the prana and we let the prana align the body so it flows most freely from the inside out. We ask ourselves, “How is my energy flowing? What do I need to do to respond to how the energy feels?”

In terms of teaching Hatha Yoga, each school will have a different idea of the best ratio between details given and quiet time. Many Yoga teachers feel they are teaching when they are speaking, but, in Integral Yoga, a lot of the teaching is in how we use the silence so that people can feel what’s going on. If I’m being constantly told by the teacher, “Do this and do that,” and focusing on one part intensively, I’m missing the rest of my body. By skillfully parsing out information, we allow the mind of the student to move inward. I believe that this is teaching in the highest sense—you are helping people discover their own true Yoga.

I was taking class at our Integral Yoga Academy. I was obediently following the instruction of the teacher. Then, the teacher became quiet. My mind also quieted down, and I found just the right place for that asana for me at that moment. That’s what a good teacher does—helps the student find the expression of that asana, in that body, at that moment. Find the right talk-silence ratio that allows space for inner exploration. I don’t want to sound too rigid or critical about studios that play music in class. I occasionally teach a class with music. But we don’t want to distract from the meditative, inward experience of the practice.

Ultimately, the time on my mat is only a training session. It’s the place I gain the learning I need to help me move about my life with awareness. I don’t want to diminish the benefit of asana practice as a preparation for meditation. There’s no doubt a regular, heartfelt practice of asana and pranayama will let you sit still and comfortably for your meditation. The nice thing about being in touch with the inner energy in an asana is that it also brings quietness to the mind for the freest flow of energy, and helps us stay in the present moment. That’s a powerful meditation technique in itself. Then, when you get up off the mat, you don’t have to stop that. You can go out, do your daily activities and they really become Karma Yoga, because you are not generating more karma by your ego getting lost in what you are doing.

I travel all over the world, and I think there’s really something unique about Integral Yoga teachers. There’s something special about a teacher who is able to quiet the ego and understand that it’s their connection to the Whole that brings the most beautiful experience to the class. I still feel my ego come in when I teach or train teachers, but, I also try to stay connected to the truth that teaching Yoga is not about me wowing my students and knowing that, when I stay connected, something can come through that will bring a great experience to everyone, including me.

When you teach, it seems you are the most powerful person in the room. You are telling people what to do, how to move and they follow your instruction. It’s not a surprise that the ego would feed off that, but there’s something in the way the Integral Yoga teachers are trained—the foundation is there so that, if there is any power flowing through them, it’s used to empower the students. If my motive for teaching is to get love and approval from my students, my students will get stuck at a certain place and so will I.

Some teachers feel threatened when their students grow. Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) was so beautiful and inspiring to us because he always said, “I will be happy when my students surpass me.” It’s human to need love, approval and recognition, but the classroom is not a good venue for achieving this. When we teach, it’s about the students’ needs and creating a safe and supportive environment where their needs get met.

I really love and revere Gurudev’s teachings and approach to Hatha Yoga. A main specialty of the Integral Yoga method is to make sure the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga stay together. When we practice asana and pranayama we include the yamas, niyamas and pratyahara. Even in Yoga Nidra you have an experience of dharana, dhyana and maybe even samadhi. Hopefully more and more schools will guide their students toward the rest of the limbs of Yoga and not leave them at asana and pranayama.

About the Author:

Swami Asokananda, a monk for over 40 years, has the look of an ascetic but the down-to-earth wit that shows his New York City roots and his five decades of study with the great Yoga master Sri Swami Satchidananda. An excellent Hatha Yogi, he helped to develop and facilitates Intermediate and Advanced Integral Yoga Hatha Teacher Training programs, which he has taught to students in many parts of the world. In addition, he is a scholar of the Bhagavad Gita. His popular classes and workshops on this great Indian scripture make it accessible and useful to modern spiritual seekers. He is also the cohost of the popular podcast, “Two Old Fogey Yogis.” Both practical and mystical, Swami Asokananda is one of the most requested Integral Yoga speakers, presenting programs worldwide

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