Yoga: A Quick Overview

There are many styles of yoga and therefore the benefits of practicing yoga will vary depending on the style you practice, on the instructor, and on your dedication to your practice. I have practiced several styles of yoga and have been practicing and teaching Kundalini yoga for almost 17 years but I am definitely not an expert in yoga in general. In this blog, I will briefly describe what yoga is. In my next blog, I will talk more specifically about the spiritual and physical benefits of Kundalini yoga.

The first thing many people ask is: Is yoga a religion? The quick answer is ‘No.’ I think the question really asks: “Am I going to be led into some beliefs that are not me?” The answer to that question is clearly ‘No!’ I feel the need to be clearer. Most yoga practices originated from Hinduism. The Kundalini yoga lineage I follow comes from Sikhism. So yoga practices are related to religions. To understand one needs to get a sense of the difference between Eastern religions and Western religions. In India, at least before western influences, there was no separation between one’s religion and one’s spiritual path or one’s lifestyle. Every moment of one’s life is orchestrated around sacred rhythms. Yoga is an aspect of that. So even though yoga is not a religion in and of itself – and those who brought yoga to the West made sure to remove all connection to spirituality at first as to not turn us off, and made it a physical practice – yoga is originally a practice to connect us to universal consciousness.

Yoga literally means yoke, or what unites things together. The practice of yoga is therefore a practice to experience unity or oneness. Oneness happens by being one with universal consciousness.

When people talk about yoga, they refer to the practice of certain exercises (asanas), breaths (pranayamas), meditations (dhyana), and relaxation, but that’s only one aspect of the practice. Yoga is so much more!

Yoga can simply be translated as being mindful, being in a state of meditation, or if one is not there yet, every moment consciously letting go of distractions and welcoming what is. For instance you can be practicing yoga while gardening, doing the dishes or cleaning up your house, paying attention to everything that happens around you and within you as you do your work. This is called karma yoga. Or you can be practicing yoga while having fun being creative, playing with your kids, or swimming. The yoga of relationships with yourself and others is called White Tantra. It can be done with exercises and meditations or by living it. The yoga of sexuality is Red Tantra. This can be used and abused. To be yoga it needs to be done respectfully, sacredly, with devotion and therefore from the heart, and your entire being (all your chakras as one), not just from the sexual centers.

Patanjali was a physician who became a sage some time between 200 BC and 200 AD. He left us with a treatise on yoga that is still considered the fundamental text on the system of yoga. In it he describes the eight-fold path (or eight limbs) or yoga: Yama (social behavior), Niyama (inner discipline), Asana (posture), Pranayama (life force), Pratyahara (Going within letting go of distractions), Dharana (mind stillness, focus), Dhyana (meditation), Samadhi (Bliss, Unity). Only a few yoga styles are complete in the sense that they include all of these limbs.

Hatha yoga is a style of yoga that is the most popular in North America. Hatha yoga is not complete as it is for the most part limited to postures and relaxations, and includes very little breath work and meditations, although this depends on the instructor. Different schools have come from Hatha yoga: Iyengar yoga (precise alignment oriented, a class is run posture after posture, with instructions and corrections), Anusara yoga (derived from Iyengar but with elements of Hindu spirituality), Kripalu yoga (flowing, often with meditative music and sometimes with incense ), Bikram (Hot yoga, classes are scripted), Sivananda, Integral and restorative yoga. And this list is not exhaustive!

Kriya yoga is a yoga of devotion and was introduced in the US by Yogananda. I recommend his book: Autobigraphy of a Yogi because it is rare that yogis write their own biography and because it is a great source for understanding life directly through the eyes and experience of a spiritual master, not through one of his students. In it he describes his life from before his spiritual awakening and his quest to meet with the saints and gurus or his time.

Ashtanga yoga (literally eight limbs of yoga), or power yoga, is complete and is taught a little at a time through series.

Kundalini yoga is also a complete yoga. It is called the mother of all yogas. It focuses on awareness more than on alignment. It uses everything about yoga even for beginning classes: postures; finger, eye and tongue postures; breath work; mantras; meditations; and relaxation. Kundalini yoga is not taught by instructors but by teachers.

All yoga styles have a common guideline to experience a posture and use the breath to ease into postures. It is this practice that connects us to our body and helps release stress. Iyengar yoga goes at it by asking students to perfect their alignment and stay in postures with the help of props until ultimately the use of props is no longer necessary. Kundalini yoga goes at it the opposite way, less interested in perfecting postures, it is interested in awareness. It is awareness that guides one to perfecting one’s own posture.

Luc Watelet is a passionate Kundalini yoga teacher and Life mentor. He welcomes your questions. He does passion-based counseling, working from people’s love and passion first and then strengths, rather than strengths alone or fixing pathology, to help them on their path. You can find him at: InnerWearth Blog or on his facebook page by searching Luc Watelet. Please send him a message first to let him know who you are and how you know him before asking for a friend request!

Silver & Grace Approved Books

Looking for books on spirituality? The following books have the Silver & Grace Seal of Approval as excellent resources for women. They are available through Amazon.

The Source of Miracles: 7 Steps to Transforming Your Life through the Lord’s Prayer
Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth
The Message: A Guide to Being Human

For more Silver & Grace approved books check out Eliza’s Recommendations.

Embracing the fun, sexy, intelligent and real you

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