After nailing the ‘when’ and ‘where’ one needs to understand ‘HOW’ to do Yoga. The asana or physical practice goes far beyond just improving flexibility as it’s a mindful practice.
A typical Yoga practice includes a warm up to loosen the muscles, followed by a series of postures which are essentially done in the standing, seated, prone and supine positions.
A wholesome, complete practice includes a few postures in either a few or all of the above positions. ‘The spine is the face of the body,’ hence warming it up correctly is essential. A bad posture due to a curved back and wrong alignment leads to various issues like back pain, protruding tummy etc. Most Yoga postures are aimed at correcting the spine alignment and the phrase ‘lengthen your spine’ is often used by good teachers in a class.
On a lighter note, if you’d like to stand taller and look better, just do Yoga!
An ideal practice ends in relaxation in ‘Shavasana’ or the corpse position, which is almost therapeutic in nature and none must miss out.
Will be back with more on the various styles of Yoga and choosing the best suited for you.
Till then,
Namaste!
Neelanjana Bharadwaj – The Yoga Expert