Nowadays Yoga has become a familiar word, the images of people doing yoga poses pop up all over the place. On the front page of my yahoo page it flashes types of careers with little pics of people doing yoga poses as it flashes. Have any of you seen that?

I think because yoga has become in fashion these days the advertisers are using it in all kinds of situations just to get peoples attention. For someone who runs a yoga studio I can’t think that’s bad because the more people get interested the better for business.

But I feel compelled to educate and teach people the true essence of yoga, the ancient science and art that was designed to develop awareness , to  promote personal  transformation  and to discover our true nature as a ‘spiritual being having a physical experience’ if I may steal someone’s phrase.  Not sure who said that, does anyone know??

The benefits of the practice of yoga include a big boost in our health and well being, our bodies develop a wonderful balance of strength and flexibility, and our minds learn to quiet down from all the obsessive thinking we do. It’s the best choice of past times/hobby/ commitment I ever made for myself.
Anyway, because yoga has become such a familiar word I often receive that classic question “What is Yoga anyway, and what kind am I doing?
So, I’d like to take a moment to give you the very basic answers to these questions so that you can feel ‘well-informed’ the next time you happen to get into conversation about yoga.

The type of yoga that has made it to the mainstream is Hatha Yoga. The practice of poses and breathing  by the practitioner.
The time-honored definition of Hatha is, broken down to its two parts, “Ha” means sun, relating to masculine, active energy and “Tha” means moon, relating to feminine, receptive energy. When you bring these two together, yoga or yoke, you have a powerful system of purification.
A system that keeps the body strong, flexible, balanced in all its multidimensional systems!
There are different styles of Hatha yoga, which is where it’s easy to get confused.
When you hear of Iyengar yoga, kundalini yoga, ashtanga yoga, flow yoga, Integrative yoga, restorative yoga, yin yoga etc. you are getting descriptions of different styles of Hatha Yoga that you can choose from to do.
Think of the broad category of Ice Cream and all the flavors of it.
Kind of like that.
If you have had the experience of one yoga class that just was not what you thought it was, or wasn’t what you were hoping for, don’t hesitate to try again, you may just not like that flavor.
The mode of transmission from the teacher often has a big impact on your experience and you definitely want to find a teacher that you feel safe and comfortable with. Look for someone who teaches a nice hatha class but obviously understands all the depth and complexities of the whole of yoga, since Hatha yoga is just a part of an eightfold path. Most yoga professionals will tell you that once you find a style and teacher that suits you stick with it and let your commitment and consistency bestow you with benefits yoga has to offer.
Petaluma has an array of options for your yoga tasting, BodyWorks-Integrative Yoga and Stress Management Center just being one, there is also Zenergy Yoga, Maldanaldo’s , the gyms all offer it and there are many teachers willing to do private yoga sessions.
Stay tuned and I’ll continue informing you more about yoga, it’s benefits, it’s styles and it’s philosophy.