Five things to Know about Surya Namaskara
Sun salutations, flows, vinyasa flows, surya namaskara. Heard these phrases before? They can all mean the same or similar things depending on the yoga class you’re in. It usually refers to a series of poses completed one breath per movement towards the beginning of a yoga class. Why do we practice it? And where does it come from? Here are a few facts about the surya namaskara.
Why We Should Never Skip Savasana
While some of us would never dream of skipping out on those five minutes of rest and stillness at the end of class, it’s not uncommon for people to leave early, in a rush, to get back to their day. But what we need to remember is that savasana is just as important as every other shape we create in our yoga practice, perhaps more so.
How to Take Care of Yourself in Times of Stress
We’re all familiar with feelings of stress and even anxiety. These feelings can often come and go, but sometimes they linger for a little longer than we’d like. Often when we get stressed, we can become less likely to do things to prevent stress. While that doesn’t make sense logically, stress often isn’t logical. It’s nice to remember that we can help ourselves feel better, we just have to remember in the moment. Here are some of our tried and tested ways to look after ourselves in times of stress.
A Balanced Autumn with Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient art of medicine, which began in India. Now practised all over the world, Ayurveda translates to the science of life. It’s a holistic approach to health and wellbeing that consists of three primary doshas (constitutions); the fiery pitta, earthy kapha, and the airy vata. These characteristics are found in people, seasons, foods, yoga poses, and most other things we do. Ayurveda says that in order to be healthy, we need to be balanced.
A Yogi Life Starts with You
Living the yoga life sounds like doing a lot of yoga, right? Well, if we look to yoga philosophy, we find that yoga starts with our relationship to ourselves and our relationships with those around us. It’s not until we have those things sorted that we make our way to the postures or asana. While we often do it the other way around these days, it’s still important to look at these fundamental ways of being. To do that, we look to the eight limbs of yoga.
Let’s Talk Chakras
Sometimes the yogi world can seem a little left of centre. The world of chakras, meditation, and essential oils. But when you allow yourself to dive right in, you learn that all of these things have real life application. And can make a huge impact to our everyday lives. The chakra system is certainly one of those things. With our upcoming chakra balancing workshop, we thought we’d give you an insight.
Four Yoga Poses for Flexibility
Flexibility is one of the most commonly talked about benefits of a regular yoga practice. While there are a lot more – think strength, stability, mindfulness, and overall increased wellbeing, flexibility is very important and not just to look good on the yoga mat. Increased flexibility and mobility in our muscles and connective tissue allows us to reduce our chances of injury and pain. Here are a handful of poses to help you increase your overall level of flexibility.
What to Eat Before and After a Yoga Class
To practice at our best, we need to make sure we’re fueling the body with the right things. But also at the right times. It can be hard to know when and what to eat when practising yoga. Especially when class times can vary and schedules sometimes don’t always line up with mealtimes. Do you want to eat before, or after, and if so what should you be reaching for? Here are our tips.
The benefits of chanting “OM”
Chanting, while not the focus for most yoga classes these days, is often incorporated into the start or end (or both) to add just another layer to the practice. It’s a beautiful way to bring in the ancient healing benefits of sound and mantra into our more physical based classes. The sound ‘Om’ in particular is said to be the sound of everything or the sound of the universe. It has the power to reverberate through the entire body, which is both energising as well as calming on the entire system. It also allows us to begin and end our practice as a community rather than a single student. We looked into the scientific and spiritual reasons behind chanting the mantra OM.
Four ways to take yoga off the mat and into everyday life
Often when we think of ‘yoga’ our first reaction is to think of the physical movements, the poses, or the asana. The things we do on our mat in a room full of people. And that is certainly where most of us begin. But when we allow ourselves to delve deeper, the practice starts way before we hit our mat and continues long after we leave it. It starts with how we interact with ourselves and others, long before we see the postures themselves. Incorporating the yogi way of life into our everyday existence can be a daunting process, so we’ve chosen four of our favourite ways to give you somewhere to begin.
