45) Book Review : Yoga Mind and Body  ( Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre )

 Right from the time ( i.e from 1998 ) I started practicing and teaching the Sivananda Style of Yoga I have been  using the book Yoga Mind & Body from the Sivananda Yoga Centre as a guide book for my practice / teaching and I find it to be a very extrmely useful guide .I gave a Morning Yoga Class in a Popular TV Channel few years back  as part of its Morning Breakfast show and I used lots of inputs from this book for my T.V Show . It has made an excellent sepraration of the basic / advanced postures and also dealt every posture with very clear step by step instructions on how to come to a posture , how to hold it and how to come out of it and it also deals with the physical , mental and spiritual benefits of each major posture .The most imortant of all is the section of common errors for each major posture that I found it to be very useful .No other book discusses the common errors of the postures as in this book . Apart from postures it also deals with Pranayama , Relaxation,Diet and Meditation . On the whole a very very excellent book .A must for every Yoga Student and Teacher

44) Hatha Yoga ( Sivananda Style ) v/s Vinyasa or Flow Yoga

The last 2 posts i.e Posts No: 42 and 43 dealt with Vinyasa or Flow Yoga and it is a different type of yoga practice than one sees in a normal Hatha Yoga practice especially in a classical yoga practice like the Sivananda Yoga . This posts just highlights the main difference between them .
1) Hatha Yoga is slow and gentle movement while Vinyasa /Flow Yoga is fast and vigorous movements based that also includes jumping .
2) Hatha Yoga involves holding the postures for a longer duration in a meditative way while in Vinyasa /Flow Yoga the postures are not being held for long and held for just 5 breaths ( except for inversions where they are held for long ) before moving on to the next posture .
3) In Hatha Yoga there is rest between the postures while in Vinyasa /Flow Yoga there is no rest at all between the postures and one needs to keep on moving till the end of the class as that is what to produce heat and detoxify the body .
4) In a Hatha Yoga class there is emphasis on gentle conscious breathing while holding the postures or while moving through one posture to another and in Vinyasa /Flow yoga the emphasis is on Ujjayai breathing .
5) In Hatha Yoga class there is no emphasis on holding the Bandhas while in Vinaysa /Flow Yoga there is continuous emphasis on holding the Bandhas and Drishtis ( Gazes ) and in fact Bandhas are key to jumps in Vinayasa Yoga .
6) You do not sweat much in a Hatha Yoga class while you sweat a lot in Vinyasa /Flow Yoga class .
7) The only sweating part of Hatha Yoga Class is the Surya Namaskar where the movements are vigorous and it resembles a Vinayasa /Flow Yoga type .

So these are some of the major differences between Hatha Yoga Class( Sivananda Style ) v/s the Vinyasa / Flow Yoga style and people must take these differences in to account before practicing the respective style and not expect one style to deliver the other . Both these styles are equally valid and it depends upon the taste and mental frame of the person practicing it and one need not fight on which style is better .Ideally I would say that a person must try doing both these styles to come out of their respective comfort zones just to experience another system . Frequently changing yoga styles is not recommended but I feel that if one has a grounding on one style then one needs to consciously shift to another totally different style to come out of his own comfort zones and relish his new yoga practice from a different dimension .
So for a person who is used to practicing the slow paced Hatha Yoga system then practicing Vinayasa /Flow Yoga will make him see the power of dynamism and for a person used to a fast paced Vinayasa /Flow Yoga then practising Hatha Yoga system with long holding will make him see the power of focus on keeping the mind one pointed during the practice .So both these styles very well complement each other if taken in the right spirit and it is dangerous to become fanatic with regard to one style / system .
Speaking personally I have been involved with practicing and teaching the Sivananda Style of Classical Hatha Yoga for the past 10 years but now I am consciously moving towards learning and practicing other Yoga styles like Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga ,Yin Yoga and Restorative Yoga for me to come out of my own comfort zones and be back as a student .So while I continue to teach the Sivananda Style of Classical Hatha Yoga I am at the same time practicing as a student for the Ashtanga Vinayasa Style and in a few years from now I feel that I will be competent to teach both these styles to my students and become a complete teacher .

43) More on Vinyasa Yoga or Flow Yoga

In the last post we saw what Vinyasa Yoga or Flow Yoga is .In fact Vinyasa Yoga is quite popular these days as it promises a more intense workout where your body really sweats and your arms and thighs get a wonderful workout like working out in a gym .
Also Vinyasa Yoga is called Flow Yoga as it is continuous movement based like a flow and there is no rest in between the postures .Some may even call it as movement meditation .Vinyasa Yoga became popular with Ashtanga Vinayasa Yoga of Pattabhi Jois but soon this Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was started to get modified in to Power Yoga first which became a big hit in America and taking that clue many Ashtanga practitioners started their own version of Vinyasa Yoga or Flow Yoga and the elements are same in all these Yoga i.e they start with typical Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A ,B and then they have their own standing /sitting /back bending sequences with no rest in between . They vary with regard to their intensity of movements , no. of postures in the sequence , time held in each posture etc etc .

Vinyasa Yoga comes in various formats now from the simple Anusara Flow to the High Intensity Ashtanga Yoga ,Power Yoga and recent Shiva Rea's Prana Flow Yoga .Also included in the list is Seane Corn's own version of Vinyasa Yoga , Sadie Nardinie's Core Vinyasa that focuses more on working out the core region , Kathryn Budig's own version of a Vinyasa Yoga flow that focuses more on arm balances etc and so on the list continues .