Aatm Yogashala
Hatha Yoga with Iyengar Props - Ravi Ji
What exactly Hatha yoga actually is hasn’t changed for thousands of years. However our thinking and perception of it certainly has. Language is a powerful thing, and in different cultures the same word can have a variety of definitions. Throughout the evolution of yoga practice, the same word – Hatha – has come to mean different things too.
Popular thinking ‘in the West’ (an all-too-common expression now), is that Hatha yoga is about balancing the body and mind. ‘Ha’ represents the esoteric sun, and ‘tha’ the moon. The practice of Hatha yoga aims to join, yoke, or balance these two energies.
A yoga class described as ‘Hatha’ will typically involve a set of physical postures (yoga poses) and breathing techniques. These are typically practised more slowly and with more static posture holds than a Vinyasa flow or Ashtanga class. And indeed, that is how we describe our Hatha yoga classes on EkhartYoga.
Literally however, Hatha means ‘force’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
asana – yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’)
pranayama – breathing techniques
mantra – chanting or reciting
mudra – hand gestures
shatkriyas and shatkarmas – cleansing techniques
types of visualisation.
Mark Singleton – author of ‘Yoga Body’, and a Senior Research Fellow at SOAS London University – spoke at a lecture I attended. He remarked; “what’s physical and what’s not is up for question. No matter what one does, isn’t it all physical?”.
.
& :
Website: aatmyogashala.com/
Call OR WhatsApp: +91-8445993766
E-mail: AatmYogashala@gmail.com
Hatha Yoga with Iyengar Props - Ravi Ji
What exactly Hatha yoga actually is hasn’t changed for thousands of years. However our thinking and perception of it certainly has. Language is a powerful thing, and in different cultures the same word can have a variety of definitions. Throughout the evolution of yoga practice, the same word – Hatha – has come to mean different things too.
Popular thinking ‘in the West’ (an all-too-common expression now), is that Hatha yoga is about balancing the body and mind. ‘Ha’ represents the esoteric sun, and ‘tha’ the moon. The practice of Hatha yoga aims to join, yoke, or balance these two energies.
A yoga class described as ‘Hatha’ will typically involve a set of physical postures (yoga poses) and breathing techniques. These are typically practised more slowly and with more static posture holds than a Vinyasa flow or Ashtanga class. And indeed, that is how we describe our Hatha yoga classes on EkhartYoga.
Literally however, Hatha means ‘force’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
asana – yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’)
pranayama – breathing techniques
mantra – chanting or reciting
mudra – hand gestures
shatkriyas and shatkarmas – cleansing techniques
types of visualisation.
Mark Singleton – author of ‘Yoga Body’, and a Senior Research Fellow at SOAS London University – spoke at a lecture I attended. He remarked; “what’s physical and what’s not is up for question. No matter what one does, isn’t it all physical?”.
.
& :
Website: aatmyogashala.com/
Call OR WhatsApp: +91-8445993766
E-mail: AatmYogashala@gmail.com