Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers

Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers

Meta Chaya Hirschl

Language: English

Pages: 320

ISBN: 1615190406

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


From a longtime yoga teacher, this highly visual, broadly informative resource gives serious yoga practitioners a wide-ranging framework that will enrich their practice.

   As any yoga student or teacher knows, there’s more to yoga than Downward Dog. Meta Chaya Hirschl’s immersive guide offers a complete vision of yoga, from its historical and spiritual roots to modern practice. Whether you are a novice yogi or an experienced instructor, Vital Yoga will help you unlock yoga’s full potential—and your own.
   Focusing on the traditional eight limbs of yoga, Hirschl covers a wide range of essential topics in three sections: Before the Mat, On the Mat, and Into the World. In Before the Mat, you’ll learn about the history and philosophy of yoga, with fresh insights into:
• Fundamental texts like the Bhagavad Gita
• The role of vibration in yogic practice
• Mantras for everything from health to job hunting

In On the Mat, you’ll find practical instructions for every aspect of yoga, including:

• Breathing consciously to guide your vital energies
• Meditating to master and heighten your senses
• Posing with intention, strength, and balance

   And finally, you’ll go Into the World. For Hirschl, the true benefits of yoga come not from perfect poses, but from using yoga every day to help yourself and others—so she covers how you can improve your confidence, health, and even your sex life with yoga, and how you can teach others to do the same.
   Throughout, Vital Yoga invites you to delve into the heart of yoga with derivations of Sanskrit terms, “stealth” yoga practices you can do anywhere, wisdom from the great sages, and accounts by contemporary yogis. Its goal is to help you connect to your inner self, transcend fear and attachment to the stresses of life, and achieve bliss—and when you’ve achieved it, you’ll be able to share it.


Yoga for Backache Relief

The Yoga Facelift

Emotional Yoga: How the Body Can Heal the Mind

Yoga with Weights For Dummies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

don’t know if I feel any better really, but I feel better about the way I feel.” Figure 2.2. Ashtanga map: The Eight Petals of Yoga In general, the eight limbs are strategies for opening to our inner reservoir of peace. The first two limbs guide our behavior toward ourselves and the world. The third limb opens the body through physical poses, the fourth cultivates breathing, and the fifth teaches withdrawal of the senses. The remaining limbs teach us how to gradually master meditation. To help

breathing practice she learned in yoga classes to relax and thus enhance her performance during tournaments. She says that at this point in her career she doesn’t need to improve her golf technique but rather to quiet her mind. The fifth limb, pratyahara, demonstrates ways to withdraw the senses in order to achieve balance and peace. Sense withdrawal is actually something we practice unconsciously—for example, when being unaware of sounds while reading. The text suggests, however, that by

at ease in any event?” Since the Bhagavad Gita was originally part of an oral tradition, the way it sounds is also important. Consequently, you may want to read it aloud or listen to it read. Deepak Chopra has recorded a CD of the Bhagavad Gita, and you can find other readings of it online. There are also new translations that may appeal to you more than the older ones. The Bhagavad Gita has inspired readers for generations, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and Mahatma Gandhi. For

4.2). We can call this a wave of breath. Just as ocean waves rise to a crest and fall, so breath waves rise and fall in the body. Figure 4.2. Lying Release inhale (left) and exhale (right) Vanda Scaravelli’s work is based on this wave of the breath: There is a way of doing yoga poses that we call asanas without the slightest effort. Movement is the song of the body. Yes, the body has its own song from which the movement of dancing arises spontaneously. In other words, the liberation of the

able to focus or find calmness while breathing. Kapalabhati: Shining Skull Breath The meaning of kapalabhati, shining skull, suggests how you might feel after practicing it—like your head is radiant. The physical benefits of kapalabhati include developing internal warmth; cleansing and opening the sinus cavities; increasing lung and heart strength; and opening the ears. The mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits are a sense of inner warmth that can be comforting, like a self-embrace; less

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