Yoga Fellowship NI

What Is Yoga?

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What is Yoga?

Yoga is an ancient practice of postures, breathing, visualisation and meditation to promote good health and inner peace.

What does Yoga mean?
Translated from Sanskrit, Yoga means 'union'; this union is between mind, body and spirit.

Why should I practise Yoga?

Practising Meditation

Practising Yoga will help you attain balance in body, mind and spirit.  The main purpose of Yoga is to still the mind.  It can teach gentle control and use of the breath to raise energy levels while maintaining calm and inner peace.

The most widely taught form of yoga in the West is Hatha yoga.  Classes offer students exercises to stretch and flex their body; develop breath awareness; relaxation and sometimes meditation.

 What can I expect in a class?

Every teacher is different but in general you can expect to start the class with centring, you will move on to some warm ups and asana (posture) work, then pranayama (breath) work and finish off with yoga nidra (deep conscious relaxation).

With your asana practise you will find some classes are low impact while others can be quite demanding.

Click on Types of Yoga to download a PDF giving a short introduction to the various styles of yoga available.

What are the Benefits?

Yoga will help you

  • Increase flexibility, maintain suppleness and improve muscle tone
  • Give a general sense of calmness and well-being 
  • Induce relaxation 
  • Reduce high blood pressure 
  • Energise body and mind 
  • Improve circulation 
  • Decrease stress 
  • Increase concentration and clarity of thought 
  • Build confidence 
  • Lose weight, but only as part of a calorie controlled diet.

Who can practise Yoga?

Anyone can practice Yoga.  However, as with any form of exercise, if you have a specific ailment or are taking up Yoga for the first time we do recommend you have a chat with your GP.

What do I do now?

Search our database 'Find me a Class' to find a teacher working in your area.  Not all of our teaching members are online so please do contact our telephone answering service on 028 9188 9219, leave a message and someone will contact you about yoga classes in your area. 

Please note: if you are reasonably fit you might want an energetic class, however if you have not exercised for many years you might want to begin with a more relaxed form of Yoga.  Please do ask our teachers about their style and discuss your needs with them.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 October 2011 16:33 )  

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Featured Pose

Marjari-ansa (Cat Pose) 

Benefits:
Improves neck/shoulders and spine flexibility – great if sitting at a desk all day or if you do a lot of driving

Practice:

  1. Kneel on mat; sitting up on calf/ankle area
  2. Put hands as fists and place side-by-side between knees to give hip-width apart distance
  3. Bend down from waist and place elbow at top of knee with forearm on floor – like a rabbit
  4. Note where tip of fingers are and lift hands replacing heel of hand at that point
  5. Raise buttocks so you’re up on your knees – hands in line with knees
  6. Should be in a good firm table like position with knees directly under hips and hands directly under shoulders – very important
  7. This is the starting position which is important to achieve and stabilise the body in
  8. Next step is to raise the head and concave the back by depressing the spine – all this whilst breathing in.  Don’t go too far either way but should feel a good stretch.  Don’t jerk the head right back
  9. Expand lungs/abdomen area fully to breathe into the max and hold for 3 seconds
  10. Lower head towards chest and stretch spine upwards whilst exhaling
  11. Pull belly button in towards spine and have head facing down towards the thighs.  Hold for 3 seconds
  12. This is one round – repeat 5-10 times

Notes:

Perform slowly to get the max out of the stretch
Arms/thighs should remain vertical throughout.
Arms should not bend in this posture

Pregnancy:
Please speak to your teacher before practising.  It is deemed safe up to the 6th month but avoid forceful contractions of abdomen at all times.

Relax the Stress

Pratyahara

This is the turning of the senses inward and the fifth of Patanjali's eight-limbed path of yoga.  It could be an important tool for your stress reduction.  

Perhaps a reason why many people in today's world are 'stressed' is constant visual and auditory stimulation bombarding us - sensory overload. Consciously going inward on a regular basis can be a partial antidote to this regular assault on the senses.  It may help calm the nervous system and make you more resistant to future assaults.

Yoga can help this so if it sounds good to you why not Find a Class near you?