Welcome YOGA Beginners!
When you are brand new to yoga, it can feel intimidating and be difficult to know exactly where and how to get started. Bestyogashop “Yoga for Beginners guide” was created specifically for you—to give you all the tips, guidelines, and recommendations you will need to start a successful yoga practice. To ensure your success, we highly recommend you read this entire page before attempting any yoga.
History of Yoga
The practice of yoga can be traced back nearly 5,000 years, with some researchers suggesting it actually extends as far back as 10,000 years. Yogic teachings were mentioned in the Rigveda, an ancient spiritual text. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which loosely translates to “to yoke,” “to unite,” or “to join,” and this makes sense when you consider how yoga was viewed during these early stages: as a means of uniting the physical body with the spiritual realm. As centuries passed, yoga also became celebrated for its purely physical benefits—how it energizes and strengthens the body—but to this day the belief that yoga helps bring the mind and body into harmony is one of the biggest things that draws people to their mat.
By the beginning of the 1900s, yoga began to make its way west. There are many different types of yoga, but the form that initially took hold in the west is considered Hatha yoga. Hatha is a general category that includes most of the yoga types we think of today, from Ashtanga to Iyengar. Hatha simply refers to practicing poses (or asanas) and breathing exercises (called pranayama) to find balance, release tension, and calm the body and mind. Today, there are yoga classes of many different varieties available at yoga studios, gyms, and even online. Whether you prefer more of a vigorous physical workout or a slow and reflective practice, there’s a yoga class for your mood and needs.
What Is Yoga?
Yoga is a vast collection of spiritual techniques and practices aimed at integrating mind, body, and spirit to achieve a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as “yoga” in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. The different paths of yoga emphasize different approaches and techniques but ultimately lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment.
Hatha Yoga attains the union of mind-body-spirit through a practice of asanas (yoga postures), pranayama (yoga breathing), mudra (body gestures) and shatkarma (internal cleansing). These physical practices are used to purify the body and cultivate prana (life-force energy). Modern Hatha Yoga does not emphasize many of these esoteric practices and instead focuses more on the physical yoga postures.
Regardless of what your goals or intentions are for starting a yoga practice, just the yoga poses themselves is a fantastic form of mental and physical exercise.
The Benefits of Practicing Yoga
The benefits of yoga are almost endless! Practicing yoga helps build healthy virtues and good values, such as discipline, honesty, devotion, self-inquiry, mindfulness, and non-attachment. Yoga empowers you to make conscious choices toward living a healthier and fulfilling life.
Yoga also helps you:
- Improve and maintain the health of muscles, joints, and organs
- Improve flexibility, strength, stamina, mobility, range of motion, and balance
- Keep your mind healthy and strong
- Reduce stress and promote relaxation
- Get a better night’s sleep
- Boost your immune system
- Prevent conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and auto-immune disorders
- Help heal common aches like back pain
- Increase happiness and wellbeing and reduce depression
What Do I Need to Begin?
All you really need to begin practicing yoga is your body, your mind, and a bit of curiosity. But it is also helpful to have a pair of yoga leggings, or shorts, and a t-shirt that’s not too baggy. No special footgear is required because you will be barefoot. It’s nice to bring a towel to class with you. As your practice develops you might want to buy your own yoga mat, but most studios will have mats and other props available for you.
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What Does Hatha Mean?
The word hatha means willful or forceful. Hatha yoga refers to a set of physical exercises (known as asanas or postures), and sequences of asanas, designed to align your skin, muscles, and bones. The postures are also designed to open the many channels of the body—especially the main channel, the spine—so that energy can flow freely.
Hatha is also translated as ha meaning “sun” and tha meaning “moon.” This refers to the balance of masculine aspects—active, hot, sun—and feminine aspects—receptive, cool, moon—within all of us. Hatha yoga is a path toward creating balance and uniting opposites. In our physical bodies we develop a balance of strength and flexibility. We also learn to balance our effort and surrender in each pose.
Hatha yoga is a powerful tool for self-transformation. It asks us to bring our attention to our breath, which helps us to still the fluctuations of the mind and be more present in the unfolding of each moment.
What Does Om Mean?
Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions. It is said to be the sound of the universe. What does that mean?
Somehow the ancient yogis knew what scientists today are telling us—that the entire universe is moving. Nothing is ever solid or still. Everything that exists pulsates, creating a rhythmic vibration that the ancient yogis acknowledged with the sound of Om. We may not always be aware of this sound in our daily lives, but we can hear it in the rustling of the autumn leaves, the waves on the shore, the inside of a seashell.
Chanting Om allows us to recognize our experience as a reflection of how the whole universe moves—the setting sun, the rising moon, the ebb and flow of the tides, the beating of our hearts. As we chant Om, it takes us for a ride on this universal movement, through our breath, our awareness, and our physical energy, and we begin to sense a bigger connection that is both uplifting and soothing.
Is Yoga a Religion?
Yoga is not a religion. It is a philosophy that began in India an estimated 5,000 years ago. The father of classical ashtanga yoga (the eight-limbed path, not to be confused with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’ Ashtanga yoga) is said to be Patanjali, who wrote the Yoga Sutra. These scriptures provide a framework for spiritual growth and mastery over the physical and mental body. Yoga sometimes interweaves other philosophies such as Hinduism or Buddhism, but it is not necessary to study those paths in order to practice or study yoga.
I’m Not Flexible—Can I Do Yoga?
Yes! You are a perfect candidate for yoga. Many people think that they need to be flexible to begin yoga, but that’s a little bit like thinking that you need to be able to play tennis in order to take tennis lessons. Come as you are and you will find that yoga practice will help you become more flexible.
How Often Should I Do Yoga?
If you can practice yoga 3 or more times per week, you will see significant improvements in your flexibility, range of motion, strength, balance, inner peace, and overall, wellbeing. Ideally, we recommend shorter and more frequent sessions, 20-45 minutes long, and for a total of 3-4 hours spread over several days.
How to Improve After Starting
Patience, commitment, repetition, and consistency are the keys to developing and progressing in the practice of yoga. After you’ve found a style, teacher, and yoga studio that works for you, try these tips:
- Commit to a regular schedule of yoga classes or home practice
- Increase the length of your yoga practice and the number of days per week that you practice
- Attend yoga workshops that focus on specific aspects of the yoga practice in more detail
- Journal the effects a consistent yoga practice has on your body, mind, and heart
- Read and study to learn more about yoga
- Find sources of inspiration
- Make yoga friends and get involved in community of yogis
- Adopt a yogic lifestyle
Note: To ensure your success, Bestyogashop.co.uk highly recommend you read this entire page before attempting any yoga.
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