Nama Say: Is Yoga a Religion?

Yoga is not a religion.

 

The past three weeks, I have been studying "The History of Yoga" in conjunction with my teacher training. It explains the ebb and flow of yoga and mentions that yoga, specifically in the West is not a religion. In some parts of the world it started as a spiritual practice but was never a religion.

 

As a Christian who attends church as regularly as I'm able, I would actually say that yoga enhances the beliefs I already have within my faith. I believe in goodness. I could delve much deeper into my religious and spiritual beliefs, but that would be a whole different post!

 

Often times, I will be sitting in church and hear something a yoga teacher or friend mentioned in class echoed within my minister's sermon. He speaks of being kind, laughing, helping others, building community & stories of the ancient past. He speaks of love, heart, harmony & goodness. The sermons I hear in church are ocassionally reflected in yoga and what I hear in yoga is almost always echoed in church: be kind, give with your heart & be open to love.

 

Meditation and prayer seem similar as well. We open our hearts to the Universe, or God or Ganesha or whomever we open to. We listen and wait. We run our lives telling ourselves that unanswered prayers are there for a reason, that life happens for a reason. Yogis believe in Isvara Pradihana: "The belief in Isvara (or God) and that s/he will carry us to where we need to be." Maybe not where we WANT to be, but where we need to be, just like unanswered prayers. But the major difference is that meditation is LISTENING while prayer is ASKING. When we meditate, we sit or kneel or stand and open our hearts to listen to the wisdom of the universe. When we pray, we ask and we have a conversation with whomever it is you believe in.

 

The fact remains that yoga is simply not a religion. It is not organized in that way. There may be many similarities but the differences are vast. Yoga is a free flow of movements that in certain classes will encorporate spirituality. Yoga can be a work out. Yoga is movement with breath. Yoga is not a specific weekly meeting. Yoga is not held in a church or with a pastor or minister or priest. Yoga does not transfer the teachers beliefs to your own. Yoga can be sweaty. Yoga is a suggestion of how to live your life. Yoga is a collective, but it is not a religion.

 

Spirituality can be a scary word for some. What exactly does it mean? Spirit originally translates in some texts as breath: it is an energy. For myself, spirit is often more than just my breath but for others, it's simply physical breath.

 

Inhale. Exhale. Hold. Release.

 

 

 

For me, yoga is a spiritual path that is attained through practicing asanas, meditating, being kind to strangers and loved ones, practicing the yamas & niyamas as well as breath work. It is a personal path that is not organized and can be interpreted in so many different ways. For me, it is an invigorating practice both internally & externally. Yoga as with religion means something different to everyone.

 

So what does yoga mean to you? Do you see religion reflected in the postures?
What do you believe?

 

Let's start a discussion! Let's eliminate the fear of those who may not know of understand.

 

Is yoga a religion?

 

NO

 

Is it a spiritual practice?

 

YES

 

Does that in a sense make it a religion?

Get out there - do yoga & make life sparkle!
Namaste,

Jenny

Nama Say Wednesday: Chakra's Part II

This is part two of the Nama Say Wednesday Chakra posts. I wanted to break them up into a more manageable read for you all and am excited to share the knowledge I currently have on our energy alignment (as well as to delve even deeper this year and continue to share).

As I mentioned in the last post, a chakra is an energy channel. We have seven chakras and in last weeks post I covered our root, sacral & solar plexus chakras. In this second post, I will be covering our heart, throat, third eye & crown charkas. Continuing up the alignment of the spine we come closer to our intuition & infinite wisdom within: we come close to Samadhi.

Samadhi is enlightenment or nirvana. Interestingly and contrary to popular belief, monks do not spend their entire lives in enlightened bliss. It is a glimpse into Samadhi that we receive and that is what we strive for – to feel the enlightenment and then once it is lost we continue our process again to achieve it once more.

The fourth chakra is the heart or Anahata. The heart chakra is green or pink in color and located at your hearts center. It represents all the things you would immediately believe the heart to represent: compassion, love, emotion & well being.

The heart charka is best opened through heart openers or back bends (bridge, wheel, dancers pose, cobra). When a teacher focuses on back bending, you may feel a lot of your emotions rise as well as your direct issues with love & trust begin to flare. This is a normal piece of the process to clear the energy on the way to your crown charka & Samadhi.

Vishuddha is the throat or the fifth charka. The throat charka is located in your throat and blue in color. It represents communication but not just the spoken word. It is written word, words we are unable to communicate (to those who have left the earth or perhaps out of societal or family context) and expression. Common poses to begin opening the throat chakra are fish pose & plow pose as well as the ancient art of chanting (more on chanting in a coming article).

The sixth chakra is known as the third eye, brow or Anja. It is violet in color and located directly in between your eyes on your brow – a place known to many as the third eye center. It represents intuition and the inner guide. Common poses for the opening of your third eye chakra are inversions and forward folds as well as chanting. There are many mudras (hand symbols) that connect to opening the third eye charka as well. Also, during guided meditations in savasana you are occasionally able to open your Anja.

The last and final of the seven chakras is the crown or Sahasrara. It is white in color and located at the top of the head or just above your crown, floating above you. It represents enlightenment, Samadhi, beingness, emotional action & the release of karma. The pose in which to open this chakra is savasana, often a yogis favorite pose.

The first time my dad tried yoga, I told him that savasana is like a yogi nap where we don’t sleep but rather rest and open our minds towards enlightenment. One lies on the earth or the floor and meditates after a physical yoga asana practice.

Combined with the first three chakras from last week, this concludes the introduction to chakras and their energy channels. As with all yoga, chakras are a practice. I am still learning all there is to know about chakras and there is an infinite amount of information. Please feel encouraged to add information or ask additional questions in regards to the chakras or anything with yoga. I would love to continue sharing my knowledge as often as I am able.

What do you think about the chakras?

Does your teacher mention them in class?

Would you take a chakra flow vinyassa class?

Get out there – do yoga & make life sparkle!

Namaste,

Jenny

Nama Say Wednesday: Chakra's Part 1

 

 

Chakras are something I often discuss in class. If we are in the middle of a deep twist I will ask my students to rinse out their anxiety and will power through their third chakra. Many of them likely have no idea what I’m talking about, but I try to describe in best detail as I’m able what a chakra is.

A chakra is an energy channel. We have seven chakras within our being and today I will discuss our first three: root, sacral & the solar plexus. I am starting from the root and going to the top in an attempt to discuss how important it is to stay grounded.

The first chakra is your root chakra also known as Muladhara. The root chakra is red in color and located at the bottom of our spine. It represents all things grounded. Money issues, shelter, work, stability and so much more can be found coming up through this chakra. It is where we store a lot of our deepest set fears in the world and often the toughest energy channel to break through.

The root chakra is best opened with grounded poses (warriors, triangle, mountain pose). Typically chakra flow classes begin from the ground up and as such we often begin by opening our root chakra first through grounding poses, as well as to build heat within our bodies to create a better flow.

Swadhisthana is the sacral chakra and is located within the sacrum. It is orange in color and represents sexuality, fertility, relationships, basic emotions and creativity. When I “open” this chakra through asanas (poses) I often jokingly tell my students I am not trying to get them pregnant but rather cultivate the fertility of new ideas. This is a very sensitive chakra but in my experience can be very easy to open through a yoga class.

The sacral chakra is best opened with hip openers (lunges, pigeon, frog). Hip openers tend to open a lot of energy channels and emotion (especially for women) and it is often where we store old pains and fears. This is one of the reasons we are so tight in our hips (among others: driving, sitting in offices etc) and why occasionally we feel like cursing the teacher or crying in pigeon. It's normal to open and release this energy while we're in our hip opening poses.

Manipura is the solar plexus or belly chakra. It is yellow in color and represents will power, anxiety & digestion. The poses most associated with the manipura are often twists to release some of the anxiety we build. We need to hold onto our will power, however so we must not twist too deeply. And as we do, we must rememeber to hold our will power within while letting go of what no longer serves us.

I LOVE asking my class to get into deep twists and begin rinsing away all of the worries that no longer serve them. Next time you're feeling anxious, try sitting cross legged on the floor and doing a nice spinal twist across your body. It may release a bit of your manipura energy and open your third chakra to let go of all your worries!

Chakra flow classes can be extremely eye opening. You  are often opening energy channels you did not know existed. You begin to use the physical to connect to the spiritual and the energy within you. I mention “opening the channels” as we literally open the channels of this stuck energy through asanas, physical yoga classes and spiritual journeys.

A yoga instructor can and often does take the seven charkas to create a yoga flow to help open your energy. It’s one of the reasons you sometimes leave class on a yoga high!

The quiz below is a lot of fun and represents where you are in terms of energy. If you answer the questions honestly you will understand where you are blocked and need to be reopened! Please do not hesitate to ask me additional questions and I will try my best to answer them.

Chakra Quiz!

Next week I will be discussing the final four chakras and creating an at home yoga practice to begin opening all your chakras!!

Get out there – do yoga & make life sparkle!
Namaste,

Jenny

Nama Say Wednesday

Hello ladies & gents!

I have decided to create a weekly blog feature post called “Nama Say” in which I describe to you some piece of yoga that you may have a question about. Yoga is comprised of an entirely new language to most western yogis: Sanskrit. 

Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language used for many of the poses. It is not only used within the physical world of yoga but also in breath (pranayama), meditation & scripture: the original yoga sutras and the bahgavad gita. 

This weekly feature "Nama Say" will cover not only words, but also poses, breath, meditation, moral ideals and symbols that you may be curious about. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments below or on my facebook page. I would be more than happy to answer as many questions as I'm able!

We have been brought some beautiful translations into the west but there is so much room for interpretation, as well as so many who are unaware of many of the phrases we hear in our day to day classes. I thought I would shed some light unto you all and begin with two words you hear all the time in yoga classes: Vinyasa & Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara).

VINYASA 

How many times have you heard a teacher say “flow through your vinyassa to your downward facing dog” in a class? 

If you’ve ever taken a vinyassa yoga class, you’ve heard it often. But what IS a vinyassa? Is it moving from a standing forward fold, to a high plank, to low plank, back up to upward facing dog and then pushing back to downward facing dog? Is it all of those moves in that particular order? No. That series is a sun salutation.

Vinyasa simply means flow. It is the fluid connection between breath & movement.

If you are in a particular position and move consciously with breath to another position without stopping to readjust, you are likely experiencing a vinyasa movement.

If you have only taken vinyasa classes and not yet had the pleasure and opportunity to discover other styles, you may have assumed a vinyasa is a sun salutation. A sun salutation (or surya namaskara) is a vinyasa but a vinyasa is not necessarily always a sun salutation. Vinyasa is the action of fluid movement with breath. It is found in many styles of yoga; vinyasa, ashtanga, Forrest and occasionally found in gentle or yoga flow classes.

Hatha yoga is a familiar style to many yogis and although is is a nice practice, traditionally hatha yoga and vinyasa are NOT the same. They are very similar within particular asanas (poses) but hatha yoga does not have the fluidity of a vinyasa class. In a vinyasa class you are often going to be flowing through your poses and more often than not, moving at a much faster rate throughout the entire class time.

Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation)

A sun salutation is a series of asanas. You begin by placing both feet on the floor hips width distance apart. You fingers are spread wide with your arms by your side and your gaze looking forward. Reach your arms towards the sky on the inhale and as you exhale you begin to slowly fold forward into your standing forward fold (utanasana).

As you inhale place both hands on your shins and look forward. BEND YOUR KNEES A LOT and step back (or jump if you're a more "seasoned" yogi) in your high plank.

High Plank

In your high plank, you want your gaze looking slightly forward, but down. Your shoulders are directly over your wrists. You pushing the weight through our heels and thinking about tightening your core for a strong posture.

Chataranga 

As you lower down, only lower down half way into your chataranga (or low push up) position. You are still holding your belly and core in tight and bringing the weight from your head to your heels in a straight line.

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog)

As you begin to "sweep through" to your upward facing dog, think about ROLLING your shoulders behind you to open your heart even further. (Or as I very kindly say when I have all women in class.... stick out your boobs!)

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog)

Begin to tighten your core as much as you are able and think about rolling over your toes as you left you hips up towards the sky. This will bring you into an inverted V position - Adho Mukha Svanasana, or commonly, downward facing dog. In this position, try to relax your head in between your shoulders and think about eventually reaching your heels to the earth.

And there you have it! Often times, teachers refer to a sun salutation as a vinyasa and it is! But a vinyasa is not only and always a sun salutation.

I hope this first Nama Say Wednesday was helpful. Please let me know if you have any additonal questions in the comment section below or on facebook!!

Get out there - do yoga & make life sparkle!

Namaste,

Jenny

P.s. Thank you to Candice Harper who helped come up with the name of my new feature. Check out her comic strip!