Posted by Live Yoga Life in New Product Release, Updates on February 14th, 2011
Check out this new release – the complete set of 7 beginners hatha yoga classes. The style is gentle and easy for beginners, and is from the Jivamukti Yoga school in New York, US. These classes are the most popular of our products, and now you can purchase them as a set at a discount price.
Well known for her ability to explain postures and yoga concepts in a clear, fun and simple way, Jivamukti teacher Sarah Trestrail has designed a series of classes that will give you a clear understanding and experience of the fundamental yoga postures.
This class is a Hatha Yoga class suitable to anyone new to yoga, and will have you ready to confidently step into a yoga class in no time!
Each class has a theme and focus posture. All classes in this program provide a whole-body gentle work-out. The body moves in rhythm with the breath as you move in and out of each posture. This is perfect for an absolute beginner, or for someone recently introduced to yoga looking for a proper introduction to the most common yoga postures and concepts.
Class 1 – a complete-body practice with some twists, forward bends and balancing postures, finishing with a relaxation section and short meditation.introduces you to Mountain Pose and the first of the standing yoga postures.
Class 2 – a complete well-rounded practice with twists, forward bends, balancing postures, and practical yoga philosophy.
Class 3 – a holistic practice for the body, mind and spirit, building on postures learned from the previous classes and introducing you to more variations.
Class 4 – introduces you to the poses of Warrior 1 and 2.
Class 5 – focuses on Triangle Pose and Shoulder-Bridge Pose – a gentle back bend.
Class 6 – works on your core strength, introducing you to Chair Pose and Boat Pose.
Class 7 – integrates the fundamental postures learned from the previous classes in a flowing Vinyasa class. It rejuvenates the body with a complete mind-body practice, and guided deep relaxation commonly referred to as Savasana.
Posted by Live Yoga Life in Updates on February 13th, 2011
When I started practising yoga it was with no background as to what it was all about and what was involved. My first introduction to yoga was in a class where my partner had invited me to. It was full of strange terms and even more strange exercises.
Initially I found it hard to understand as it was so foreign to what I had experienced until then. It took me several months to be comfortable with the postures. I wondered at the time whether there was a more effective way to learn about yoga.
When we started to get material together for www.liveyogalife.com one of the things I had on my to-do list was get several of Australia’s best yoga teachers to record their best beginners yoga program. This would be a series of classes that took an absolute beginners – with no experience of yoga at all – to being comfortable with attending a beginners level yoga class at their local yoga studio.
We were blessed with two such programs:
Both of these set of classes are perfect for anyone with no experience of yoga and a low level of fitness.
Posted by Live Yoga Life in By Teachers, Yoga Philosophy on January 26th, 2010
Written by Sarah Trestrail
“Atha Yoga Nushasanam” YS I.I
Now here is yoga as I have observed it in the natural world.
In Patanjali’s very first Yoga Sutra, we are told exactly where we can find yoga – very simply, it is all around us. It is everywhere. It is the sheer wonder of creation itself, which of course includes each and every one of us.
Often we all get so caught up in the doing of yoga or the trying to achieve yoga – we expend so much effort reaching for things we consider to be outside of ourselves. But Patanjali tells us right here in the very first piece of wisdom he extols that, as part of the natural world, we are the yoga.
The sanskrit word “yoga” comes from the root word “yuj” which means to yoke – to join something to something else. Sharon and Davids teacher, Sri Brahmananda Sarasvati, says “yoga is the state where you want for nothing”. It is the complete state of wholeness where we realise we are intimately connected to everything – we are already plugged in. We are already perfect.
The reason it is difficult for us to truly know this and embody it, is because we have fallen out of tune with nature. We embrace lifestyles, often unconsciously, that draw us further away from our natural state – and this takes a lot of energy, to be something you’re not. It creates a great disturbance in our state of mind.
When we are used to doing something one way – when a habit has been created – it is difficult to break the mould and create a new behaviour. However, this is essential if we want to be truly happy and absolutely free. Author Henry Miller says “our destination is not a place, but a new way of seeing things”.
Initially, attempting to see the yoga in everything is going to take some effort, as habit has blinded us from it. But that habit can be broken if we start with a little faith. Have faith that the yoga is there. And have that faith because Patanjali tells us that it is there. His methods have been practiced by yogis for thousands of years – yogis like us who seek to be liberated, which means our faith is not blind, it is validated by all those who have practiced before us. And thousands of years is a pretty good track record.
So start by believing and then start looking. Next time something you judge to be negative happens, try not to let your initial reaction of frustration, anger, sadness etc take root. Catch yourself and look for the divinity there. Meditate on it, ask the universe “what does this mean?”, “why has this happened?” and then be prepared to listen to the answer.
The universe is divine order – it is all part of a perfectly orchestrated plan – that is the yoga of it. Mother Nature never fails to set the sun in motion in the sky or herald the change of the seasons. She wants us to be in the loop and enjoy a harmonious relationship with our world, and so the answer will arise.
Remember if we are connected to all things, we are infinite potential – this means that we can embody any aspect of the creation we choose. So when things don’t work out exactly the way you planned, trust that the universe knows your true potential and likely has bigger plans for you.
