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Layers: Yoga Nidra Techniques Explained

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In our last blog an Intro to Yoga Nidra, we talked about this valuable technique of conscious deep sleep. With muscular, emotional and mental tensions to calm, and the conscious, subconscious and unconscious layers to sort through, Yoga Nidra must employ different methods to get through all these potential areas of stress to bring us positive change in our lives.

Rotation of Consciousness
The rotation of consciousness involves taking the practitioner’s awareness to different parts of the body. It is said that wherever we center our attention it becomes the place where we also center our energy. Bringing ones awareness to each part of the body increases the energy in that part and allows the participant to identify and relax tensions there.

Auditory Focus
Often in our Yoga Nidra class we concentrate on different sounds. This technique helps the students to withdraw from the other senses (vision, taste, feeling, smells) and only leave one channel, the auditory one, open. The idea is that the participant stays aware of the directions coming from the instructor, but practices detachment from all other stimuli. This focus can increase a feeling of inner peace because when the mind is not getting overwhelmed with input, it is less likely to create intense mental fluctuations and more likely to be calm.

 

Opposite Sensations
Students are asked to focus on experiencing opposite sensations in Yoga Nidra. For example heaviness/lightness, sadness/elation, cold/warm. As previously said, emotional tension arises from the duality of emotions. By asking the student to temporarily experience emotions that they are not presently feeling, and then to experience the opposite emotion, this technique is used to neutralize emotions. This often allows the practitioner to go into a deeper state of relaxation, one that lies beyond the limitations of their emotional world.

Rapid Imagery
Rapid imagery involves a number of different things being named in quick succession and the student being asked to visualize each of them, then let them go so that they can move on to the next one. Because the mind tends to wander on its own and create its own fluctuations, this practice can help regulate this activity. For example when the image “waves breaking on a deserted beach” is given, then one could start thinking of the last time they were on the beach. They then think of who they were with, the emotions this caused and then start analyzing that past situation. But before this can happen in Yoga Nidra practice, the next image is given, considered and then asked to be released. It is a method of learning how to guide the mind so that we can learn to visualize and to release images that produce subconscious reactions. This, taken into our everyday life, can decrease our levels of stress and help us to achieve a more consistent sense of wellbeing.

Vinyasa Yoga: Fusion for Your Flow

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Recently, we added a new Vinyasa Flow Yoga class in Kreuzberg. Not your average yoga, this fusion style offers so many substantial benefits to those who practice it. But some people still seem to have questions about what makes this type of yoga so dynamic. We thought we might try to explain.

Vinyasa Flow yoga, aka “power yoga” takes its inspiration and principles from Ashtanga, but it is a more creative style. Each class is designed individually, using different asanas to focus on different parts of the body. Like Ashtangis, we pay very close attention to the transitions between each asana, or posture, and use breathing to coordinate the smoothest transitions. For example, while inhaling we focus on lengthening the spine and then while exhaling as we fold forwards. We also take from Ashtanga the use of the Sun Salutation as a ”link” between posture sequences.

When Cardio Meets YogaChandrasana during a Vinyasa Flow Yoga Class in Berlin

Vinyasa Flow classes, like Ashtanga, also tend to be a cardiovascular challenge because they are relatively fast-paced. Unlike Ashtanga, however, Vinyasa Flow postures are held for different lengths of time and movement is often incorporated into the posture (for example, moving the upper body rhythmically while keeping the lower body stable). Exercises and sequences from other traditions are also used such as tai chi, pilates and bellydance. Because these all use breath synchronized movement, they can be incorporated into Vinyasa Flow classes with ease to enhance the practice.

The popularity of Vinyasa Flow classes is probably the result of its diversity. Students find the classes fun, challenging and relaxing. For this reason, we decided to add another Vinyasa Yoga Class at our new studio in Kreuzberg. We would love to see you there!

What is Vinyasa Yoga: A History of “Flow”

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Like any other practice, yoga can be quite different depending on two main factors: who is teaching it, and what style is being taught. Of course you want to find a teacher that you like, one you connect to and feel comfortable with. But beyond that its also important to find the style of yoga that best fits your needs.

There are four original types of yoga. It is important to understand the background of the method of yoga you are practicing so that you can decide if it is the best one for you. Because each type of yoga has evolved out of different teaching lineages, the following is a bit of history of Vinyasa Flow Yoga, one of our newest class offerings at English Yoga Berlin.

Vinyasa Background

Vinyasa Flow Yoga was born out of the Ashtanga lineage. The Ashtanga school was developed by a yogi named Sri Krishnamacharya, who taught it to Patthabi Jois. Jois taught in Mysore, India in the first half of the 20th century. Ashtanga has since been popularized in the West by his students.

Ashtanga yoga was taught by Jois as moving meditation. He believed that the movements between each asana should be considered just as important as the postures themselves. The idea behind this is to deepen concentration and body consciousness through the entire practice. Rather than focusing on “getting into the posture” and then breathing, in Vinyasa, we try to keep the deep breathing and correct alignment consistent throughout all movement during the class.

Ashtanga Yoga prescribes a specific sequence of postures (known as the Primary Series), done in a very specific way – each posture is held for 5 complete breaths and the transition between postures should take no more than 1 breath.

You can practice Ashtanga anywhere and anytime, as long as you know this series. You can also join us for our new Vinyasa Flow Yoga class at 8pm on Thursdays at our new studio in Kreuzberg.

Deep Yoga for Deep Tension: Intro to Yoga Nidra

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Berlin Yoga Nidra in EnglishDepending on where you are from or how far you are in your own personal yoga practice, you may not yet be familiar with Yoga Nidra. But with all the stress going on in the world, and more specifically, in our everyday lives, finding ways to relieve deep tension in our bodies and minds is becoming increasingly important.  We have been practicing Yoga Nidra but have never offered classes in our English Yoga studio in Kreuzberg.  In September, we decided it was time to begin.

Yoga Nidra is the practice of conscious deep sleep.  It is a specific yoga in and of itself where we learn how to relax deeply by practicing pratyahara, or detachment, with the eventual goal of attaining a state of inner peace. When we practice Yoga Nidra we enter a state of very deep relaxation in which we travel through the layers of our conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds.

3 Types of Tensions
When you think about your life, you may think that there are a million kinds of tensions around every corner, just waiting to cause you stress. But the tensions that people experience could be divided into three basic categories:

  • Muscular
  • Emotional
  • Physical

Muscular tensions arise from the body itself, the nervous system and through endocrine imbalance.  Emotional tensions arise from the duality of emotions such as love/hate, joy/sadness, success/failure, which we are not able to express freely. This inability to express our emotions means that they become repressed and get deeply rooted in our unconscious.  Mental tension arises from excessive mental activity. The monkey mind can be a whirlpool of fantasies, confusions, and oscillations of thoughts which when uncontrolled can become a source of real discomfort and pain.

Some of the techniques used in order to cleanse these tensions include the rotation of consciousness, concentration on different sounds, opposite sensations, rapid imagery and visualization.  Through the practice of yoga Nidra the practitioner undergoes a cleansing of mental, emotional, and physical tensions.

To experience this practice for yourself, check out our newest Yoga Nidra class in Kreuzberg.

 

Stress & Yoga: A letter from an English Yoga Teacher in Berlin

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Dear 21st Century,

I have been teaching yoga for several years now, and to be honest, you are not making my job any easier! The stress that you have brought to Western life seems to have so many faces and seems to increase every year. Our progressively individualistic society makes people believe that they must solve all their problems on their own. People’s problems at work are leaking into every other area of their life. Every day I read from the newspapers about more people burning out due to stress at work. The combination of the flashing lights of commercialism and the constant bombardment of other stimuli that comes with living in a city only adds to these stresses. The self-employed don’t have the distinction between home and work, often lacking the discipline to employ that beautiful German word: “Feierabend”. And don’t even get me started on the state of our nutrition or how the radiation from our everyday domestic appliances negatively affects our health!

In all, it seems to me that along with tons of technological advances, your main additions to people’s personal lives have been feelings of loneliness, fear and deep stress. I believe that today, more than ever, we need to take more deliberate time to relax our bodies, emotions and minds (it’s really the only way to keep up with all the stuff you are throwing at us!) Creating a space with minimal stimuli in which a person can take the time to breathe and notice what is happening to his/her body, what feelings emerge, and what state of mind s/he in, is of utter importance. This is where Yoga comes in.

I believe strongly that the practice of Yoga can offer viable solutions for so many of the situations and conditions we experience today. In our yoga classes in Berlin we create that space of quietness and peace. My students enter the class with a rumble of thoughts and personal stress, and over the course of the hour, witness how the softness of breathing and stretching helps the mind calm down and helps them to think clearer thoughts.

As we learn to step back and observe what is happening to our bodies and our minds, we are taking the first step towards learning detachment. Detachment teaches us to not be so deeply involved in all the fancy stimuli and distractions you serve up daily. It shows us that we don’t need to get swept off our feet with every emotion or to let out lives fall apart when someone thinks something bad about us. Appropriate detachment is a tool that alleviates stress and in doing so, allows us to identify the real changes that we must make in our lives in order to better them.

I end each class with deep relaxation because it’s an important tool. Learning how to relax one’s body through a systematic relaxation, can also be used at any other important moment in life. I have had students practice the relaxation techniques we learned in class while riding the bus, before giving an important speech, or while conducting medical exams where absolute stillness was required. When people practice relaxation techniques with regularity, they can come to rely on them in times of stress. A weekly yoga class or a daily yoga practice creates this regularity and strengthens the cellular memory on the path to relaxation. This is one of the main reasons I teach yoga.

Yoga gives us many tools. Tools to breathe, tools to relax and tools to bring us inner peace. But to survive the life that seems to swirl around us regularly as a result of your active influence, my work is to help teach others to use these tools properly, how to alleviate all states of mind and emotion, and call on these tools when we need them so that we can live better lives.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Century.

Sincerely,

English Yoga Berlin

 

Half-Price Fall Special for Try-out classes!!!

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special offer
ENGLISH YOGA BERLIN SPECIAL OFFER FOR THIS FALL!
Classes:              Vinyasa Flow or Beginner´s Yoga classes taught
                                  by Meg
Price:                   1st class for 5€
Registration: No need to register- show up 10 minutes before
                                 the class to get your space
Offer Ends:      the 15th of November

Mastering the Monkey: Is Peace of Mind Impossible?

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“You don’t think thoughts but rather thoughts think you.”

The mind often creates a natural barrier to inner peace. If you were to sit down, right now, and say to yourself, “For the next 5 minutes I will only think of a star,” you would find it is impossible to do so. The nature of the mind is for it to wander, to work with associations and to jump from thought to thought. In some ways, that’s its job. And in others, it ends up keeping most people feeling restless.

The mind is often compared to a monkey- jumping from one branch to another with no control.

Let’s follow the “monkey” and use the example above of focusing on the star; soon, I realize that the star reminds me of all the falling stars I have seen in my life. This thought brings me onto all the wishes I have made on those stars. That, in turn, makes me think of unfulfilled wishes, which reminds me that I’m unhappy. When I think about being unhappy, that tenses up my chest. Feeling the tightness in my chest reminds me that I have to buy an inhaler for my asthma- and why am I unhappy anyway?…

This is how the mind works. Within just a minute or two of thoughts, I have not only had mental fluctuations but I also have had emotional reactions from serene to sad. Every emotional reaction has produced a physical reaction, in this example my chest tightening, which has taken me through so much in such a short period of time.

My yoga teacher used to say, “When the mind can be fixed on the same thing for 3 seconds- that is called attention. When the mind can be fixed on the same thing for 12 seconds- that is called concentration. If you can concentrate 12 times (12 sec x12=144 seconds) then THAT is called meditation.”

Practicing concentration techniques are very important for one to feel centered and grounded. Meditation is a great tool to make the most of the minds power by making sure it is not wasting it’s energy. In our berlin yoga classes, we practice these techniques by observing the body during the Asanas, by using the practice of Tratak and through Yoga Nidra. Because the mind if so important, it is vital to learn how best to use it. Once we have mastered these techniques, then we will be able to take the practice to a more advanced level in which we can find a way to master the monkey!

What is Drishti- Part 2

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In our last blog about the definition of Drishti,we talked about using this “gaze” as an anatomical tool to self-correct your posture while practicing yoga. But we also highlighted it as a useful implement to quiet the mind and increase relaxation while avoiding obsessive thoughts. But the benefits of this aspect of yoga can go beyond simply a place to look during Downward Dog.

Another important subtlety in the concept of Drishti is in the different ways of gazing. This is a variation on the practice of detachment but specifically, a Drishti can be described as ´soft´, ´pointed´, ´wide´, ´gentle´, etc. Again, there are very practical reasons for this. Even though Patanjali never gazed at a computer screen, he could imagine what hours of single distance, harsh gazing can do to your eyes. Varied distances of Drishti, as well as varying degrees of hardness or staring in the postures, helps to exercise the optical nerves and reduce the strain that can produce tension headaches.

Early yogis and yoginis realized that the quality with which you observe something radiates through your body. Your body naturally becomes more tense and rigid, or soft and relaxed, depending on how you are looking at something. A soft Dristhi promotes internal reflection, relaxation, meditation. A harder one pushes the focus externally. Both can be useful, but the eyes should never strain.

So, the next time you find your eyes wandering, watch your mind and body, and see if you can notice how your Dristhi affects you. And next time you practice yoga, play with your gaze point and see how it affects your practice and your life.

For more information about our new schedule for Yoga in Kreuzberg check out our English Yoga classes.

What is Drishti- Part 1

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Drishti´ is a Sanskrit word that has several levels of meaning. Most simply, it can be translated into English as ´the gaze´. In Asana practice, your Drishti is the place where your eyes rest- looking forward over your middle finger in Warrior II, for example, or to the navel in Downward Dog. In this sense, Drishti is a very tangible and useful anatomical tool. Where your gaze rests is a pretty good indicator of the line your neck and spine are following.

Often yoga teachers will remind you of your Drishti point during classes so that you can self-correct your pose. Sometimes teachers will also ask you to direct your gaze into your body, or bring your Drishti point inside. Traditionally, Drishtis are external, but the concept behind an internal focus point is just the same- it helps you to quiet the mind, increases concentration and relaxation, and allows your attention to flow into whatever you are focusing it on.

Each Asana has a Dristhi point. All in all, there are 9: both thumbs, the tip of the nose, the palms of the hands, to the sky, to the left and right side, the navel, the toes and the middle of the eyebrows. Practicing a variety of Drishtis helps to strengthen the muscles and nerves around the eyes, as well as providing a point of focus and concentration in each posture. Dristhi is associated with the fifth limb of yoga, Pratyahara, which concerns the use of the senses. Drishti can be practiced meditatively as a way of literally ´seeing what is right in front of you´ and focusing the senses on reality and away from illusions and neuroses.

One of our main goals in our Berlin yoga classes is to educate people about the benefits of our practice. We believe that by making yourself more centered and focused you are better equipped to make an impact in the world around you. For more info about our Hatha Yoga in Berlin or Vinyasa Yoga, check out our yoga in English schedule.

The Beauty of Detachment

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There are many views on the concept of “detachment”. Some people believe that learning
detachment is useless because life should be lived to its fullest. Others believe that practicing
the art of detachment is dangerous because if nothing affects us we cannot rid the world of its
many injustices. Others believe that detachment is a source of strength and inner peace.

Pratyahara, the yogic word for detachment, has often been badly misunderstood. Yes, we
should live life vividly and enjoy it. Yes, we should speak out against injustice and take
action. But there is also strength in learning how to practice proper detachment which can
help us all to live better lives.

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE
Imagine you are looking at a painting about life. Imagine that you are standing so close to
the painting that your nose is practically touching the painting. All you can see are a couple
of colors and shapes. You are too close to be able to look at the whole picture, to even know
what the painting is about. You are too attached to what is happening right there in front of
your nose and are incapable to see further. Now say you decide that you want to back up
from all the vivid colors and non- understandable shapes and so you distance yourself to about
a kilometer away. You look at the painting again but you are so far away that you can only
see a fleck of something. Once again you cannot know what the painting is about. And this
is where appropriate detachment comes in. You need to find the appropriate distance, not too
close and not too far, to be able to truly appreciate what the painting is.

This same idea is valid for our lives. We need to cultivate the appropriate detachment to be
able to see what our life is about. We can’t be too involved or too distant. By finding just the
right distance, we can see what piece of the puzzle is missing and where to place it. This way
we can live life vividly but without being blind to the problems of it. This way we can rely on
our inner strength to change what needs changing.

Pratyahara is an important step of Raja Yoga. In our English yoga classes in Berlin, we learn
detachment through observing our bodies and respecting the limits our bodies set. We also
learn this through the practice of Tratak, or candle gazing. But mostly we learn it through
the practice of Yoga Nidra. Exercises such as counting your breaths backwards without
interfering with its rhythm are perfect ways to learn detachment.