Yoga: A Manual for Life

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Yin: Known as a recovery yoga, Yin is a slow-paced style which makes use of seated asanas which are held for long periods of time. This space and stillness also makes Yin yoga a particularly meditative practice. But as I went through this process of bending and breathing and paying radical attention to my every action, I also experienced a more profound change. My confidence blossomed. I started the necessary conversations with myself that allowed me to grieve a vocation lost. I started to learn how to accept myself as I was. It might sound corny, but I befriended myself, maybe for the first time in my adult life. And it’s this essential, beautifully simple union that I’m going to concentrate on in this guide. Trying to capture the enormity of the practice in a single book would be impossible; its philosophical breadth and historical weight alone are enough for a five-volume tome. And so, this book makes no claim to be the definitive guide to yoga and its ancient lineages (and I make no claim to be the person to write that book!). Instead, it is a guide to modern yoga, specifically its poses and how they can be combined in sequences to make you calmer, happier and more creative. Vinyasa: A yoga style that focuses on linking conscious breath with fluid movement, Vinyasa flows through a series of yoga postures known as asanas in a rhythmic sequence that can be thought of like an ocean wave. The word itself means ‘to place in a special way’.

Hatha: Hatha yoga is often referred to as the opposition to Vinyasa, since it focuses on mastering one pose at a time. The Sanskrit word itself is an umbrella term for all asanas, and it serves as a fantastic starting point for beginners. If you didn’t already know, these are the many branches of yoga, each designed to help someone achieve their specific well-being goals. These are some of them: We’ve gathered up our favourite books on the practice of yoga. From beginner’s guides to books about history to picture books, we have it all. Hopefully, you’ll find something that helps. What is yoga? And it’s in this spirit – radically paid attention, little and often – that the book is structured. I don’t imagine anyone sitting down and reading it through from start to finish. More, that you might use it as a reference guide to hone your practice when needed, and also as a source of inspiration, something that can be dipped into when you’re looking for a fresh approach, or a new angle to an at-home sequence.

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Pranayama: a breathing exercise used to free the flow of energy and overcome any physical or emotional obstacles Bhakti: focuses on the path of devotion, a positive way to channel emotions and cultivate acceptance and tolerance. Bringing your total focus to your breath isn’t part of the practice, it is the practice. It is only when your awareness and breath are yoked together that you start to be able to experience your body through your breath, instead of through the thinking, judging part of your brain. This question is asked a lot, and the answer is mostly always yes. Above all, yoga is universal because there are many different types and methods. If anything, there are very few situations in which yoga can't be incorporated into daily life for some sort of physical or mental benefit. Yoga can be good for the mind and the body. It’s very healing. What are some yoga terms I need to know?

Not only is yoga supposed to boost your mental wellbeing by harmonising your mind, but it is a safe and effective way to increase your physical fitness. According to the NHS, this is what it helps with: But just because these moments are snatched doesn’t mean that you can’t strive for authentic focus. To help with that, I’m a firm believer in practising without music. Music is so evocative, so laden with associations and memories, that it prevents me from being completely present in the moment. And the point of yoga is about being radically here, alive and awake in the now. If you’re going to listen to music, listen to music, give it your full and rich attention, be present in it. And if you’re going to do yoga, do yoga. As such, the bulk of the book is made up of Asana Libraries: detailed instructions on how to get into each of the practice’s most useful positions, where to place them in a sequence and common mistakes to watch out for. Obviously, these are things you could learn with a yoga teacher at a studio, and this book isn’t intended as a replacement for that, rather as a complement to it – a way of refining and deepening your practice at your pace. Above all, the practice aims to create a union between body, mind and spirit, as well as between the individual self and universal consciousness. It can create a sense of spiritual awakening.Yoga: A Manual for Life contextualizes the ancient practice of yoga in the modern world with elegant images and authentic text. Although it has been practised for thousands of years, yoga has practically stayed the same in its fundamental core values. With so many different styles and interpretations out there, this is remarkable. Sometimes it’s exactly this that stops people from starting. Yoga just seems too big to conquer. There’s just too much to take in: breathing, moving, spirituality, philosophy. But whether you’re totally new to yoga or an experienced practitioner, the starting-off point is exactly the same: you on your mat.

And as this continued I realised that this was what I had to do. By the end of the year I was teaching full time and I haven’t stopped since. After 10 years of teaching all over the world, I set up a studio, Yoga on the Lane, in east London, hoping that I might introduce to others the practice that had done so much for me, as well as connect with teachers and yoga students of all stripes to develop a meaningful community. This book is an extension of that. All around me, I see people struggling with the demands of modern life: its pace and stress and relentlessness. But I also see how yoga can and does help people develop a more sustainable way of being in the world. Of course, this means articulating a practice that works for the here and now, a yoga that is alive to the reality of life, with its time constraints and hectic schedules. Here it is, then: Yoga: a Manual for Life. How to use this book Ashtanga: A slightly different form of Vinyasa yoga with a series of very specific asanas which you can learn by heart. If you’re a newbie or in the pursuit of learning something new, we have made sure to give you a little help on your journey. In these guides, there may be some technical jargon used and some words that you might not know. Therefore, we’ve put together a little glossary to help. This is an aesthetically attractive book. It gently invites you into the practice and contains insightful essays. Naomi is a humble, gentle and thoughtful person. I’ve been teaching yoga for almost 20 years and the one thing I’ve concretely learned is that I’m still a beginner. Yoga is enormous. It’s endless. Depthless. It’s impossible to get to the end of it. It may sound like an awful self-help cliché but I’m afraid, folks, it’s true: the journey really is the destination.Iyengar: Founded by B.K.S Iyengar, one of the foremost yoga gurus in the world. This type of yoga focuses on a particular attention to detail – prioritising precision and alignment when performing asanas. A stand alone practice companion and beautiful coffee table book, Yoga: A Manual for Life is for anyone interested in yoga, mindful movement and meditation, and exploring how these practices fit within the modern world. Naomi's book is the best that I have found for a beginner, and I am very grateful for it! The postures in it are much more accessible than I have found in some other Hatha Yoga books and also the catalogue of postures in Naomi's book is quite large. Of course, before you start putting together your own sequences, you need to acquaint yourself with the fundamentals, beginning with the essential, foundational questions: what is yoga, and why am I practising it? What is yoga? Chakra: this refers to energy points in the body, which are thought of as spinning discs that should stay aligned

Of course, even this is highly subjective. What follows is based on how I practise yoga, based on my life experience and what’s been good for me and, I hope, a good number of the many students I’ve taught. As I’ve always approached my classes with them, my intention with this book is to collaborate with you to help you discover how you might be your own best teacher. It’s also intended as a tool for those keen to develop a self-practice that they can do at home – a flexible form of self-care that can be fitted into the small gaps that open up in our hectic, time-poor modern lives. For this reason, the nine sequences that feature here are all adaptable; some can be done in as little as 10 or 20 minutes, or form the basis of a longer practice if you have the time. And each has a specific intention at its heart, be it to de-stress, uplift or ground, depending on your mood and your life circumstance.