Hatha & Ashtanga Yoga

The word Hatha is a compound of the words Ha and Tha meaning sun and moon. However, when the two components of the word are placed together, “hatha” means “forceful”, implying that powerful work must be done to purify the body. Yoga means to join two things together, hence hatha yoga is meant to join together sun (masculine, active) energy with the moon (feminine, receptive) energy, thus producing balance and greater power in an individual. stretching and strengthening the body in many postures developing breath awareness and working through traditional hatha practices to calm the mind and breath through Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha and Meditation. Changing your way of life forever. Ashtanga Yoga – is the yoga created by K. Pattabhi Jois, a vinyasa, or dynamic connecting group of postures, that creates a flow between the more static traditional yoga postures using the breath. Essentially the breath dictates the movement and the length of time held in the postures. Unlike some Hatha yoga styles, attention is also placed on the journey between the postures not just the postures themselves. The viṅyāsa ‘flow’ is a variant of Surya namaskara, the Sun Salutation. The Yoga Sutras the of the eight limbs: Yama and Niyama, which are ethical observations; Asana; Pranayama which is breath control; Pratyahara; which is sense withdrawal; Dharana, which is concentration; Dhyana, which is meditation; and Samadhi, which is a high state of concentration, mastery of the mind. The eight limbs are more precisely viewed as eight levels of progression to the higher self. In India you wouldn’t begin with asana as we do in a western world, but learning how to breath and meditate, focusing upon the first two elements of ethical observation of the self.