Basics - Getting Started

Just a few friendly tips on starting yoga for the first time:

1. Think "Om" or "Breathe". A fluid, even breath throughout your yoga practice will optimize your yoga time.

2. No competition. In other words, go at your pace. Yoga is not supposed to hurt or pull muscles. Build up to more complicated poses and start out with beginner classes. *If you don't stretch all the way to the floor, then make reaching to the knee or mid-thigh the goal -- you will still benefit from the pose.

3. If you practice at home, try to compare your poses to your book, DVD, audio or internet class by performing the pose in front of a mirror. You can also go to trial classes, sometimes for free, at yoga studios, the YMCA or other gyms where you can ask the instructor to let you know where you need adjustments.

4. Breathe some more.

Here are some links to help get your yoga practice started.

www.yogabasics.com


www.kundaliniyoga.org/index.html
They have downloadable classes for free.

www.abc-of-yoga.com/

www.healthandyoga.com

Modifications and Variations -- For Beginners and All

Many people who have had injuries or who have chronic conditions are afraid to try yoga. Yoga seems may seem like something which only flexible people are able to do. I always tell people who are afraid of yoga, because of injuries or a perceived eternal rigidness, that yoga creates flexibility -- it is not a club for flexible people. Once that road block has been discussed it becomes very important to offer modifications as much as possible. If someone is given options, they are much more likely to feel less intimidated. Although yoga teacher trainings, like YogaFit's, offer modifications for most of the postures, it is difficult to find resources on the internet which are as detailed (especially ones that include pictures!). I have included below, the best sites I have found, so far, for modifications:

1. http://www.spine-health.com/topics/conserv/yoga/yoga02.html
Spine Health

2. http://www.yogalearningcenter.com/asanas/
Yoga Learning Center offers online classes and shows modifications of various poses.

3. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/index.cfm?ctsrc=tnavinchan
Yoga Journal

If anyone knows of other sites that include thorough descriptions and pictures of yoga postures and their respective modifications or variations, please post a comment with the link. Thanks!

What Does "Om Repair" Mean?

First, "om" is the breath. Om has a slew of interpretations, including the "breath" being an expression of the essence of all living things, but in an effort to express the benefit of yoga and Om Repair to people who are skeptical at best, I'd like to keep things simple: yoga focuses a lot of time on breathing. Achieving a fluid, slow and even breathing while practicing yoga (and throughout the day) helps achieve one of yoga's primary goals - to unify the body with the spirit and mind.

The control of breathing, incorporated with "asanas" or combinations of postures and poses, moves one toward a more complete and healthy self. "Yoga" actually means "yoke" or "union". The rejoining and unifying of all elements of a person is quite a repair job. The mind likes to wander, the body likes to be lazy and the spirit likes to take a long hiatus from the forefront of our lives. When one practices yoga, the lines between the different aspects of being human (the flesh and the spirit/or mind) begin to blur.

I will be adding as many links as possible to Om Repair which outline simple and accessible approaches to yoga for those who would like to give it a try. As a new instructor of yoga, I have already noticed that at least 95% (non-scientific estimate :) ) of people who try yoga for the first time, are impressed by the renewed sense of self, physically and mentally, they feel. Yoga is not the only road to a better self, but it has quick results in all departments of the human entity.

If you like, you can take the words that "Om Repair" play on, "home repair," and think of it precisely that way -- the repairing of the home base or the place that no matter where we go, we always are -- (with ourselves).

The Launch of Om Repair!

The author of Cherrystew (www.cherrystew.blogspot.com) is happy to announce the launch of a yoga website. My goal is to find lots of useful links for those who are interested in what yoga is all about.