Descriptions of the yoga
In the end of the first semester a wrote a 10 page document summarizing what we had learned during that semester's weekly course. This document can be found
here. A more complete description of the same things, also including nice illustrations etc, can be found in the book "Yoga, tantra, and meditation", by Swami Janakananda. This book can be purchased
here. Note also that the
blog has an entire section about yoga and yoga material.
Other yoga equipment
One of the hallmarks of yoga is that you do not need another person, or any particular equipment to perform it, but that it is something which you can do independently of anybody and anything external to yourself. However, it is a good idea to dress in relaxed and loose clothes, so that you can move around freely. Similarly, it is good to have a soft yet stable mattress under you. For 20 years I myself just double folded my sleeping duvet (cover/quilt) and put that directly on the floor, and that worked fine. The yoga mattresses that I now use for teaching were acquired at www.yoga.se. Another thing that is part of the yoga cleancing system is a neti pot. This is used to clean your nose, and it is good both for keeping colds, headaches and allergy at bay, but also to facilitate certain breathing exercises (where you, e.g. breath through one nostril at a time). Such neti pots can be found at
renasnoken.se. Finally, for those of you entering into the more advanced energy meditations, taught in the summer retreats, you will also need a mala. Those should contain 108 pearls, and have markings that you can change according to the meditation. They can be bought in most india-like shops, and also at yoga.se. At yoga.se you can also acquire a CD with the meditation Yoga Nidra, which is a good meditation to do alone, and to start learning what meditation is all about.
Tips for doing yoga at home
One of the most important things apart from learning the yoga processes properly is to start doing yoga at home. It is only then that you will make yoga your own, and it is only then that you will experience how yoga can really transform your everyday life, so that you always can be in great shape whenever you so desire. One of the things that I can never teach you is which yoga exercises that fits your particular mode. This you will have to experiment with yourself. However, I can give the following tips:
- It is much better to have small ambitions than big ones. If your initial ambition is to do yoga at least 10 minutes every week, you are much more likely to fulfill this ambition, get something out of it, and then build on from there, compared to if your ambition is to do 2 hours every day; then you might be able to do keep it up for a week or so; then something is likely to occur which makes you lose a few days; and then you will typically have an emotional barrier towards starting again, and end up doing nothing at all for several months or even years.
- The most important thing to start doing is Savasana. This is when you lie on the floor for 10 minutes and experience your whole body, and how it approaches stillness and equilibrium - but without falling asleep. This you can do whenever you feel like it, and if you only have 10 minutes to spare, Savasana is probably the best thing you can do.
- If you have more than 10 minutes, say 25 minutes, you may still want to start with Savasana, and then move onto one or a few other yoga exercises (for instance the shoulder stand, the plow and the fish pose) and then go back to a short Savasana in the end again. It is also a very good thing to get to know the first programme one starts all courses with: Pawanmuktasana I. This is where you start with stretching and clenching your toes, and ends with the head-roll. This programme takes about 25 minutes, has Savasana in the middle, and is good to do once a week or so - since it deals with all the everyday tensions that you get no matter how advanced yoga student you may be.
- If you have 25 minutes, you also have an excellent opportunity to do yoga nidra. This can be found on CD at www.yoga.se, and the short version takes 25 minutes. If you have 1h, you can hence do a full little programme consisting of the 25 minute physical programme in the previous item, a single breathing exercise (for instance the bumble bee), and then yoga nidra. This is an excellent little programme, which - if you do it semi-regularly for a few weeks - for sure will transform your life for the better. It will also prepare you for learning more advanced programmes and exercises, and for doing also them at home.
