Psalm Isadora Yoga

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Recommended Book List

This is a list of books I recommend for my yoga, kundalini, tantra & sufi trainings

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Recipes

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Poems & Prayers

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Why Do Yoga?

To be a happier person

To embrace life

To live in a healthier body

To have more fulfilling relationships

To live closer to your heart

Through Yoga, we can develop awareness and sensitivity to our body, mind, and emotions. The movements and postures help uncover hidden tension which we can process and release through the breath. When we are relaxed, we are more vibrantly ourselves. We can be less reactive, and our actions can reflect our intentions. When we are able to think and act in this way, we have less conflict within and without.

Yoga Means Union

Yoga means to join, to yoke together. Yoke your intention, your breath and your body to move as one. This is a form of training which takes time, discipline, patience, and especially compassion for yourself. There must also be a surrendering of resistance, which is replaced by a quality of receiving. We cannot receive while we are resisting. We must be able to receive to transform. When we are in this state of receiving, we are in a state of Yoga, where the indvidual is joined with the Universal.

Asana As Meditation

The body is my temple, the asanas are my prayers –Iyengar

Each asana is a meditation, a form of inner listening. It is the quality of intention and attention that signify the quality of a person's practice. One cannot look at the poses from the outside and try to copy them by contorting the body into the postures. One must feel the body and observe one's thoughts from the inside. The breath is a transformative tool in this process. Each time the mind wanders or judges, it must be patiently guided back to calmly observing the breath. The mind goes in a thousand directions, the breath only goes in two: in and out. Just as in sitting meditation, it is important not to become frustrated with oneself or with the process. Frustration comes from judging, from trying to get somewhere. Relax, breath become the process. You are not separate from the pose or the breath; become the pose, let the breath breathe you. It is this quality of receptivity, of being present and of being able to sit with yourself patiently that yoga cultivates.

Relax, breath, have faith in the process and yourself-everything will unfold from this place.

How To Practice

Clarify your intention

Do your practice

Have a relaxed, receptive attitude so you can benefit from your intention

There will always be a tendency to start practice with enthusiasm and energy, and a desire for sudden results. But the continuing pressures of everyday life and the enormous resistance of the mind encourages us to succumb to human weaknesses. All this is understandable, we all have these tendencies. This sutra emphasizes the need to approach practice soberly with a positive, self-disciplined attitude and with a long-term view toward eventual success.

–Yoga Sutra translation and commentary from The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar

The Senses

The Bhagavad Gita describes 'The Chariot of the Body': The five horses represent the five senses (tongue, eyes, nose, ears and skin). The reigns symbolize the mind, the driver is the intelligence, and the passenger is the spirit soul. When we are unconscious, the horses are wild, the driver is drunk and the passenger is asleep.

By practicing yoga, we learn to respond instead of reacting to our senses. This means we are able to observe our senses and make a choice of what to do with the information. We are able to tell the difference between pain and discomfort.

Avoiding discomfort is avoiding growth, and avoiding growth only leads to more pain.

Karma Yoga

We havea a right to our actions, but not to the fruit of our actions. –Bhagavad Gita

Suffering, or dukha, arises from our expectations. When we do not get what we expect, we suffer. When we worry we will not get what we are expecting, we suffer even though we are worrying about something that has not even happened yet! The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to fulfill our personal dharma (duty) free from expectation. The only way to douse the flames of desire (expectations) is by simultaneously stilling the mind through self– discipline and engaging oneself in a higher form of activity.

We do yoga because we know it is healthy. Joy and contentment arise from taking steps on the right path. This is called sukha, a sense of ease we have with ourselves. Buddhists call this maitri, unconditional friendship with oneself. Do not miss out on the journey because you are worrying about the destination.

Definition of maitri:

(Sanskrit.): Loving-kindness to oneself; the prerequisite of compassion for others.

Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras are regarded as the most fundamental text on Yoga. They are attributed to Patanjali, the great sage of Yoga.

What is Yoga?

It is a word with many interpretations and connotations. Patanjali defines his understanding of the word.

Yoga Sutra 1.2

Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without any distractions.

In the practice of asana (postures), we direct our minds to our breath and to our movements. Our goal is to sustain that concentration without distractions.

Yoga Sutra 1.12

The mind can reach a state of Yoga through practice and detachment.

Yoga Sutra 1.13

Practice is the correct effort required to move toward, reach, and maintain a state of Yoga.

Yoga Sutra 1.14

It is only when the correct practice is followed for a long time, without interruptions and with a quality of positive attitude and eagerness, that it can succeed.

Quotes

Reflect constantly on the message of Yoga
Dwell on the eternal while doing your asana-
Regulating your breath through pranayama,
Meditate on the ever-compassionate dwelling
of the heart.
–Sloka 2 Krishnamacharya

Offend in neither word or deed.
Eat with moderation.
Live in your heart.
Seek the highest consciousness.
–Dhammapada

Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.
–the 14th Dali Lama

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