What Is Yoga?

Series Summary

Yoga poses have become increasingly popular as a form of exercise and meditation. The focus of yoga is a holistic one, employing a broad range of practices which focus on a new way of living, thinking and being in the world. Aimed to unite the mind, the body, and the spirit, the health benefits of yoga are also great and varied. From relieving stress to strengthening and toning muscle, integrating yoga positions and exercises into your daily routine can be beneficial on many levels. In this free video series, learn about some basic yoga poses and equipment. Our expert, Ashely Ludman, is the director of Seaside Yoga. She has over 500 hours of yoga study. Let me explain some of the different approaches to yoga: Siddha, Astanga, Hatha, Kundalini, Bikram, Tummo and Kayakalpa. Also, learn how to do some basic yoga poses in these disciples. Ludman discusses the different types of yoga mats that are available, and she demonstrates how to clean them. Yoga is a great way to loose weight, center the mind and release tension in the body. So, take a moment, and learn about yoga poses and equipment today!

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Ashley Ludman from Seaside Yoga. And, I am here today to tell you a little bit about how yoga works. First of all, when we think of yoga, we think of people sitting in a meditative posture. We think of people in different types of yoga postures themselves. And, yoga works specifically on the physical body in the way where we gain physical awareness. We gain awareness of how our bodies move. Or maybe, as we are beginning yoga, how our bodies do not necessarily move and progress towards greater movement. So, you will start to see greater flexibility, but not only that, you will start to see greater strength within your physical body. So, the postures work not only on your strength and flexibility but they also work on creating greater efficiency within your physiological functions. Such as your breathing, your circulation, your digestive system, your endocrine system, your lymphatic system. It works on every single system internally, externally. So, physically you will gain strength, flexibility. You will gain greater ease within your movement. You will gain greater ease within just feeling better. Mentally, the practice of yoga, because you are so specifically watching how your body moves and how you create these specific postures, you start to gain a greater sense of focus and more of an awareness of how you move in relation to the rest of your life. So, when you take this practice off of your mat you may start to notice that you will have increased feelings of ease, decreased stress, more mindfulness, more focus. So, all of these are benefits of yoga. Yoga postures and taking time throughout your day to let go of your day, let go of the stress, does wonders. So, that is really how yoga works. It works on the physical body. It works on the mind body and in essence, when we give ourselves that time, lots of other great things happen too. So, thanks for joining me!"