Vinyasa Yoga Benefits

Series Summary

TThe word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning "to bind" or "join." Whether joining the mind to the body, the human to the divine, or the individual to the infinite, Yoga is centrally the practice of union. The various styles of yoga share a common belief: positioning the body into a particular posture while focusing mind and breath leads to physical and spiritual well-being. The arts of positioning the body has been passed on for thousands of years, and encompass some of the oldest cultural traditions known to exist. To practice yoga, then, is also to join with the ancient sages, drawing human history up into oneself and connecting with the past, present and future. In this free video series on core flow Vinyasa Yoga, a yoga instructor, Ruth Anne Lunderburg, demonstrates a variety of poses for rejuvenating the body and mind. Lunderburg performs a variety of poses such as: the cobbler's pose, forward bend, wide-leg seated forward bend, revolving head-to-knee pose, and even the foot-to-head pose. She then runs through a few meditations to help center the mind and relax the body. Watch these videos and learn more about core flow Vinyasa Yoga today.

Video Transcript

"So we've made it to section 8 of this eight part sequence. In this section, we have just a lot of potpourri of poses and think of them as sort of exclamation points to your session. You know, pick one, work with it. At this time, this is, in my class it would very much be sort of a free for all I think, people would just be working on whatever they would like to work on. And something to ponder as you play with these poses and other poses is that, you know, yoga poses do a lot of things. They're therapeutic and they're good for concentration and they're, they have a spiritual component, they have a devotional component. But, they're also kind of absurd and funny. And it's funny to get back a little bit and get some perspective about what we're actually doing. Especially if you're finding something really hard, like you're falling out of pose, you just can't get hold of your foot, you're really clumsy, you know it's really very healthy to just take a good laugh at yourself. When I fall down in the middle of the class and doing something challenging, that's really I think the best approach. Because, it's kind of like,"look at these funny things that humans do with their bodies." You know, somebody had to make these stuff up. Somebody has to figure this out and who invented this kind of thing, you know. And isn't it kind of absurd? And that can really lighten up the whole thing, you know, that it's play. A lot of these stuffs is just tricks and you know, stunts and it doesn't have to be so serious. Even if you're in a class that seems kind of serious, you can kind of keep that in your heart that you know that, you know, what's really important is what's in your heart. What's really important is how you live your life and how you treat people, how you function in the world ethically and how much well-being you can generate. When it comes to putting your leg behind your head, nobody really needs that much flexibility. So have fun, practice hard, stay safe and really, really, really keep your sense of humor at all times."