Yoga Asana
Standing tall with feet hips width and arms comfortably by your sides.
What is Tadasana?
An ancient civilization in Northwest India to which the origins of Yoga are attributed, thought to date back to at least 2500 BCE.
What is the Indus-Saraswati Civilization?
Can mean both a bench to sit on or a posture.
What is Asana?
What is "Yoga"?
One reason why everyone experiences a posture differently, and why we focus on desired effect rather than superficial look of a pose.
What is "skeletal variation"?
As a group, these poses tend to be grounding, and would normally be performed on exhalation.
What are forward folds?
The period of Yoga History when the Yoga Sutras were compiled (around 200 BCE-400 CE).
What is the Classical Yoga period?
The literal translation is "that which is infinitely everywhere".
What is 'Prana'?
The first two parts of the Raja Yoga path, these provide a guideline for ethical living.
What are the Yamas and Niyamas?
Light and noise levels, music, use of physical touch, the number of people, the directness and pace of instruction, and scents or other sensory stimuli.
What are some things you need to consider and control for if teaching a sensory-friendly Yoga practice?
Arguably the most important pose, performed at the very end of your Asana practice.
What is 'Savasana'?
A period of Yoga history, around 1300 CE, where practice of poses, complex non-seated asanas and energetic techniues began to proliferate.
What is the rise of Hatha Yoga (or post-classical Yoga)?
The English translation is Downward Facing Dog.
What is Adho Mukha Svanasana?
Two philosophical frameworks; the first considers the world (Prakriti) as separate from the divine soul (Purusha), and the second sees the world as part of the divine.
What are Samkya (dualist philosophy) and Tantra (nondualist philosophy)?
A way to cue all member of a multi-level class into appropriate variations of a posture without singling any one out.
What is the 'bus stop' method, or sequential cuing?
(starting with the most accessable variation first and offer more challenging variations)
An inversion, the name of which translates to 'downward facing tree'.
What is Adho mukha Vrksasana (or Handstand)?
Often called the Father of Modern Yoga, he opened a Yoga school in 1924 and taught many of the teachers that brought Yoga to the Western world.
Who is Krishnamacharya?
This is considered the default vowel sound following a consonant, and when placed at the beginning of a word makes the word mean the opposite.
What is अ ("a")?
Together, these three concepts discussed in the Yoga Sutras comprise the state of 'Samyama'.
What are Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi (one-ness)?
This principle states that Yoga teahcers should avoid diganosing injuries or offering medical advice.
What is Scope of Practice?
The process of ensuring that if we move in one direction we also move in the opposite direction.
What is "counterposing"?
A Yogic scripture that contains mentions of the word 'Yoga' both in the context of a horse and chariot, and of an implication of linking the Self with divine power.
What is the Rig Veda?
These are the Bija (seed) mantras for the Chakras, and when pronounced without the 'M' sound the first 5 are Sanskrit semi-vowels.
What are Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, AUM/OM?
( लं वं रं यं हं ओं )
According to the Yoga Sutras, these are the five kleshas (obstacles) to achieving enlightenment.
What are Avidya (ignorance/lack of light); Asmita (obsession with I AM ness), Raga (grasping/attachment), Dvesa (hatred/aversion), and Abhinivesa (fear of death/change; clinging to bodily life)?
Three components of Polyvagal Theory that explain three possible responses to a stressor, and that roughly correspond to the Gunas (Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas).
What are Sympathetic Nervous System (Fight/Flight/Fawn), Ventral Vagal (rest/digest/socialize), Dorsal Vagal (freeze/withdraw)?