Energy Yoga

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Energy Yoga Personal Training

Energy Yoga

Energy Yoga is a life force enhancement practice to harmonize and balance the energy of the body. It
combines a vigorous traditional Hatha Yoga practice with Qi Gong exercises and meditation. Qi Gong
(pronounced Chi Kung) promotes relaxation, vital energy cultivation, and well being. Energy Yoga is
suitable for all ability levels.

Energy Yoga emphasizes correct body alignment and posture (Asana), breath development (Pranayama),
mental focus (Dharana), the use of creative visualization, the use of vibrations and sound (Mantra),
circulation and cultivation of energy (Prana/Chi) and total body relaxation to promote well-being, self
healing, vitality, true inner peace and happiness.

Why should you practice Energy Yoga?

According to National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institute of Health,
regular yoga practice can lessen chronic pain, arthritis, headaches, and carpal tunnel syndrome, reduce
insomnia, and lower blood pressure, heart rate and breathing rate.

More specifically, Energy Yoga can help you:

Reduce stress by learning how to breathe and relax properly

Lose weight and tone your body

Remove back pain permanently

Increase flexibility and joint health

Improve circulation and cardiovascular health

Enhance sexual vitality for men and women

Increase your vitality and energy level

Improve mental concentration

Normalize hormonal and digestive functioning

Reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression

How is Energy Yoga different from other styles of yoga (such as Ashtangha, Vinayasa, Bikram, Iyengar etc)?

The most popular forms of yoga today rely almost exclusively on a flowing series of postures, called vinyasa
in Sanskrit. The purpose of vinyasa energetically is to open and balance the energy channels in the body.
Energy Yoga uses some vinyasa but we complement flowing sequences with static holding of asanas which
is more in accordance with the traditional Yoga texts (including Siva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, Hatha
Yoga Pradipika and others) which make no mention of flowing sequences but instead concentrate on
perfection of a few key asanas. In fact, the word asana, though typically translated in the West as posture,
literally means "seat of meditation."

I remember when I was first learning yoga in Rishikesh in India that there was a tremendous emphasis on
holding the asanas for as long as possible to feel the subtle, energetic effect of each asana. At one point
we were told that holding a pose for 3 hours and 48 minutes would produce a state of bliss (later I was
learned much easier ways to produce ecstatic states). Holds of this duration are incredibly difficult, but
holds of 10 minutes in some forward bending asanas or up to 30-40 minutes in the headstand were
commonly performed.

Static holding of asanas develops focus and endurance and awakens in the student an appreciation for
the subtleties and intricacies of each posture, both physically and energetically. It is very difficult to
progress in the higher stages of yogic meditative practice (bliss (samadhi) and void (sunyata) states)
without this element of static holds. The Sanskrit term (the language of ancient India) for this steadiness or
firmness is "nishta."

Nishta in asana practice can and should lead to sthairyam which means "consistency" or "perseverence" in
all things in life, parcticularly one' s spiritual practice.