Hasib's Blog

Because of the non-traditional style of yoga that is now practiced, the root of yoga can no longer be found in the West. Yoga started with the primary aim of a higher power link. Channeling that greater force was coupled with mantras and rituals for yogis by individual acts or lack of them austerities to serve as a vessel for the worshipped deity. A change from this conventional culture to counter culture, and now to pop culture, has taken place over time. I don't have to be removed from a yoga session to make assumptions about it while living in America. Yoga is used on different sites. Entertainment by films, advertisements and yoga showcases on television. There is no feeling of being aware when yoga is referenced in the media or used for advertising. It is expected that Americans will know about yoga at this point. For this lack of knowledge, the manner in which its popularity is displayed as a well-known lifestyle is responsible. Yoga has been carried out in the West by modern...

Yoga is considered as a healing practice by many. Practicing yoga speaks to us in a way that relieves inequalities in the body, whether psychological or physiological, or both. Personally, beginning with the sacredness of my bedroom, my practice space leads to the therapeutic element of yoga. My room is my refuge where at any point in time, as long as I am there, I feel protected and feel as I like. A good way to begin the process of healing is to feel relaxed and secure. Here, I can be as quiet or as loud as I would like. My room has minimal sound when performing yoga, maybe nothing but a fan and the voice of the teachers. In this way, I can focus on my body and the directions given. Only having the ability to focus is what kick starts my yogic healing process. The teacher reminds us of our breath during practice and the manner in which unique postures assist in the healing process. In various ways, they relate to this process, such as the release of stress in the part of the body bei...

 This week we had two yoga sessions but I could only attend one because I was feeling under the weather on Tuesday. On Thursday the practice was Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga who was instructed by Andrew Eppler. Andrew began to show us a video on Ashtanga yoga. A crazy pose in the video was a man standing on top of a kids stomach that was in a backwards bent position. Andrew mentioned how who is this crazy guy that's stepping on this kid and it going to break his ribcage. But next thing you know the kid was perfectly fine nothing happened to him no pain and no bruises. He introduced the kid as now an older adult in his video conference.  Andrew was calling out the poses while he had someone else perform the poses. I knew from the beginning that this yoga is advanced and I had previewed some of the poses and I didn't have many expectations for myself. I also felt like Andrew was moving at a fast pace and I just had a tough time keeping up. I still attempted the best I could on some pos...

 This week I wanted to try out stress relief yoga. Yoga is something physical, spiritual, calming, and so much more. It's a broad term. Anytime I'm stressed I like to go to the gym or play a sport to get my mind off of things and just take the frustration out on working out. I'm curious to know how yoga will do that for me or the question is would I get into the state of stress relief with this yoga?  Beginning of the class there was nice calming music in the background and the instructor giving instructions. We started off on laying on our stomach flat and our head turned to one side. I closed my eyes and began to inhale and exhale calming my mind, my body and loosening everything in my body. Then we did a movement where we bring our head to our knees and extending out arms out and just controlling our breathing closing our eyes. The next movement which I was surprised I could do. One leg would be extended out and the other leg came across your stomach and lay you top ha...

 Today was my first live session of yoga with the instructor Diane Polli. Bikram yoga is done in a heated room with temperatures going up to 100+. This type of yoga consists of 26 postures. Unfortunately, I had a heel injury and was unable to do all the postures the instructor was telling us to do. I will be honest this yoga was difficult, I feel like the ones I have been watching and practising have been easy. On many of these movements that I attempted felt more like stretching movements and it did feel good but also my arms began to start getting tired in the air. The posture that I really like was the standing stick pose and it was easy to do. I really like when towards the end of Bikram we were on the ground on our backs and just relaxing as she was telling us to calm our minds, breath and relax. Everything was so quiet all we just focused on was her voice it was very calming.