Level 1-2

Remember walking into your first yoga class and wondering why everyone sounded like Darth Vader? Ujjayi, or “the victorious breath” serves many purposes in yoga asana practice, as well as being a powerful breathing practice of its own. In this short tutorial, learn the basic techniques for regulating your breath, allowing your time on the mat to develop into a moving mediation, with your breath reigning victorious over the chatter of the mind. 

Have about an hour and you want a well-balanced practice with sun salutations, standing postures, balances, backbends, forward folds, hip openers and inversions? The Jivamukti Yoga Spiritual Warrior sequence is a complete practice for when you don’t have 90 minutes to spend on the mat because, well, life…

Nothing as revitalizing as backbends! We will use two blocks for this practice that will help us open our chest during the whole class. Together we will find different variations that will make you feel comfortable when the stretch feels too intense. 

We will start laying on our back to find our breath and stillness with our eyes closed as we go deeper into our backbends. Then we will go into our bridge, moving to a wheel if you want to challenge yourself!

Because we can never get enough of it, today's practice we will work on our hips and hamstrings. 

We will start with finding our breath and stretch our hips in a sitting position. Slowly we will move into our twists, lengthen our spine and go deeper into the posture. Going into cat and cow and find our stillness in a downward facing dog. 

Don't be afraid to challenge yourself to go deeper in your stretch if you feel ready!

The element of ether carries sound and connects us to speaking our truth. A short practice for when you are feeling somehow unable to communicate, be that through speech, writing or other forms of expression. 

Alternate nostril breathing, or nadi shodana, is an effective way to even out the flow of energy in the body and between the two halves of the brain, bringing clarity, balance and a sense of wholeness back when we are feeling fragmented.

A class for those who, like me, do not find splits the most natural thing in the world. Open your hamstrings and your hips to ease towards wherever your edge may be at the moment, embodying the courageous leap of faith across the ocean, by the monkey god who gave the posture its name.

We tend to think of the upper back and neck as the place where we most often store tension in our bodies. However, stress also accumulates in our lower extremities, and when the calves tense up, they pull on everything else in the back body. A little goes a long way, so take a few minutes to give that often overlooked area some TLC.

Does what it says. A sequence for when you are not feeling like a vigorous class that creates tons of heat, but you still want to unravel tension that has accumulated throughout the day in the area around the hips.

Uddiyana Bandha Kriya also called Nauli in its full form. One of the most important exercises for health and flow of energy. We stimulate the digestive organs and the intestines, helping the health of the stomach, digestion, constipation, release of tension and toxins. Through this, we affect the well being of the whole body and mind.

Full Nauli is a difficult technique that takes time and patience. In this tutorial, we also work through the Pre-Nauli stages. We make the benefits accessible and give you the information to start in the simplest manner and gradually grow your control, working through the stages to get to the full form. The king of hatha yoga.

Free digestive congestion for the channelizing of energy.

A large part of pranayama practice is preparing the body and mind to allow the free flow of energy. We learn various techniques to let go of tension and stuck energy in the essential parts of the body. Often we hold tension around the face, jaw, and neck. In the many small and sensitive muscles in these areas.

This is a pranayama practice to release tension from the face, jaw, and neck. Waking up the muscles of the face and even reducing wrinkles! Soothing and Energising at the same time. Easy to do with both physical and psychological effects.

Simha means “lion,” and mudra means “gesture.”

As we explore our pranayama practices, we can learn various techniques and preparatory exercises to bring us to places of more significant connection. Jivha Bandha is the counteraction to Simha Mudra (Lion's breath) when we stretch the tongue down. We are doing yoga with our tongue.

Jivha Bandha is effective at reducing tension and gripping around the mouth, jaw, and neck. It helps to calm the nervous system and develop more inner awareness. Another benefit is that Jivha Bandha reduces the production of saliva, thus allowing you to maintain higher levels of stillness and reduces the distraction of needing to swallow.

Jivha means “soul” and bandha means “internal lock“.

Tadasana is one of the fundamental postures in a Vinyasa style. Even if you had never thought about it, you will soon discover how you can find Tadasana in every asana. Move through a fun and challenging class finding length and a neutral pelvis that will translate into finding Tadasana.

Bandhas are one of the essential things in hatha yoga, however, they are challenging to master. Bandha translates as lock or seal. There are three main bandhas – mula, uddiyana and jalandhara. We use bandhas to channelize and direct energy.

In this tutorial, we learn how to begin developing control of mula bandha and uddiyana bandha. They are situated around the pelvic floor, and we will discover how to connect with them. To grow in pranayama and yoga, you must develop control of these muscular locks. 

The core of hatha yoga.

Mind running around like a hamster in a wheel, on repeat but with no substantial outcome? Or perhaps it has just been a really long day and you need to hug a bolster and chill? Whatever the reason, welcome to your asana bedtime story.