Yoga Styles

There are many different varieties of yoga, each one with a slightly different slant. Hatha yoga is one of the more popular forms in Australia. Hatha yoga is taught in different styles. Yoga is taught in classes, catering for beginners through to advanced practitioners.

1. Iyengar- they use many props.  For them, alignment is the most important part of the practice.  
2. Sivananda- they use a different Sun Salutation and start backwards.
3. Hatha- Union.  The definition is the doing of Asana’s and Pranayama’s.  This is the Sun and the Moon.
4. Ashtanga- Vinyasa- a series of poses.  There are a total of six series in Ashtanga.  There is no warming up and no pranayama during class.  This is the most vigorous type of Yoga.
5. Bikram- they use the same poses every time regardless of level the practitioners are in.  The use of heaters server to expel built up toxins in the body.  (don’t really sweat out the toxins, but just become dehydrated)  Usually do closed up Asana’s consisting of backbends and standing exercises.
6. Kundalini- life force.  The dormant Yoga.  Want to raise this energy inside of us.  They use serpent-like postures consisting of sitting and breathing.  Quite easy.
7. Power- a derivative of Ashtanga.  They apply the Sun Salutation.  They work hard, use good poses, and possess a superficial attitude.  Students can believe or feel whatever they want to feel.
8. Vinyasa- the style of Yoga we’re learning to teach.  It incorporates Ashtnaga, Iyengar, and Swanandar.  It literally means to breathe in synchronized movements. 
9. Shadow Yoga is not a style of Yoga. Structure is necessary for the beginner to progress (and is given to students in the form of Opening, Moving, and Circling the Shadow), but this structure should not be mistaken for dogma. Shandor vigorously encourages his students to be independent of himself and always insists that his students teach only that which has become alive in their own practice.
10. Sakshin Ghatastha Yoga is a flowing style of Yoga comprising techniques for transforming the subtle essences of the body and developing its energy channels.   Sakshin refers to the witness, the state of pure awareness and meditation. Dhyan (meditation) is dis-identification and witnessing, the essence of all yoga. Ghatastha literally means within the pot and implies looking at the body as a sealed container (Historically Ghatastha Yoga has been used as a synonymous term for Hatha Yoga). All the techniques employed are used to balance and harmonise the vital energy inside the body. The body is purified and made firm so that it ceases to leak energy, in the same manner that a clay pot that has been well baked in a fire can hold water. Energy then increases inside the body stimulating higher levels of awareness.