Yoga For Beginners Guide

In order to gain full benefit from yoga you should eat a yoga diet along with the yoga exercise poses, a yoga diet is essential to the practice of yoga for eating a well balanced diet ensures your mind and body are energised throughout the day. There are several important aspects of the yoga diet, these include:

• The three Gunas
• A proper diet
• Changing your diet
• Fasting

Yoga For Beginners Guide

When and how long to practice yoga

Just as with any form of exercise yoga should be built up slowly starting with the easier poses and building up to the harder ones gradually. There is no special time to do yoga because there are advantages to doing yoga anytime of the day, for instance doing your yoga routine first thing in the morning is an excellent way to revitalise both the mind and body ready for the day ahead.

Practicing the yogic breathing and meditation exercises last thing at night will aid in promoting restful sleep. Whatever time you choose to do yoga it is important that you do not strain yourself and always stop if you feel tired, resting in between poses is also beneficial. A session of yoga doesn’t have to be lengthy but should be done everyday even for as little as 15 minutes.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

The words Hatha yoga literally means the sun and moon, so practicing Hatha yoga means bringing together two forces of opposites. Hatha yoga is sometimes also described as forceful yoga; this is because Hatha yoga poses are the most strenuous of all yoga poses and it is also one of the most well known forms of yoga in the western world.

Hatha yoga is one of four types of Tantra yoga; it consists of concentrating on the poses and control of the breath. The main objective in practicing Hatha yoga is to remove obstacles in your path and have a clear, fresh, sharp mind which is fully focused on your inner being.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Yoga as a form of exercise doesn’t only take into account our body and how we look it is also about the person as a whole, yoga deals with all aspects of life and it is said that when our mind and body are in harmony that we will achieve perfect health and be less prone to diseases.

This perfect health can be achieved by following what are called “The eight limbs of yoga”; these limbs are a guide to achieving harmony of the mind, body and spirit. Yoga takes into account a person’s physical, mental and spiritual well being as well as a person’s environment and relationships with others.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Meditation is one of five principles of yoga and this exercise is about the constant observation of the mind, it requires that you are able to focus your mind on one thing and keep it there without wandering off. The benefits of meditation are many, by meditating on a daily basis as part of your yoga routine you will benefit from a stronger sense of will, improved concentration, a clearer and more focused kind and will find that you are able to relax quicker and easier.

Meditation is all about focusing the mind on one subject and stopping it from wandering off; this however is easier said then done. It might be easy at first to clear the mind of thoughts but after a few minutes it can quite easily wander off to thoughts of what you’re cooking for dinner tonight, what you’re going to wear for that party you’re attending or any other daily event. There is however a few things you can do to prepare yourself for meditation:

Yoga For Beginners Guide

When we think of yoga we think of someone sitting cross legged or contorted into unimaginable positions in a semi trance like state, while some of the poses in yoga do take a lot of practice and require the person to be extremely flexible there is more to yoga than first meets the eye. Trying to define yoga is hard as it consists of a wide and varied range of practices, it is however a very spiritual form of exercise which is designed to increase self awareness and appreciation.

This leads to a more relaxed way of life and a less stressful one, Yoga originally stemmed from Hindu tradition but people of all cultures and races have realised the benefits of practicing yoga on a daily basis.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Tantra yoga draws on the sciences of astrology, numerology, physics, chemistry, mathematics and geometry and instead of keeping different areas of human knowledge apart it draws them together.

What Is Tantra Yoga?

The aim of Tantra yoga is to build and expand on all states of consciousness; this state can be our dreams, sleep or waking state. Years of thinking about our life and our being the wrong way have left deep seated beliefs so it is probably easier if we think of our body and mind as a computer that needs wiping clean and re installing.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

We know the benefits that regular exercise has on our well being and yoga is especially beneficial as it brings the mind, body and spirit together and when this occurs it is thought that our body is in perfect harmony. Yoga is a therapeutic form of exercise which helps you to become more aware of your body’s posture and alignment, practicing yoga on a daily basis will make your body more flexible and help you to relax easier after the most stressful of days.

People who practice yoga on a daily basis are said to feel more energetic, more at peace and happier in general. Yoga has many benefits on your health and these benefits can be divided into three main categories:

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Breathing, poses and meditation

The practice of yoga is built upon a system which includes the series of yoga poses or postures, breathing and meditation. The theory behind yoga is that the body and mind become as one, it is thought then when this happens the individual can achieve perfect health.

Following yoga first starts with the mind for the mental choices we make strongly affect our body and health, traditionally in India yoga includes diet, exercise and meditation while in the modern world yoga primarily focuses on posture through a series of poses, breathing exercises and meditation.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Yoga just like martial arts takes discipline and together they compliment each other, both disciplines teach us that an over inflated ego brings us nothing but trouble and causes problems in life and they teach us respect and humility of ourselves and others. A true practitioner of martial arts is just like a well established yogi, they both carry love for fellow man, respect and kindness and both disciplines teach us: