Hatha Yoga – yoga for everyone

In the West, Hatha yoga is still the most popular of the yoga forms, and  it’s suitable for anyone of any age, young, old, or in-between.

Hatha yoga asanas combine stretching with concentration and breathing techniques.

The goal of Hatha Yoga is similar to other kinds of Yoga – to increase your mental, physical and emotional health.

Hatha Yoga is one of the two branches of Yoga that focus on the physical culture, the other one being Raja Yoga.

Both of these are commonly referred to as Ashtanga Yoga, i.e., Yoga of eight parts (‘ashta’ meaning eight and ‘anga’ meaning limbs).

The main difference is that Raja Yoga uses asanas to mainly get the body ready for prolonged meditation, and hence focuses more on the meditative asana poses: Lotus Pose (Padmasana), Accomplished Pose (Siddhasana), Easy Pose (Sahajasana) and Pelvic Pose (Vajrasana); Hatha Yoga utilizes most of the asana poses. Similarly, Raja Yoga’s use of Pranayama is also devoid of extensive locks (Bandha).

Hatha represents opposing energies: hot and cold (fire and water, following the same concept as the yin-yang), male and female, positive and negative. Hatha yoga attempts to balance mind and body via physical exercises, or “asanas”, controlled breathing, and the calming of the mind through relaxation and meditation.

Asanas teach poise, balance & strength and are practiced to improve the body’s physical health and clear the mind in preparation for meditation in the pursuit of enlightenment.

[tags]yoga, Hatha yoga[/tags]

Filed under: Yoga forms

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