SHAGBARK YOGA
Tools
"Yoga is an ancient science providing a perspective on the challenges of being human, and offering techniques to understand, manage and overcome obstacles, to improve our condition, and ultimately to unveil our capacity for joy"
Asana
Practices of Postures
The "gross" or perceptible level of our being is the doorway to change. Through directed movement we stretch, strengthen, increase mobility, relieve muscular tension, enhance balance, increase circulation, refine awareness, improve structural integrity, and create more functional movement patterns.
We create intelligent sequences of movement to appropriately direct effort to achieve the needs of the client and the goals of yoga - greater comfort, improved function, protection against injury.
Through asana we can sharpen our attention, bringing the vast potential of the mind to bear, allowing us to focus more fully in the moment.
The results of this effort prepare us for the deeper work of yoga, and provide the foundation for breath practices, or pranayama.
Mudra
Using the Hands
The ancients, while in deep meditation, uncovered the energetic connections imbedded in body positions, especially in the hands and fingers.
It became recognized that certain positions contained the power to uncover energetic patterns and to balance, augment or reduce those energies through regular use of these positions.
This highly specialized science contains the capacity to impact energy on the subtle plane of our being, providing focus and functionality to serve structural, physiological, psychological and spiritual needs.
Meditation
Focusing the Mind
Ultimately, all directed growth, all change, requires developing our innate capacity to maintain one-pointed attention. While most yogic techniques suggest the necessity to focus awareness, they each work toward the ultimate goal of seated meditation.
Within these practices we begin to appreciate the immense potential for gaining insight and igniting transformation.
Pranayama
Practices of Breath
From ancient times, the role of the breath was discovered to be more than just the means for keeping the organism alive.
Breathing practices provide a profound platform for transformation, directly accessing our physiology in a way not otherwise possible.
Through use of techniques and breath ratios, we can delve deeper into a our functionality, direct vital energy and promote more vibrancy, greater calm or better balance.
Athletes find enhanced performance through expanded breath capacity and greater breath control.
Mantra
Working with Sound
All ancient traditions place particular importance in sound. It forms much of our basis for communication and understanding our environment, and serves as a way to establish and enforce our relationship within the deepest levels of our being.
The yoga tradition regards mantra as the fundamental means to better know our true selves and to connect with the greater whole.
Traditionally offered in Sanskrit, mantra in any language and from any age can be fruitful, as long as it carries meaning for the practitioner.
Advanced Techniques
Unique to each Person
For more experienced practitioners, Tantric Yoga practices encourage deeper connections to the inherent potential both within us and as a connected part of the greater universe.
For the serious and committed student of yoga, deeper issues of meaning such as examining needs and motivations, acquiring understanding of suffering, cultivating capacity for compassion, and even probing our relationship with death can be explored through these practices.
"Yoga offers us a window through which to see, then a doorway through which to walk"
- Gary Kraftsow
