As yoga keeps growing there is an abundance of styles and teachers all over the world that you can choose from. As you walk thru the path of yoga you may realize that the variety not only relies on the style but also the instructors.

Some Yoga Styles

It is said that in the beginning yoga was a philosophical discipline to embrace a way of life that will lead us to enlightenment. The main branches: Jnana, karma & bhakti yoga had no physical positions at all, most of all they were based on connecting with the “divine” thru knowledge, service and devotion. Meditation of course was an essential component of the practice, as it still is. Then, hatha yoga emerged with the idea to integrate the body and unite with our mind and soul through movement, proper breathing and concentration. And 2,000 years later we found a vast amount of styles from the more classical ones like Lyengar, Kundalini or Ashtanga to the modern approaches such as Vinyasa Flow, which is actually derived from the Ashtanga method, and intended to provide the teacher with the freedom to integrate his/her creativity. Also, a new style of yoga that has emerged and grown quite rapidly in the last decade is yoga of “opening to grace”, or Anusara yoga. I am not a full-time practitioner of this style, but I do enjoy the ideas and concepts it brings and specially its focus on alignment. (more…)