Yoga Report

during lectures we sit in the traditional Indian way, without chairs. photo: Katalin Kurko

Harvard University did a classification of different body types and how they utilise their bodies. This technique was adopted by Swami Vishnudevananda who took it a step further with a more precise classification. We use a plumb line to look at our posture in profile. Both in the beginning and in the end  of the course we take photographs of  ourselves against a grid.  My mother commented that my posture was very straight once I

Plumbline photo week 4.

came back from a 3-months yoga retreat in Sweden . This time it was really intersting to view people who are relatively new to yoga and how much 4 weeks affected them !

Today we discussed sitting postures and how important it is with flexibility in the hips if you are going to sit in a meditation posture, especially in full lotus and half lotus. If one have big strong thigh muscles there should be a big cushion under the buttocks so that the knees comes down to the ground WITHOUT STRAIN ! One has to be careful since in the beginning of a sitting your knees may touch the ground. Later on in the sitting you start to feel pain in the knees and then it is really a signal that your buttocks should be higher up on a cushion. There should never be any pain in the knees when doing meditation !

Keeping the muscles and tendons flexible throughout life can be done with yoga and that will slow down the aging process. Yoga can be a very gentle way to keep a good health and when I saw my grandfather doing the bridge position at an old age it made an imprint in my head that exercise will give you a long and healthy life.

yoga is to go with the body and accept limitations and to come back to a natural state of well being.