Yoga6 LevelsPrinciplesMore InformationYoga ResourcesRelated Pages6 Groups of Topics9 Skills & Topics
Yoga Practice Points: Recovery, Coping, & Health
Yoga practice points will help you benefit more from your yoga practice. Doing things right makes for more right.
- Garbage Rules will prod you to face the self-defeating thinking that’s keeping you addicted.
- Ego will help you to understand and overcome the underlying problem of your addiction.
“Use yoga to practice relying on Energy to do and hold poses, not thinking-knowing.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
“Whenever I feel discomfort, strain, or stress in my yoga practice, I practice waiting on and resting in God.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
- Information on our breathing exercise.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
6 LEVELS OF YOGA
- Learn the poses.
- Learn to breathe with the poses.
- Learn to focus on breathing instead of the poses.
- Learn to be just conscious of breathing.
- Learn to be just conscious.
- Experience self as the host for consciousness.
- You can do yoga as an exercise; however, you are missing most of the benefits of yoga if you use it as just an aerobic or stretching exercise.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
Yoga Principles & General Class Advice
“Sacrifice proper posing for proper alignment.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
General Information
- Yoga is the perfect preparation for meditation.
- Yoga has the benefits of increasing balance, flexibility, and openness.
- These benefits are good for your body, mind, and relationships.
- Yoga is about balance; therefore, be sure and do the same poses on both sides and in both directions whenever possible.
- Yoga develops from posing to breathing to moving meditation.
- Yoga develops from the consciousness of poses to the consciousness of breathing to the consciousness of meditating.
- Yoga practice is a practice of approximation to ideal poses.
- Yes, some people can perform some of the poses optimistically.
- However, the goal is to increase your balance, flexibility, and openness, and that is best done by approximating the ideal poses without any expectation of ever reaching them.
General Advice
- Breathe in and out your nose unless it is a specific open-mouthed breathing exercise.
- Breathe in on an upward movement and breathe out in a downward movement.
- Perform poses relying on Energy, not thinking.
- Trying to balance using your thinking will keep you unbalanced.
- Find a fixed point to stare at to help with your balance.
- Dancers also do this, especially when spinning.
- Once comfortable with the basic poses, focus on your breath instead of your body.
- Move with your breath once you are comfortable with poses (asanas).
- Follow the ideal pose or form.
- Do not try to stretch lower or higher to appear to be better at yoga.
- In other words, your position matters only about the pose and not perceived flexibility.
- You can make any class more challenging by adding isometrics to your poses.
- Pushing and pulling in opposite directions strengthens your muscles and aligns your brain’s left and right hemispheres.
Simple Advice
- Stop trying to do poses and do them.
- Stop trying to think of poses and do them.
- Stop trying to know poses and do them.
- Stop letting your mind get in the way of poses.
- Stop trying to control or change poor poses into better poses.
- Learn to switch to let the pose be done for you: nondoing.
- Switch from thinking to posing.
- Enjoy your poses.
Specific Advice
- When in a pose like a shoulder stand that puts your neck in a vulnerable position, only look at the ceiling and never around the room.
- Strain in a pose is a sign that you need to open up there; therefore, continue stretching that area.
- Pain in a pose signifies that you must back off until you open up more.
- Find poses you can do for that area of your body to open it up more.
- Move your mind inside stressful areas of your body and breathe in and out of those locations.
- This will provide healing energy and also keep your mind from making problems.
- Relaxing in star pose while lying down for Savasana, instead of corpse pose, can teach you to relax under strain and stress.
- Fall into the strain, rest and relax, and wait upon Energy to relieve it over time and practice.
- You will not fix the strain. Your body will not fix the strain.
- Your mind will not fix the strain.
- Being under Energy will relieve the strain and bring new flexibility and openness.
- When in a pose causing discomfort, focus on places in your body that are calm, peaceful, or relaxed.
- When your mind returns to the discomfort, redirect your mind to a comfortable location in your body.
- You can have all the sips of water you want during yoga class, but no drinks of water.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
Miscellaneous Yoga Information
“Stretch in the right posture, not the right pose.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
Clothing for Class
- Wear loose-fitting clothing for yoga classes; however, some recommend elastic or stretch clothing such as that worn by dancers due to its support and added protection against injury.
- Yoga is traditionally done on bare feet; however, yoga socks and toe shoes can work if you need foot covering or support.
- Normal socks and stockings are never recommended because they increase slipping, which can be dangerous.
Yoga Props
- Yoga blocks, straps, and props are both recommended and not recommended.
- The positives are props help you get into poses.
- The negatives are props can be used as a crutch and limit stretching.
- A middle approach is best if you intend to experiment with props: use them to find poses but not to make poses easier or too easy.
Eating
- Never eat before or during a yoga class.
- An empty stomach is best, which means not eating 2–3 hours before class.
- The minimum is 1/2 hour before class.
- Bring a reusable water bottle for sipping water during class.
- Sip water, but do not drink water during class.
- You can sip water as often as you feel the need.
Various Methods
- Different teachers and schools of yoga teach the same poses in different ways.
- Experiment with the best-suited method for your practice and increase your balance, openness, and stretching.
- Be willing to explore other ways to determine what works best for you.
- But remember, this can change in the future.
- Every yoga teacher should be allowed to teach their class their way because that teacher will teach their best.
Class Culture
- Know the culture of your yoga class.
- Some accept and even applaud belching and the release of gases, but most do not.
- If your yoga is meditative, then your yoga will relax your digestive functions, leading to releases.
- Also, some yoga poses encourage the release of gases and can be named accordingly, for example, Pavanamuktasana or wind-relieving pose.
- Bring a handkerchief and blow your nose often.
- Sniffling is also considered impolite in many cultures.
- Sweating releases toxins from your body, and so does nasal mucus drainage.
- You can bring a small towel to wipe up water from your mat to prevent slipping.
- Popping noises indicate a joint is being stretched or opened.
- Popping noises from poses are fine, but you should not try to cause, force, or induce popping noises because that might lead to physical problems from exaggerated stretching.
Personal Limits
- Be aware of the limits of your own body.
- Do not try to do a pose that will harm your body.
- Be responsible for protecting your body even if an instructor wants you to do something that will harm your body.
- It is your practice.
- Focus on increasing your body’s balance, flexibility, and openness within the range of your practice, not within the range of ideal poses, perfect poses, other students, or class instructions.
- Choose to go deeper into your poses as your skill develops.
- This is an endless process.
Prevention
- Stacking joints is a yoga principle that prevents injury and promotes the right posture.
- When you are standing, this is easy to understand: ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders should all be in alignment.
- You want one joint to support another whenever possible or practical.
- You do not want your knee to go past your ankle when your knee is bent over your foot.
- Allowing your knee to go past your angle, for example, in the warrior-two pose, is likely to cause damage to your knee over time because of strain and poor posture.
- There are differing opinions on how long to hold stretches and how many repetitions of an exercise.
- The best advice for how long to hold a pose is to hold that pose until you relax into it.
- Longer times for holding poses are required as you age.
- Perhaps you can tune into your body and learn its limits to develop your times and numbers.
- Experiment and test your results.
- Eventually, you can make your practice a yoga dance by adding extra movements purely for their beauty, expressiveness, and grace.
2 Basic Types of Yoga
- In the USA, most yoga classes define themselves as either Vinyāsa or Hatha-style yoga.
- Vinyāsa is flow yoga, movement yoga, or non-stationary yoga.
- Hatha yoga is stationary, fixed, or stretch-focused yoga.
- In this way, Vinyāsa (moving through poses) and Hatha (holding poses) are opposite styles.
- Both have validity and usefulness.
- You have the right to prefer one over the other.
- Other countries likely use these same terms in different ways.
- For example, Hatha can also be used to indicate beginner’s level yoga classes.
Yoga Practice Points
Breathing Instructions to Experiment With
- Experiment with different ways of reminding students to breathe.
- The following list encourages conscious breathing.
- Be aware of your alert breath, alive breath, attentive breath, awake breath, aware breath, conscious breath, conscious breath, conscious breath, felt breath, focused breath, meditative breath, mindful breath, and observed breathing.
Yoga Practice Points
FOB: Flexibility, Openness, Balance
- FOB is an acronym pronounced “fob” for the three main benefits of doing yoga.
- Flexibility
- Openness
- Balance
“Focus your yoga practice on right alignment and posture, not on perfect poses.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
Yoga Practice Points
No Strain, No Gain
- In weightlifting, the saying is, “No pain, no gain,” because you must tear your muscles to make them larger.
- In yoga, the saying is, “No strain, no gain,” because you have to stretch to open up more.
- To increase flexibility, openness, and balance (FOB) the idea is to go to your limit and go around 1–3% further to increase flexibility, openness, and balance (FOB).
- You are the only one in your body, so it’s up to you not to go too far and take it easy on days when you need it.
“Use poses to increase flexibility, openness, and balance, not for poses.” —Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
Yoga Practice Points
Continually Redirect Your Focus
- Continually redirect your attention to a calm portion of a pose, for example, resting your forehead on your forearm, from the stress and strain of stretching your hips and legs in a lizard pose.
- This redirecting improves your ability to redirect your attention, focus on the positives in life, and cope with the stress and strain of living.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
Yoga Resources
- Resource for Health Questions: External
- Resource for Yoga Poses: External
- Resource for Yoga Poses for Back Pain: External
- Resource for Yoga Poses for Constipation: External
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
Related Pages of Free Information
- 5 Keys to Right Meditation
- 5 Step Solution to Self-Esteem
- Attitude Control & Attitude Power
- Choose Higher when Tempted by Lower
- Coping Skills: Free Help
- Focus on 3 Truths for the Right Identity
- J. Krishnamurti: External
- Meditation Simplified
- Practice Right Meditation
- Recovery Issues: Free Help
- Serenity Prayer
- Temptation: A Strategy to Overcome
- Three Kinds of Meditation
- Yoga Class for Coping, Recovery, Relaxation, & Health
- Yoga: What Is It?
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
Yoga Practice Points
6 Groups of Topics Menu
- 1. Pages by Topic
- 2. Fast-Facts by Topic
- 3. Quotations by Topic
- 4. Poems by Topic
- 5. Scripture by Topic
- 6. Websites by Topic
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.
Yoga Practice Points
9 Skills & Topics Menu
- 1. Anger Skills & Topics
- 2. Blame Skills & Topics
- 3. Communication Skills & Topics
- 4. Coping Skills & Topics
- 5. Counseling Skills & Topics
- 6. Praying Skills & Topics
- 7. Recovery Skills & Topics
- 8. Responsibility Skills & Topics
- 9. Thinking Skills & Topics
- Read and discover how CBT, REBT, & Stoicism evolved into one system: STPHFR.
- Read and discover the world’s best breathing exercise for centering and peace of mind.
- Yoga practice points can be accelerated using this breathing exercise.