Anusara Yoga Poses – Set of Postures While Performing Breathing Exercises

By Patricia | April 17, 2009
Anusara Yoga Poses

What is Anusara yoga? How to perform it? Is there any special teacher for Anusara yoga?

Yoga is an ancient discipline of the body and mind that began in India 3000 years ago. Since then, it has gained widespread popularity and spread across the Western world as well. Yoga has developed several sub-branches over the years. One such sub-branch is Anusara yoga.

Anusara yoga is a type of Hatha yoga, the most common type of yoga, which focuses on asanas, or physical postures, and Pranayama, or breathing techniques. This type of yoga was founded and developed by John Friend, a guru of yoga. There are several videos made by him that are available in the market today. However, it is advisable that you first attend a class with yoga guru before practising at home. This will help you learn the yoga moves properly.

Anusara can be translated as 'flowing with grace' or 'following your heart' from Sanskrit. Anusara yoga combines 'heart opening' postures and the spiritual benefits of Hatha yoga. The practice of Anusara yoga has three main parts: attitude, alignment, and action.

Attitude in Anusara yoga is the driving force behind every action or expression in an exercise. The highest intention of Anusara yoga is unity with the divine and to joyfully serve this connection with the divine.

Alignment, the second principle of Anusara yoga has five universal principles. The first one is opening to grace, where you need to follow the path to supreme consciousness with open-hearted devotion. The second is muscular energy where you can increase stability, strength, and physical integration of your body. The third one is an inner spiral, an expanding energy force which requires you to rotate your limbs inwards. The fourth is the exact opposite, an outer spiral, where you rotate your limbs outwards. The last one is organic energy, which will leave with a feeling of freedom. Along with this Anusara philosophy, there is also the Tantric belief that there is innate goodness and something divine in everyone.

Action, the last principle, drives the natural force of energy throughout your body and mind.

Anusara Yoga makes use of 'breath-synchronized movement', such that there are soft, smooth flowing movements with inhalation and exhalation throughout the process. Thus, Anusara yoga includes a progressive set of postures while performing breathing exercises. These poses are usually easy, fun and can be performed by anyone. Instead of trying to control the body and mind using exercises, Anusara yoga poses originate from a deep spiritual feeling inside.

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