3/8/18 Sivananda yoga

This week I did my first Sivananda yoga practice. I liked the Sivananda yoga practice because it was vigorous for brief periods of time followed by a period of rest. Sivananda yoga has 5 important philosophies which are proper exercise, proper diet, proper rest, proper breathing, and proper mindset. Proper rest, breath, and exercise are embodied in the physical practice. The flow started with  a cycle of sun salutations on each side. The poses were held briefly, so it was a fast flow that was in sync with breathing. After 10 cycles of poses we had a period of rest. The rest was very much needed to calm my breathing. I noticed the flow got faster toward the ends of the cycles once my breathing got faster. I’m not sure if that is intentional with the practice but I liked that. To me this practice seemed like the yang/yin practice I did last week, just not as intense. Another aspect i like about Sivananda is that there are other values that exist outside of practicing postures. An interesting fact I learned is that this particular practice is routined as in the poses are exactly the same and done in the same order.