In This Chapter

>- Defining your yoga purpose

>- Knowing your own style improves your yoga practice

>- A yoga essay test

>- Learning from your answers

>- Ground rules for yoga practice

Just as it's important to have a plan for your yoga practice, it's also important to have a purpose. If you don't really know why you want to practice yoga, you won't really know how to practice yoga. You're an individual, and you bring a unique mix of motivations, emotions, tendencies, biases, needs, wants, and traits to your practice. Being familiar with all of these will not only help you determine which postures will be best for you, but will also be a great help to your yoga commitment.

Define Your Purpose

What are you looking to gain from your yoga practice?

□ I'm primarily looking for a good fitness program.

□ I'm in need of stress reduction.

□ I suffer from a physical condition that I believe yoga could alleviate.

□ Eastern philosophy fascinates me.

□ I want to increase my mind power.

□ I like the idea of a holistic fitness program.

□ I'm interested in yoga because I've seen how it has benefited others.

If you really aren't sure, take some time to relax and dig deep into your mind. Think about why you want to be a yogi. You'll get some ideas if you just give yourself time to ponder the question.

Sense Your Style

Before you begin your yoga practice you'll also want to get in touch with who you are. What is it about you, the individual, that will make your yoga experience unique?

□ I am naturally energetic.

□ I am resistant to exercise.

□ I am an optimist. I am a pessimist.

□ I am most concerned with the physical me. The intellectual me. The emotional me.

□ I am easily excited.

□ I am the calm, relaxed type.

□ I consider myself self-confident.

Even if you aren't sure about the answers to these questions, give them some thought, too. Take the time to get to know yourself. The point of this entire chapter, and especially of the following "test," is to get you in touch with who you are so yoga can do its job.

A Yoga Essay Test You Can't Fail

If you break out in a cold sweat at the thought of a test, think of this as a self-evaluation. No one else will read your answers (unless you show them to someone), so be as honest as you possibly can. Don't try to

fool yourself. Your yoga journey will be better and more fulfilling if you really understand your goals, motivations, and desires.

For each question, write what first comes into your mind, and here's a new twist—keep on writing for a minute or two. Even if you feel you've answered the question in one sentence, continue on and write anything that occurs to you, but try to keep closely focused on the question. This exercise is called "freewriting," and you might be surprised at what leaps out of your subconscious mind and onto the page. We suggest that you use these self-evaluation exercises to begin your yoga journal. After you've been practicing yoga for a period of time, say six months, return to the self-evaluation and see if you'd still answer all the questions the same way.

Don't feel you have to hurry through this test. You don't even have to complete it in one session. But try to complete it before you dive into your yoga practice. Just as a doctor needs to understand all of a patient's symptoms before making a diagnosis, so you should fully understand your own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states before you start to improve them.

Remember the most important thing when completing this test: Don't censor yourself! Write what you really feel about each question. Seriously think about who you are and what you—not anyone else—think about the question. Don't even consider what you "should" think (whatever that means!). Just feel whatever it is you do think. Let it all hang out, and then we'll take a look at who we're dealing with: you!

1. If I had to describe myself to someone who doesn't know me, I would say:

2. I have an "outer me" I show to the world and an "inner me" that's more private. Here's how I'd describe the "inner me"—the qualities I have that people might not notice at first, or that I consider mine alone and not necessarily for sharing:

3. (If you have anything even slightly negative in your answers to the first two questions, underline it.) Now: I could argue that the negative qualities I mentioned are also positive qualities when I look at them this way:

4. My best friends would describe me as:

5. When I'm confronted with someone who has different beliefs than mine, I feel:

6. If I could give one of my personal qualities to everyone in the entire world in order to make it a better place, I'd give everyone my:

7. The qualities in someone else that spark my admiration are:

8. This is the way I feel about my chosen profession, especially in terms of how it reflects my personality and satisfies my needs and ambitions:

9. If someone stole my parking space, would I be more likely to react physically (for example, jump out of the car and deck them), verbally (shout at them, swear profusely, or say something nasty about their appearance or intelligence), or emotionally (think to myself that the person is a jerk, imagine elaborate scenarios of revenge, or brood on the incident all day)? This is how I would be likely to act:

10. I think the greatest thing about the world today is:

11. I think some of the problems with the world today are:

12. I think the greatest thing about me is:

13. Here are my thoughts on the existence of a divine power:

14. If I could change one thing about the world, it would be:

15. If I could change one thing about myself, it would be:

16. I bought this book because:

17. I think it will be important for my yoga teacher to have certain qualities, such as:

18. I hope to accomplish the following from my yoga practice (ranked in order of importance):

a._

b._

c._

d._

e._

19. Since yoga is about more than touching your toes, if someone is in a difficult yoga pose, are they necessarily doing yoga? Explain some reasons why or why not.

20. Considering all of these questions, I can think of five reasons why yoga might benefit me personally:

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Let's Get Personal

See, that wasn't so bad! We hope you even thought it was kind of fun! And now that you're finished, it's time to score your test. Here goes: You get an A+. It's true! You answered every single question correctly.

If you find that, when evaluating yourself, most of your answers are negative ones ("I'm selfish," "I have low self-esteem," "I don't have very many friends," etc.), nip that negative self-talk in the bud! Whenever you catch yourself forming a negative thought, restate it in the positive ("I am aware of my needs," "I often put others first," "I have a few really good friends").

This test has no wrong answers, but that doesn't diminish your accomplishment. You have undertaken a fairly intense self-evaluation, and what you have learned will only

make your yoga practice more fulfilling and effective. Continue to think about your answers to these test questions as you go through your day. Consider it the beginning of a beautiful friendship with your higher self.

The first step is getting to know all of you—even the parts of you that you aren't so proud of. The next step is learning to be proud of the whole package. We hope you have a better idea of your own self-concept after taking this quiz, but even if you aren't completely pleased with what you discover, the most important thing you can do now is accept yourself. You are a unique individual, and you are human. You may think you're not perfect, and, or, that nobody is perfect. We could argue that, deep down, everyone is perfect.

But we are all moving through life, exploring who we are, where we are, and why we are. We're all working toward self-discovery at our own pace.

Take it easy on yourself. You're working at your own speed and learning as you go, like the rest of us. You are an amazing person, worthy of self-respect and self-love. In fact, you are miraculous. Feel good about who you are and where you are, and yoga will be a natural avenue of self-care.

Yoga Ground Rules

In the next chapter, we'll actually start learning different yoga postures, or asanas. But before we do, let's examine a few ground rules that apply to every posture. Actually, these are not rules so much as sound advice and helpful hints to encourage you to optimize your yoga practice and make the most of each moment.

First, let's look at some general rules for poses. Before you start posturing, keep these important yoga tips in mind:

>- Hold each pose for three breaths (both inhalation and exhalation) to start, and gradually increase the time you hold each pose, as you're able to do so.

>- Don't feel you have to look just like the picture! More important, find peace within each pose, and progress as your body allows you to.

>- For each pose, make sure you have a counterpose to keep your body balanced. For example, bends to the right should be balanced with bends to the left, forward bends with backbends, contractions with expansions, and so on.

>- Generally speaking, exhale as you go into forward bends and inhale as you go into backbends.

Posture Perfect

Good posture is essential to proper form in yoga. It also helps allow your body to achieve or maintain good health. It feels better, looks better, and is better for your body. Good posture also influences your feelings and thoughts. If you stand up straight and tall, you'll think more positive thoughts. It's true! Try it!

Good posture extends beyond the practice of your yoga postures. You spend a lot of your life standing—but do you stand well? The next time the fact that you're standing comes to mind, notice how you're doing it, whether you're in line at the grocery store, filling up at the gas station, or stir-frying vegetables at the stove.

Chances are, you'll notice that your posture is less than straight, tall, aligned, and balanced. Maybe you carry one shoulder higher or lower than the other. Maybe you shift your weight to one hip, or stoop forward, or lean your head to the left or right. Even if you're fairly balanced, you may not be standing as tall as you could be, and your muscles may not be in command over gravity or bad habits.

Posture is more important to your health than many people realize. Ask any chiropractor—if the body isn't aligned, the energy gets "clogged" in certain areas and doesn't flow freely. If part of you is energy deprived, you're out of balance, and the more out of balance you become, the greater your chances of succumbing to stress, depression, and disease. Good posture helps a body to heal itself, so help your body to be its best. Mountain pose, in the next chapter, can help you train your body to stand straight and tall.

Moving Mountains

You may be tempted to flip to the back of the book to look for the poses you think look more difficult or impressive. We urge you to stay right where you are! Standing poses, and mountain pose in particular, provide an important training ground for all the yoga asanas. If you don't know how to stand like a mountain, all your other poses will show it.

Let's consider the importance of standing poses. Standing poses develop and strengthen your legs, those all-important limbs and vehicles of motion. Standing poses also improve your balance, align your hips and spine, and maintain equilibrium throughout your body. Master the standing poses before you attempt to master the more complicated ones, such as balance poses and poses on the floor that require more advanced flexibility and/or strength. If you practice standing poses regularly you'll notice an almost immediate improvement in your leg and hip flexibility, as well as increased strength and general stability throughout your entire body. Your balance and posture will improve, too.

Warrior Spirit

One of our favorite groups of poses is the group of warrior poses. Because these poses are fun and empowering, they are popular. But don't let the name mislead you!

We tend to think of warriors as wearing armor. In yoga, the warrior represents the strength of openness and the expansion of consciousness. The rosebud makes an appropriate analogy. A rosebud that is not nourished or is pinched off from its source will wither and die. A fully nourished and strong rosebud will open and bloom. Both are fragile flowers, but one of them never realizes its potential. The other does.

When you practice the warrior poses, visualize your entire center holding itself up. This internal lift, while moving into, holding, and out of the warrior poses, strengthens and tones your muscles from the inside out. Also lift your abdomen while in the pose. You can

still breathe fully and fully expand your abdomen while you keep it lifted; the lift supports, rather than impedes, the breath. Think strong foundation, lengthened body, fluid movements, easy balance.

Listen to Your Body

We will remind you throughout this book to listen to your body. Pay attention to how your body is responding to each pose. Focus on how you feel, not on something else like the television or the radio. Listening to your body and responding to its needs is the best way to get the most out of each pose.

That's a short overview. Are you ready to begin? Let's stand up and get to it!

The Least You Need to Know

>- Getting to know yourself better will make yoga better! >- Know thyself. >- Know thyself.

>- Know thyself. (... And then it will truly be nice to know you, too!)

>- Good posture, correct breathing, beginning at the beginning, and a concentrated focus will optimize your yoga workout—and your life!

Part 4

Energize: Postures to Build Strength and Endurance

On to the workout! Part 4 consists of energizing postures you can try, master, and incorporate into your workout. Standing poses build strength, endurance, and steadiness. Balance poses improve poise and self-possession. Backbends release the flow of energy through your body. Twists and inversions rejuvenate and revitalize you.

Vinyasa is a method of yoga that strings postures together in a sequence with deep breathing to create an active, flowing routine full of movement and energy. Depending on which postures you include in your vinyasa, you'll experience a mild to strenuous cardiovascular workout. We show you a few examples, including the well-known and popular sun salutation, then set you free to create your own vinyasa routines. Have fun!