YOGA STYLES
offered by SOUND WISDOM
RESTORATIVE YOGA - RELAX
Restorative Yoga is a deeply relaxing style of yoga, which focuses on teaching you (and your body-mind) how to relax.
This style of yoga focuses on just a few poses per class, that you hold for 3-15 minutes each, so you can learn how to release tension from the body, and RELAX into the pose. Because of the long holds, it is important to use a lot of YOGA PROPS - such as bolsters, blankets, blocks, etc, so that you can be comfortable in the pose, without any effort.
YIN YOGA - MEDITATE
Yin Yoga is a meditative yoga style that aims to improve flexibility and strength, while releasing deeply ingrained patterns of stress within the physical body, and blockages within the energy body. It is a more active yoga practice than Restorative, yet still much slower-paced than Vinyasa, or most other forms of Hatha Yoga. The purpose of Yin yoga is to be deeply aware, present-moment focused, and meditative.
The poses are held for 1-3 minutes, with a deep focus on breathing, body sensations, and honouring one’s current limits, while embracing the direction of going deeper. Participants are guided into the poses using refined alignment actions in order to hold the poses SAFELY and effectively.
KRIYA YOGA - TRANSFORMATION
Kriya Yoga is a style of yoga that focuses on TRANFORMATION through yogic poses, movements and breaths that are considered especially CLEANSING. This includes movement meditations such as SHAKING MEDICINE, ECSTATIC DANCE, SUFI WHIRLING, and more. This style of yoga begins with active dynamic practices that gradually get more and more passive. You RELEASE, REBUILD and REFORM, in order to TRANSFORM!
The Yogic Methods & Philosophy used in SOUND WISDOM
Sacred Sound is a specialized, ANCIENT form of yoga & meditation that focuses on the science and art of Sanskrit MANTRA, PRᾹṆᾹYᾹMA(breath) and/or SOUND BATH meditations.
These practices of Sacred Sound are not meant to be used completely on their own in isolation, nor are they meant to be “performances.”
To get the intended benefits from these ancient practices, one needs to first OPEN and PREPARE the body-mind to RECEIVE the Sacred Sound.
This is where the physical practice of yoga comes in.
You see, ᾱsana (the poses!) were originally intended to be the WARM-UP to the main ‘meal’ of MANTRA, SOUND BATH, PRᾹṆᾹYᾹMA, and other forms of MEDITATION. Ᾱsana is designed to prepare the body-mind for the actual main practice of yoga - but unfortunately most people now consider the poses the main part of yoga. (I say unfortunately, because that’s kind of like only ever eating appetizers, or even just the ‘amuse bouche,’ and never getting the main dish & dessert!)
Likewise, many Mantra, Prāṇāyāma, and Sacred Sound practitioners have separated the body from these beautiful practices of meditation…which is also unfortunate, since the BODY-MIND does also need movement in order to access these deeper spiritual states of being.
SO THROUGH SOUND WISDOM - IT IS MY MISSION TO HELP RE-IGNITE THE FLAME OF KNOWLEDGE that these practices are actually meant to be used in tandem with each other. You can trust that every SOUND WISDOM offering will always include at least a little movement, as well as SACRED SOUND.
The SOUND CODES used in the SACRED SOUND component will always reflect the type of YOGA/MOVEMENT being used. So a relaxing type yoga class will have a relaxing type of SOUND BATH. A meditative style of yoga will include a more meditation-based Sound experience. And a transformational yoga class will use…you guessed it - a transformative style of Sound. :)