How to reduce the confusion of yoga: become familiar with the jargon

Alice is watching Bob playing a game of tennis. He has not had a double fault in this game, in fact he has three aces to his credit.  The game is close. It has been to tie breaker twice, but Bob has the advantage at the moment and if he scores on this rally he will win the game and break serve.

There certainly is a lot of jargon in tennis and Alice is unaware of it because she has been playing and watching tennis for years now. She does not remember all of the confusion she had when she started to learn how to play.

Alice has recently started practicing yoga and she is confused by all of the jargon. Yoga like tennis has its own set of jargon.

Learning some of the more common yoga jargon such as asana, drishti, bandha, Ujjayi pranayama and vinyasa will help Alice reduce her confusion and become more comfortable with her yoga practice.

Let’s have a look at each of these terms starting with asana.

What is an Asana

Asana is a Sanskrit word that means pose or position.  There are a very large number of poses that are part of a yoga practice.  There are very simple poses, like sitting on the floor with your legs crossed and there are very challenging poses such as sitting on the floor with your legs crossed behind your head.

All asanas have a Sanskrit name and one or more English names.

There are standing asanas, seated asanas, laying down asanas and balancing asanas.  Each of these poses have alternatives and modifications available if you find the asana too difficult to complete.

Why do Asana

Doing an Asana helps your mind and body in many different ways.  Each asana works on a different part of the body.  One group of asanas will work on making the hip and thigh joint more flexible.  Another group of asanas will help to lengthen your hamstrings.  All asanas work on calming the mind and reducing stress.

Asana is the basic unit of a yoga practice.  It is the most visible aspect of a yoga practice.  The Drishti is another part of yoga and it is not as obvious as a yoga pose or asana.

What is Drishti

Drishti is a the Sanskrit word for gaze point.  In all of the asanas that you practice there is  a suggested drishti or place to gaze towards while you are in the pose.  There are eight gaze points:

• toes,
• fingers,
• tip of the nose,
• over your shoulder to the left,
• over your shoulder to your right,
• towards the sky,
• towards your navel,  and
• towards your third eye.

Why have a gaze point

Combining a asana with the suggested drishti you accomplish two things.   You focus your mind on the pose that you are doing.  You are not looking around at what is going on around you.

The second thing that the drishti accomplishes is that it helps you to move deeper into your asana.  Your body tends to move in the direction that you are looking and most of the times your drishti or gaze point is in the direction that the asana is moving your torso in.

For example in Pashimottanasana, which is a seated forward fold with your legs together out in front of you, the drishti is towards your toes.  Your torso is moving towards your toes and you are looking towards your toes as well. Gazing towards your toes will help your body move a little bit further into the posture.

Asana and Drishti are two important aspects of doing a yoga pose.  The Bandhas are another important aspect of a yoga pose as well.

What is Bandha

A Bandha is a muscle lock.  You bring some tension to a particular set of muscles.  There are three Bandhas commonly used in your yoga practice.

Mula Bandha is performed by raising your pelvic floor.

Uddiyana Bandha is completed by drawing your belly button in towards your spine and up towards your ribs.

And finally you do Jalandhara Bandha by drawing your chin in towards your neck and then dropping your chin down towards your collar bone. Different asanas use different combinations of these bundhas.

Why use Bandhas

When you engage the Bandhas you will be making your yoga practice more energetic.  The bandhas tend to raise the energy up out of your core into the rest of your body.

The bandhas also protect your body from injury.  For example when you engage Uddiyana Bandha you also engage the muscles in your lower back.  When you do a standing forward fold such as Uttanasana you are tipping the top of your hips forward and down and lowering your torso towards the floor.  To protect your lower back in this pose you engage Uddiyana Bandha and this activates the lower back muscles and protects them from being injured.

Pranayama is another component of your yoga practice in addition to Bandha, Drishti and Asana.

What is Ujjayi Pranayama

Pranayama is the breath work within your yoga practice.  Several styles of yoga incorporate a particular style of breathing called Ujjayi breath.  This type of breathing is one of the many forms of Pranayama.

Ujjayi pranayama is a noisy breath.  You can hear and feel your breath in the back of your throat as you breathe in and out.  Ujjayi breath is a deliberate breath, you breathe at a moderate and deliberate rate.

Why do Ujjayi Pranayama

You do the Ujjayi breath for several reasons:

• It heats the body up. You are bring in lots of oxygen into the body with each breath that you take.  All of this fuel increases your bodies metabolism and as a result your body gets hot.  When your body gets hot, your muscles get softer and they will stretch safer than if they were cold.
• The Ujjayi breath helps to pace your practice.  You do the asanas to your breath.  Moving into a pose on the exhale, holding for several breaths and then moving out of the asana on the inhale.
• Because the Ujjayi breath is a deliberate breath you need to keep your mind focused on your breath. Your attention can not wonder or your breath will falter.

The Ujjayi breath is not the only mechanism used to keep the body hot.  The Vinyasa sequence is also used to keep the heat up in the body.

What is Vinyasa

Vinyasa is the connecting movements between yoga poses. These movements are done to the breath.  As you inhale you do one movement and then as you exhale you do the next movement of the vinyasa.

A Vinyasa is one half of a Sun Salute.  When you reach the Downward Facing Dog portion of the Sun Salute you move directly into the next yoga pose.

Why do a Vinyasa

There are several benefits to doing a vinyasa between your asanas.

• A vinyasa helps to reset the body back to a neutral position after completing an asana.  Your muscles and joints will be stretched in a particular way when you are doing an asana.  Once you complete the vinyasa all of your muscles and joints will be in a neutral position and ready to start the next asana.
• When you do a vinyasa you are moving your body through a sequence of moves that require a lot of energy to complete.  All of these movement results in heat being generated in the body.  The heat keeps your muscles warm and protects them from injury.
• A vinyasa keeps your mind focused on your practice.  Because you are moving to the breath through a sequence of movements you need to stay focused on what you are doing.  This focus of your mind helps to reduce the amount of stress that you have in your body.

Summary

So there you have it a quick tour of some of the terms used in a yoga practice.  Asana, the actual pose itself.  Drishti, where to look when you do the asana.  Bandha, which muscles to engage to make your asana more energetic.  Ujjayi Pranayama to heat the body up and Vinyasa to keep the body hot and ready for the next asana.

Once Alice becomes familiar with these terms she will find her yoga practice less confusing and more enjoyable.

She will be as familiar with the yoga jargon as she is with the tennis jargon.  Perhaps next time she does her yoga practice she will ace her asana.

Next Step

If there are still more yoga terms you would like to know about, then make a comment below and tell me about it.