Yoga
This page was written by Greg Higgly, as part of his internship project at Sterling Studios. He gathered information from personal interviews and from various yoga texts.

What sets Kripalu Yoga apart
A yoga of consciousness:

• You use the asana to discover yourself, rather than just using yourself to perfect asana
• First, listen to your body, then focus your mind in “double-arrowed awareness” (where you are aware of yourself internally and externally, as to realize the changes in sensation, emotion, and thought by the moment

Practice relating to your everyday life-
Physical and emotional benefits of practice:

• The awareness that you reach in practice puts you in a state of “witness consciousness,” allowing the double-arrowed awareness throughout the day
  

Helps you move on:

• Clients have been known to change the factors of their lives that are limiting, like their careers, locations, self-destroying behavior, etc.
• It helps you to conquer things from the past and present which worsen your living quality.

Yoga Therapy:

• Phoenix Rising is yoga therapy, which is used to help people cope with or change things that limit them, like fears, destructive relationships, bad memories, etc.
• Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy is practiced in individual sessions between the teacher and the client where the teacher assists the client in postures to achieve the goals from above.

Press Points
The press points help you move into the asana the way that it best fits your body:

• They are simple, so that your mind can relax and release the notion that you need to perfect the asana They assure proper alignment:
• This allows your body to stretch out as far as possible for you in a safe, supported way
• The automatic alignment lets your body go to it’s own limit without forcing, keeping you relaxed

Crown of Head:

• Top center of skull
• When pressed upward, it lengthens the spine
• To use it, you lengthen your neck, keeping your chin parallel to the floor Chest Points:
• 2 points in line w/ earlobes about 2 inches below collar bones
• Pressing outward into them allows lung expansion, torso straightening, and shoulder blade alignment Hip Bones:
• Front facing points of pelvic bowl
• Pressing into them keeps the gluteal folds firm, allowing more support for the lower back in backward bending postures

Hips:

• Just below the hip bones, at the head of the femur (top leg bone)
• Pressing into them creates a side stretch, helping balance the work done on either side Sitz Bones:
• The bones that you sit on
• Used mainly in seated postures, where you press them into the ground to elongate the spine

Soles of the Feet

• Bottoms of your feet, heel to ball
• Pressed into the ground by focusing your consciousness on them. Imagine pressing your feet into the Earth w/o bending your knees
• Gives grounding, stability, and balance in standing and balancing asana. Allows entire body’s extension and a direction for your energy

Tailbone

• Above and in between Sitz Bones.
• Used in bending asana to assure the bending of the hips, rather than the lower back. Can also shift the stretching to the back of legs. Wing Points:
• Lower, inner shoulder blades
• Used one at a time in spinal twists. Pressing into one gives the best possible twist

Tell your teacher if you:

• Have weak back muscles
• Are pregnant
• Have recently had surgery
• Have recently had a chronic injury or inflammation
• Have high or low blood pressure, a heart condition, or a nervous disorder
• Are menstruating
• Have weak knees
• Have shoulder problems
• Feel any discomfort during a posture
• Have any chronic disorders
• Have any eye or inner ear problems
• Have tight muscles
• Have stiff hips
• Have sensitive joints, bones, etc.
• Have sciatica
• Are constipated
• Of any slipped disks or hernias
• Stiff shoulders
• Weak or sensitive knees
• Stiff hips or legs
• General or extreme inflexibility

Asana Benefits

Boat (Navasana)
Health Benefits:

• “Strengthens back muscles”
• Irrigates kidneys
• Rejuvenates your endocrine system
• “Aligns the spinal column”
• “Expands chest, strengthens lungs”
• Good abdominal stretch, strengthener, and toner, as well as being a good toner for the buttocks, thighs, and legs
• Tones ovaries and uterus in women R

Bound Angle (Baddha Konasana)
Health Benefits:

• Stretch for entire backside of body
• Increases spine and hip flexibility
• Strengthens hips, thighs, and abs
• Irrigates kidneys
• Massages, oxygenates, and decongests organs in the abdomen
• Tones and stimulates the pancreas, liver, gall bladder, kidneys, spleen, intestines, gonads, and bladder
• Increases sexual vitality and control
• Helps relieve hemorrhoids

Bridge (Setu Bandasana)
Health Benefits:

• Strengthens shoulders, back, and legs
• Regulates thyroid function
• Irrigates the kidneys
• Stimulates adrenal glands
• Aligns and improves elasticity of spine
• Expands chest and lungs
• Stretches abs
• Tones abs and abdominal organs
• Tones/strengthens buttocks, thighs, and legs

Child (Garbhasana):
Health Benefits:

• Calming
• Counter stretch for backward bends
• Increases hip & thigh flexibility
• MOD abdominal organs
• Tones/stimulates panc, liv, gall, , kid, sple, inte, gona, and blad
• Improves peristaltic action in the intestines
• “Stimulates digestion and elimination”
• Relieves gas
• Helps relieve constipation and hemorrhoids

Cobra (Bhujangasana)
Health Benefits:

• Strengthens wrists, arms, shoulders, and the back muscles
• Irrigates kidneys
• Invigorates and decongests the nervous system
• Aligns spine
• Expands chest and lungs
• Expands and strengthens abs and viscera
• Tones arteries and uterus Relieves menstrual cramps and pain, as well as pains accompanying menopause

Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha svanasana)
Health Benefits:

• Tones/lengthens spine
• Stim/Decong nervous system
• Irrigates kidneys
• Irrigates and Oxygenates the brain, stimulates mental functions, improves memory and concentration, and helps to relieve some headaches
• Regulates pituitary and hypothalamus glands
• Improves eyesight and hearing
• Revitalizes facial skin tone
• Can prevent or reverse baldness and graying by nourishing hair roots
• Arm, shoulder, and back strengthener
• Expands chest and lungs
• Strengthens and slims abs, hips, and thighs
• Relives some types of sciatica by stretching the entirety of the backs of your legs Increases blood and lymph circulation

Fish (Matsyasana)
Health Benefits

• Opens the Chest and lungs
• Alleviates asthma and respiratory complaints Invigorates throat and thyroid Eases stiffness in the shoulders
• Elasticizes neck and spine
• Stimulates muscles and nerves along the spine
• Soothes the nervous system
• Detoxification for kidneys and balance for adrenal glands
• Stimulates pancreas, relives hypoglycemic symptoms, and helps prevent diabetes
• Opens and decongests the abdomen
• Massages viscera, liver and spleen
• Stimulates pelvic organs, especially the reproductive ones, esp. ovaries
• Releases grief by opening the heart chakra

Frog (Mandukasana) HealthBenefits

• Opens Inner Groin and adductor muscles
• Relaxes the lateral rotators and can relieve some forms of sciatica
• Builds confidence, security, and connections with the earth
• Preps for lat. Poses like Warrior 2 and Triangle
• Stimulates concentration and acceptance of sensation and deepens yoga practice skills

Great Seal (Maha Mudra)
Health Benefits

• Stretches entire backside of body
• Back, shoulder, arm strengthener
• Stimulates nervous system
• Increases sexual vitality and control
• Spinal lengthener
• Increases the flexibility in the in hips and spine
• Helps some sciatica
• Stretches the backs of both legs entirely.
• Massages & tones abs and viscera
• Helps relieve hemorrhoids & constipation
• Strengthens immune system through increase in circulation