___ASANAS___

Asana is a Body posture, it is a Sanskrit word used to describe a position of the body. Patanjali, the founder of Ashtanga Yoga defines asana as "Steady and comfortable posture". Traditionally many asanas are practiced in Hatha Yoga tradition, primarily to achieve better physical and mental health. Asanas have deep impact on the entire body and mind complex, it affects different systems in the body like muscular, respiratory, circulation, digestive, excretory, reproductive, endocrine, nervous system.

Asanas can be mainly divided into two:  Meditative and Cultural

                                                   

MEDITATIVE ASANAS

                These are cross-legged sitting postures which allow you to sit upright and relaxed for a longer time. They provide a stable seat for meditation. The aim is to train your body so you can sit a long time without moving any part of your body. This is important if you are practicing meditation or pranayama and want to come to a deep concentration.

You should choose the posture that is most comfortable for you and start practicing it for 1-3 minutes. You can increase the length gradually.

OBJECTIVE OF MEDITATIVE POSTURES: Meditative postures are solely intended as aids in the processes of abstraction, concentration, meditation and trance. These Asanas neither meant for bodily ailments nor are expected to possess any therapeutic value, even though some of these have been found to be excellent physical exercises.

CULTURAL ASANAS

                There are three important phases in the practice of cultural asanas — each of them equally important and should be paid equal attention:

·         Coming into the position

·         Holding the position

·         Getting out of the position

                This group contains by far the largest amount of asanas. It is said that there are 84 lakhs (8.4 million) yoga asanas. Of these, 84 are more important and 12 of them constitute the structure of the Rishikesh sequence sometimes called Sivananda series or Yoga Vidya series.

The cultural asanas can be divided in seven groups:

·         Dynamic sequences - such as the sun salutation(surya namaskar)

·         Inverted postures - such as the headstand(shirshasana), shoulderstand(sarvangasana)

·         Forward bending postures - such as the sitting forward bend (paschimottanasana)

·         Backward bending postures - such as the cobra(bhujangasana) , locust(shalabasana) ,  bow (dhanurasana)

·         Twisting postures - such as the half spinal twist(ardha matsyendrasana)

·         Side ward bending postures - such as the triangle(trikonasana) pose

·         Standing postures including balancing poses - such as the tree(vrikshasana) pose.

Every yoga sequence should at least contain one out of every of the groups listed above. If you take one asana of every group, you will move your spine in every direction and use all the muscles of your body. Depending on the order in which you practice they influence the flow of the prana in your body.