Stretch Yoga Teacher Training Brisbane
Module 2: Introduction to Pranayama & Delving Into the 8 Limbs of Yoga
Module 2 in our Yoga Teacher Training program starts with the fundamentals. After learning about the history of yoga, we delve into the philosophy with the eight limbs of raja yoga, followed by the fundamentals of breathing (pranyama).
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of contemporary yoga’s favourite sources of inspiration and guidance on how to live a balanced and ethical life both on and off the mat. While the complete Yoga Sutras (written sometime in the first four centuries CE) consists of 195 (196) aphorisms that yoga scholar David Gordon White calls “a Theory of Everything,” most of modern yoga’s attention is focused on the 31 verses that describe the ‘eight limbs’ of yoga, which form a practical guide on the subject of how to attain liberation from suffering. A study of the history of the Yoga Sutras reveals that much of our understanding of this ancient work has been filtered through numerous commentaries (bhasya) on the original verses.
It's not for nothing that the breath plays an important role in asana class. You begin the class by focusing on your breath, and everything kind of settles down. The day and its activities start seeming more distant, and all of a sudden there is no hurry anywhere anymore.
The breath truly is the key in moving distractions from the mind.
The quality of our breath determines the quality of our lives, and many yogis believe that the length of one's life is determined by number of breaths, not by number of years. The deeper you breathe, the longer you can live. Pranayama is the act of controlling and directing this energy, namely by controlling the flow of breath. Pranayama involves many different breathing techniques that aim at slightly different results.
We can use the breath to calm and balance ourselves, to energise the body and the mind, to cool or heat the body, but it always aims at promoting and maintaining our overall health.
Objectives: To introduce students to the practice of Pranayama including how to teach and contraindications. Students will practice teaching each other as well as participating in guided practices.
To ensure that students have a thorough understanding of the 8 limbs of yoga and their applications not only to yoga classes but to living a yogic lifestyle.
Content:
The Breath and physiology of breathing
The 8 Limbs of Yoga
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of contemporary yoga’s favourite sources of inspiration and guidance on how to live a balanced and ethical life both on and off the mat. While the complete Yoga Sutras (written sometime in the first four centuries CE) consists of 195 (196) aphorisms that yoga scholar David Gordon White calls “a Theory of Everything,” most of modern yoga’s attention is focused on the 31 verses that describe the ‘eight limbs’ of yoga, which form a practical guide on the subject of how to attain liberation from suffering. A study of the history of the Yoga Sutras reveals that much of our understanding of this ancient work has been filtered through numerous commentaries (bhasya) on the original verses.
It's not for nothing that the breath plays an important role in asana class. You begin the class by focusing on your breath, and everything kind of settles down. The day and its activities start seeming more distant, and all of a sudden there is no hurry anywhere anymore.
The breath truly is the key in moving distractions from the mind.
The quality of our breath determines the quality of our lives, and many yogis believe that the length of one's life is determined by number of breaths, not by number of years. The deeper you breathe, the longer you can live. Pranayama is the act of controlling and directing this energy, namely by controlling the flow of breath. Pranayama involves many different breathing techniques that aim at slightly different results.
We can use the breath to calm and balance ourselves, to energise the body and the mind, to cool or heat the body, but it always aims at promoting and maintaining our overall health.
- ‘tasmin sati shvasa prashvsayoh gati vichchhedah pranayamah’ - YS 2.49
Objectives: To introduce students to the practice of Pranayama including how to teach and contraindications. Students will practice teaching each other as well as participating in guided practices.
To ensure that students have a thorough understanding of the 8 limbs of yoga and their applications not only to yoga classes but to living a yogic lifestyle.
Content:
The Breath and physiology of breathing
- Inhalation (Pooraka)
- Exhalation (Recheka)
- Internal breath retention (Antar Kumbhaka)
- External breath retention (Bahir Kumbhaka)
- Abdominal breath
- Thoracic breath
- Clavicular breath
- Complete breath (yogic breathing)
The 8 Limbs of Yoga
- Yamas
- Niyamas
- Asana
- Pranayama
- Pratyahara
- Dharana
- Dyana
- Samadhi