eginners
Most beginners are usually curious about yoga and want to know more before they take their first step. On your first day, you might struggle with sitting cross-legged, and find Sanskrit names challenging, but recognizing the importance of breathing and understanding the mind-body connection can be helpful. Familiarizing yourself with basic concepts and routines before attending can boost your confidence, making yoga a practice you look forward to daily. Yoga is not merely an exercise – it is a complete holistic system, known for balancing the body and mind and for cultivating awareness.
An Introduction to Yoga
Yoga is an ancient practice that originated in India and has its roots in various philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Hinduism. While yoga's origins are deeply connected to Hindu philosophy, it is essential to recognize that yoga itself is not a religious practice. Yoga transcends religious boundaries and can be embraced and practiced by people of any faith or belief system. It is a practical discipline that focuses on personal growth, self-realization, and overall good health.
The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest sacred Sanskrit text – the Rig Veda. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ which means ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. In the spiritual sense, yoga means union of the mind with the divine intelligence of the universe.
Maharshi Patanjali, the founder of the formal yoga philosophy, stated: Yoga is concentration. He also defines yoga as yogas chitta vritti nirodhah which means yoga is the stoppage of the fluctuations of the mind. The scholars of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali take this as the authentic meaning of yoga.
Maharshi Vyasa, the first commentator of yoga sutra has also given one more meaning as yuj samadhau. It means yoga is samadhi. Samadhi is the highest level of concentration where mind gets completely disassociated with external world and gets established in the highest reality.
Vedanta defines yoga as union of individual soul with the universal soul.
The Bhagavad Gita defines yoga in terms of karma by saying yoga karmasu kaushalam which means excellence in work is yoga. It also gives second meaning to yoga as samattvam yoga uchyate which means maintaining the state of mental equilibrium is yoga.
Maharishi Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga
To understand Yoga in its complete form, one must go back to Maharshi Patanjali, who systematized its essence in the Yoga Sutras. In just 196 concise aphorisms, he offered a complete manual for living a life of balance and inner peace.
According to Maharishi Patanjali, there are eight limbs of Yoga known as Ashtanga Yoga (Ashta = eight, Anga = limbs):
Even if you're starting with physical practices, understanding Yama, Niyama, and the structure of Ashtanga Yoga helps you remain aligned with the yogic tradition.
As a beginner, choosing even one Yama or Niyama to practice can give you a solid ethical foundation and enrich your journey.
Hatha Yoga: Ideal for Beginners
Hatha Yoga is a system of yoga. It's noteworthy that through training exercises, Hatha yogis aim to refine not just muscles and the locomotor system, but also the entire human organism, encompassing the mind, nervous system, and vital inner organs.
Hatha Yoga utilizes physical postures and breath control to purify the body and cultivate mental wellness, leading practitioners towards the path of enlightenment.
For beginners, Hatha Yoga is excellent because it’s slow-paced, foundational, and focuses on alignment and breath.
Yoga is for Everyone
You don’t have to be flexible, thin, or young to practice yoga. Yoga meets you exactly where you are. Whether you're 13 or 63, dealing with stress or stiffness, there’s a form of Yoga for you.
From seated stretches to dynamic Yoga flows, from philosophical self-study to powerful Hatha postures — the system is vast and inclusive.
Yoga is More than Just a Physical Practice
For beginners, Yoga often begins as a physical exercise. But with time, it unfolds as a mirror — reflecting your diet, habits, emotions, breath, and energy. The beauty of Yoga lies in this holistic integration of all aspects of life.When you start exploring the wisdom of Maharshi Patanjali, embodying the ethics of Yama and Niyama, practicing Ashtanga Yoga, and aligning with the simplicity of Hatha — you feel a welcome change happening in your mind and body.
Tips for Practicing Yoga Asana
A Simple Beginner’s Guided Sequence
Here is a simple beginner’s guided sequence, as practiced at The Yoga Institute, with a selection of yoga asanas and other techniques:
Conditioning:
Before beginning your yoga practice, it is essential to calm the mind and prepare your body by sitting in a comfortable and steady posture for a few minutes.
Sahaj bhavasanas/ Warming up:
It is necessary to do these Sahaj bhavasanas before the asanas, as they prepare your body by loosening up stiff joints and increase the flexibility of your muscles.
1. Head and neck
Stand with your feet slightly apart.
Inhaling, take your head backwards to gaze upwards. Exhaling, lower your head down and tuck your chin into your throat cavity.
Inhaling, gently drop your head towards your right shoulder. Exhaling, return to the centre. Repeat on the left side and return to the centre.
Inhaling, look over your right shoulder. Exhaling, return to the centre. Repeat on the left side and return to the centre.
Practice each variation thrice.
2. Shoulders
Stand with your feet slightly apart and keep your hands by your side. Roll your fingers into fists. Inhaling, lift up both arms together from the front, take them all the way up and exhaling bring them down with a backward rotation of the shoulders. Repeat thrice. Reverse direction of hands from back to front and repeat thrice.
3. Hands
Interlace your fingers with palms facing the chest. Inhaling, stretch them away from your body while gently turning your palms outwards. Repeat thrice.
4. Wrists
Lift arms from the front and keep them parallel with the floor at your shoulder level. Roll your fingers into fists and rotate them first clockwise and then with anti-clockwise movement. Repeat 15 times.
5. Trunk
Stand with legs hip-width apart and place your hands on your waist. Looking in front move from the waist in circular motion as if moving an imaginary hula hoop. Go clockwise and anticlockwise thrice.
6. Ankles
Stand with feet together. Stretch out your right leg in the front and move the ankle in clockwise direction thrice and repeat the same in the anticlockwise direction. Repeat with the left leg.
Yoga Asanas
The aim of practicing yoga asanas or bodily postures is not just to improve the tone of your muscles. Maharshi Patanjali states ‘Sthira Sukham Asanam’. ‘Sthira’ means steady and ‘Sukham’ means that which brings happiness or comfort. In other words, any asana should be stable and should be comfortable.
Ancient yogis drew inspiration from nature and chose a few characteristics of animals, insects, birds and plants when conceptualizing some cultural asanas. Such asanas that are inspired by nature greatly improve flexibility. On the whole, a combination of different asanas enhances the functioning of the digestive, circulatory, skeletal, muscular, respiratory and other systems in our bodies.
Here is a selection of asanas for beginners - upward stretching, inversion, sidewards bending, forward and backward bending and twisting which give various types of movements to the vertebral column. The muscles of the spine need to be well-toned in order to keep the spine straight. Without proper exercises, the back muscles become weak thus causing deviations in the spine.
Meditative Asanas
Asanas for vertebral column – upward stretch
Asana for vertebral column – forward bending
Asana for vertebral column – backward bending
Asanas for vertebral column – sideward bending
Asana for vertebral column – torsion of the spine
Asana for extremities
Asana for abdominal compression
Asanas for relaxation
Pranayama
Guided Meditation
More yogic techniques can be accessed by beginners on the Nispand App launched by The Yoga Institute.
Yoga Tips for Beginners
If you want to start a yoga practice, here are some tips for you:
Before Starting Your Yoga Practice
During Your Yoga Practice
After Your Yoga Practice
It is important not to have unrealistic expectations from the practice in the beginning. Remember everybody is different and stop comparing with others. Yoga is never about competition. If you experience pain in any of the postures, just stop doing those postures for some time. Some postures feel amazing and some bring discomfort, but you must always avoid pain. If you have any health issues, please consult your doctor before taking up yoga. Also let your yoga teacher know about your limitations, if any, before the class. The best thing for a beginner to do is to start and then stay consistent with a regular practice.
Yoga is about holistic well-being. So, breathe deeply, and let the flow of yoga transform your body and mind. As you nurture yourself through yoga, you’ll find yourself becoming truly contented in life.
eginners
Most beginners are usually curious about yoga and want to know more before they take their first step. On your first day, you might struggle with sitting cross-legged, and find Sanskrit names challenging, but recognizing the importance of breathing and understanding the mind-body connection can be helpful. Familiarizing yourself with basic concepts and routines before attending can boost your confidence, making yoga a practice you look forward to daily. Yoga is not merely an exercise – it is a complete holistic system, known for balancing the body and mind and for cultivating awareness.
An Introduction to Yoga
Yoga is an ancient practice that originated in India and has its roots in various philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Hinduism. While yoga's origins are deeply connected to Hindu philosophy, it is essential to recognize that yoga itself is not a religious practice. Yoga transcends religious boundaries and can be embraced and practiced by people of any faith or belief system. It is a practical discipline that focuses on personal growth, self-realization, and overall good health.
The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest sacred Sanskrit text – the Rig Veda. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ which means ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. In the spiritual sense, yoga means union of the mind with the divine intelligence of the universe.
Maharshi Patanjali, the founder of the formal yoga philosophy, stated: Yoga is concentration. He also defines yoga as yogas chitta vritti nirodhah which means yoga is the stoppage of the fluctuations of the mind. The scholars of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali take this as the authentic meaning of yoga.
Maharshi Vyasa, the first commentator of yoga sutra has also given one more meaning as yuj samadhau. It means yoga is samadhi. Samadhi is the highest level of concentration where mind gets completely disassociated with external world and gets established in the highest reality.
Vedanta defines yoga as union of individual soul with the universal soul.
The Bhagavad Gita defines yoga in terms of karma by saying yoga karmasu kaushalam which means excellence in work is yoga. It also gives second meaning to yoga as samattvam yoga uchyate which means maintaining the state of mental equilibrium is yoga.
Maharishi Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga
To understand Yoga in its complete form, one must go back to Maharshi Patanjali, who systematized its essence in the Yoga Sutras. In just 196 concise aphorisms, he offered a complete manual for living a life of balance and inner peace.
According to Maharishi Patanjali, there are eight limbs of Yoga known as Ashtanga Yoga (Ashta = eight, Anga = limbs):
Even if you're starting with physical practices, understanding Yama, Niyama, and the structure of Ashtanga Yoga helps you remain aligned with the yogic tradition.
As a beginner, choosing even one Yama or Niyama to practice can give you a solid ethical foundation and enrich your journey.
Hatha Yoga: Ideal for Beginners
Hatha Yoga is a system of yoga. It's noteworthy that through training exercises, Hatha yogis aim to refine not just muscles and the locomotor system, but also the entire human organism, encompassing the mind, nervous system, and vital inner organs.
Hatha Yoga utilizes physical postures and breath control to purify the body and cultivate mental wellness, leading practitioners towards the path of enlightenment.
For beginners, Hatha Yoga is excellent because it’s slow-paced, foundational, and focuses on alignment and breath.
Yoga is for Everyone
You don’t have to be flexible, thin, or young to practice yoga. Yoga meets you exactly where you are. Whether you're 13 or 63, dealing with stress or stiffness, there’s a form of Yoga for you.
From seated stretches to dynamic Yoga flows, from philosophical self-study to powerful Hatha postures — the system is vast and inclusive.
Yoga is More than Just a Physical Practice
For beginners, Yoga often begins as a physical exercise. But with time, it unfolds as a mirror — reflecting your diet, habits, emotions, breath, and energy. The beauty of Yoga lies in this holistic integration of all aspects of life.When you start exploring the wisdom of Maharshi Patanjali, embodying the ethics of Yama and Niyama, practicing Ashtanga Yoga, and aligning with the simplicity of Hatha — you feel a welcome change happening in your mind and body.
Tips for Practicing Yoga Asana
A Simple Beginner’s Guided Sequence
Here is a simple beginner’s guided sequence, as practiced at The Yoga Institute, with a selection of yoga asanas and other techniques:
Conditioning:
Before beginning your yoga practice, it is essential to calm the mind and prepare your body by sitting in a comfortable and steady posture for a few minutes.
Sahaj bhavasanas/ Warming up:
It is necessary to do these Sahaj bhavasanas before the asanas, as they prepare your body by loosening up stiff joints and increase the flexibility of your muscles.
1. Head and neck
Stand with your feet slightly apart.
Inhaling, take your head backwards to gaze upwards. Exhaling, lower your head down and tuck your chin into your throat cavity.
Inhaling, gently drop your head towards your right shoulder. Exhaling, return to the centre. Repeat on the left side and return to the centre.
Inhaling, look over your right shoulder. Exhaling, return to the centre. Repeat on the left side and return to the centre.
Practice each variation thrice.
2. Shoulders
Stand with your feet slightly apart and keep your hands by your side. Roll your fingers into fists. Inhaling, lift up both arms together from the front, take them all the way up and exhaling bring them down with a backward rotation of the shoulders. Repeat thrice. Reverse direction of hands from back to front and repeat thrice.
3. Hands
Interlace your fingers with palms facing the chest. Inhaling, stretch them away from your body while gently turning your palms outwards. Repeat thrice.
4. Wrists
Lift arms from the front and keep them parallel with the floor at your shoulder level. Roll your fingers into fists and rotate them first clockwise and then with anti-clockwise movement. Repeat 15 times.
5. Trunk
Stand with legs hip-width apart and place your hands on your waist. Looking in front move from the waist in circular motion as if moving an imaginary hula hoop. Go clockwise and anticlockwise thrice.
6. Ankles
Stand with feet together. Stretch out your right leg in the front and move the ankle in clockwise direction thrice and repeat the same in the anticlockwise direction. Repeat with the left leg.
Yoga Asanas
The aim of practicing yoga asanas or bodily postures is not just to improve the tone of your muscles. Maharshi Patanjali states ‘Sthira Sukham Asanam’. ‘Sthira’ means steady and ‘Sukham’ means that which brings happiness or comfort. In other words, any asana should be stable and should be comfortable.
Ancient yogis drew inspiration from nature and chose a few characteristics of animals, insects, birds and plants when conceptualizing some cultural asanas. Such asanas that are inspired by nature greatly improve flexibility. On the whole, a combination of different asanas enhances the functioning of the digestive, circulatory, skeletal, muscular, respiratory and other systems in our bodies.
Here is a selection of asanas for beginners - upward stretching, inversion, sidewards bending, forward and backward bending and twisting which give various types of movements to the vertebral column. The muscles of the spine need to be well-toned in order to keep the spine straight. Without proper exercises, the back muscles become weak thus causing deviations in the spine.
Meditative Asanas
Asanas for vertebral column – upward stretch
Asana for vertebral column – forward bending
Asana for vertebral column – backward bending
Asanas for vertebral column – sideward bending
Asana for vertebral column – torsion of the spine
Asana for extremities
Asana for abdominal compression
Asanas for relaxation
Pranayama
Guided Meditation
More yogic techniques can be accessed by beginners on the Nispand App launched by The Yoga Institute.
Yoga Tips for Beginners
If you want to start a yoga practice, here are some tips for you:
Before Starting Your Yoga Practice
During Your Yoga Practice
After Your Yoga Practice
It is important not to have unrealistic expectations from the practice in the beginning. Remember everybody is different and stop comparing with others. Yoga is never about competition. If you experience pain in any of the postures, just stop doing those postures for some time. Some postures feel amazing and some bring discomfort, but you must always avoid pain. If you have any health issues, please consult your doctor before taking up yoga. Also let your yoga teacher know about your limitations, if any, before the class. The best thing for a beginner to do is to start and then stay consistent with a regular practice.
Yoga is about holistic well-being. So, breathe deeply, and let the flow of yoga transform your body and mind. As you nurture yourself through yoga, you’ll find yourself becoming truly contented in life.