Vinyasa Yoga

In our Western take on the vinyasa style of yoga….

The movement is coordinated with the breath.

“Inhale: raise your arms. Exhale: swan dive.”

That’s not all. Your inhales and exhales initiate your movement, but they also encompass your movement.

“Use your whole inhale to raise your arms. Use your whole exhale to swan dive.”

And that’s not all. Truly, any attention on the breath is considered by many teachers to be vinyasa. As my teacher Rodney Yee says, “if you take a breath, you’re doing vinyasa.”

In most vinyasa classes in the US, poses are done in sequence with the transitions between poses happening on an inhale or exhale. This isn’t a hard + fast rule; and it’s not one I follow. Some of my classes run this way, but at times I hold poses, even if the attention is still on the breath. Slowing down and being still allows for study.

In India, where yoga originated, the Sanskrit term vinyasa is broken down into vi - in a special way, and nyasa - to place. As you can see, this doesn’t pertain only to the breath. T. Krishnamacharya, the grandfather of modern yoga, spoke about vinyasa as a dedication, a way of life, a process.

Harmony appears when we become aware.

Vinyasa is a process that creates harmony.