Exploring the Doshas in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Exploring the Doshas in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Enrolling in Advanced Yoga Teacher Training (RYT500) will give you the freedom to concentrate on one or more aspects of yoga that your initial yoga teacher training omits. The art and science of teaching yoga develop with additional education, such as the 300-hour RYT courses.
Of particular interest to study is Ayurveda and how this ancient healing process seamlessly integrates with your yoga teachings. Learning the fundamental principles of Ayurveda and the Doshas improves the relationship to your clients, as you can better serve their dosha balances and needs.
Introduction to Ayurveda
Ayurveda is an ancient healing system, an excellent balance of science, tradition, and holistic wellness. The original text about Ayurveda is The Caraka Samhita, written between 1500 and 5 B.C.E. This holistic scripture discusses lifestyle, diet, disease, and even embryology.
Four purposes comprise life in Ayurveda, working together to achieve long-lasting health and life. These purposes are Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Dharma describes the following in a virtuous path, and Artha addresses collecting wealth. Kama addresses fulfilling your dreams and experiencing pleasures and desires. If all three of these are found and achieved, Moksha - achieving salvation - occurs.
The Doshas
Also within Ayurveda are the Doshas. Everyone and everything in the world has a basic constitution - qualities that make up that person or thing. In Ayurveda, air, fire, water, space, and earth combine in various combinations to create doshas. There are three doshas, and everyone is a unique blend of the three. Some people are tridoshic, meaning the doshas are equally balanced. When the doshas are highly imbalanced and extreme, the body and mind become unbalanced, and disease can set in.
Kapha is the earth and water dosha. Kapha also corresponds to the 1st and 2nd chakras of muladhara and swadhisthana respectively. Qualities of kapha include clear and sometimes oily skin, dark wavy hair, large eyes, and a strong body that tends to gain weight. This dosha is also associated with the winter season.
The Pitta dosha represents fire and water, and is associated with the 2nd chakra swadhisthana and the 3rd chakra manipura. Pitta characteristics include freckled and flushed skin, light or red hair, and light eyes. The body shape is balanced, and weight fluctuations are easy. Pitta is associated with the spring and summer seasons.
The Vata dosha represents air and links to the 4th chakra - anahata. Vata elements include dry and olive tinted skin, dark hair, and small eyes. The body is wispy and light, and hands and feet may be cold. Fall is the season associated with the Vata dosha.
Yoga and the Doshas
While teaching yoga, your clients are your guide. Their particular dosha composition, and the season, give you valuable feedback on what sequencing and poses are beneficial to bring the mind and body back into balance.
All aspects of Ayurveda - diet, asana, pranayama, season, routines, and meditation - vary from dosha to dosha. For example, the kapha dosha benefits from vigor, like a fast-pased vinyasa class or more challenging asana and complex sequencing. Pitta types benefit from cooling yoga practice, stressing inward reflection. Vata types find slow and restorative hatha practices beneficial.
Blending pranayama into your yoga teaching is another way to address the doshas. The kapha dosha relates to kapalabhati pranayama, and the breath of fire. Any time the breath can heat, as with suyra bhedana, the kapha imbalance subsides. The pitta dosha benefits from calming pranayama, avoiding the kapha positive pranayama. Focus instead on sitali or sitkhari pranayama. Vata types need to balance with kapalabhati in moderation and focus on jalandhara bandha to equalize.
Yoga and the doshas away from the yoga mat
Perhaps one of the most fulfilling roles of being a yoga teacher is giving your clients the tools to bring yoga and Ayurveda home. Use your newfound understanding of doshas to enable your clients to explore their doshas in-depth and find lifestyle solutions. Teaching routines, simple pranayama, and appropriate asana and encouraging them to practice away from you will solidify a habit that benefits many aspects of their physical and mental health.
Pursue Advanced Yoga Teacher Training and Learn More About Exploring the Doshas – Training Now Available Online!
Learning more about the doshas and Ayurveda in continuing education also gives you the knowledge to specialize your teachings, and conduct comprehensive Ayurvedic seminars and workshops.
As a yoga teacher, pursuing advanced teacher training will ensure a long career and help you reach more clients than before. To learn more about this topic, reach out to us at PremaYogaInstitute.com and we will be happy to help! Also, we’d love for you to consider enrolling in our next Online and RYT Accredited course below:
Online Education: Yoga Therapeutics Essentials:
Introduction to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga
Exploring the doshas (body/personality types) as inspiration in practice and teaching.
Adjusting the yoga practice for time of year, time of day, and time of life.
Bringing your practice off the mat in a practical, holistic way.
Using intake to personalize the yoga practice for your clients.
Yoga Therapeutics Essentials program format features:
Convenient self study hours
3 weeks of meaningful live hours with your faculty and cohort
Option to complete online or in person for selected hours at Pure Yoga in New York City
In-person registrants receive one month of complimentary yoga classes at Pure Yoga through February (for non-members only)
LEARN MORE AT: PREMAYOGAINSTITUTE.COM
Prema Yoga Institute is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Ayurveda and Heart Wellness
Ayurveda and Heart Wellness
Yoga teachers know first-hand that Ayurveda is a whole-body system of wellness and longevity based on the balance between mind, spirit, and body. Ayurveda seeks not to cure disease but to promote wellness and overall health. Ayurveda has guided meaningful change in the lives of practitioners for over 3,000 years.
Just in time for Prema Yoga Institute’s upcoming Yoga Therapeutics Essentials course (which features an “Introduction to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga”), we will take a closer look at ayurveda and heart wellness in today’s blog.
A brief overview of Ayurveda
Ayurvedic beliefs center around the connection between everything in the universe, regardless of life or lack of energy. Five elements in the universe create these connections - air, fire, water, space, and earth. These five elements combine to create three doshas within the body - the energetic life forces within. Everyone has three doshas - kapha, pitta, and vata - in varying degrees of balance. It is usual for one dosha to be dominant to the others.
When the body's natural balance is disrupted, the body has a logical unease. Ayurveda believes that doshas correlate to bodily functions, and illness results from an imbalance in the doshas. Injuries, sickness, seasons, a poor diet, inappropriate exercise, and aging disrupt this balance.
Ayruvedic principles and the heart
The human heart is the center of the body - physically and spiritually. Heart wellness requires sustaining the emotional health and physical health of this life-giving organ.
The heart is the hub of the doshas, and the ojas - the core of immune functions and liveliness. Additionally, srotamsi transverse the heart. These internal channels of waste, energy, sensations, and nutrients also transport blood throughout the body. The body's nadis also integrate through the heart. Nadis are energy paths of the subtle human body that move prana, or life-force energy, throughout.
The heart is also the anahata chakra. This chakra is the energy center for forgiveness, love, and understanding. The heart is truy the center of the body and spirit, and maintaining the heart's vitality is central to life.
Heart wellness with Ayurveda
Yoga teachers with advanced training know that Ayurveda is a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and can exist parallel with modern health care treatments and practices.
To enhance heart wellness, yoga teachers often train to instruct clients to focus on these general principles of Ayurveda:
stress reduction
health via diet
proper and fulfilling sleep
appropriate exercise
creating worthwhile schedules and habits
When the body and mind have a routine and schedule, there is a certainty to the day, and priorities for healing and health will be honored. The daily schedule will address the diet, rest, exercise, and meditative activities that improve the quality of life and incorporate actions that influence positive heart wellness. One’s particular routine should align with her unique doshas. When all of these actions in a schedule align, the body comes into balance.
Ayurveda also suggests that sleep be regular, and one should awaken close to sunrise. Our natural sleep cycles align with nightfall. One’s morning routine should include self-care rituals including voiding the bladder and bowels, practicing dental hygiene, and attending to the skin and sinuses. Using oils for skin health and neti pots for nasal cleansing are suggested.
Incorporating pranayama, movement, and centering meditation into the day is encouraged. All three yoga activities will promote physical and emotional well-being and actively reduce everyday stresses.
Ayurveda also includes the daily consumption of healthy foods. One’s dosha may influence the types of foods and drink that suit a person best. Eating to honor a kapha dosha involves vegetarian meals, the pitta dosha benefits from an alkalizing diet, and the vata dosha enjoys a diet free from sugars.
Dive deeper into Ayurveda and Heart Wellness
Ayurveda is a time-honored and holistic approach to cardiac wellness. With the proper training, there is room in everyday life and modern health care to incorporate these Ayruvedic principles and practices seamlessly with many health treatments.
As a yoga teacher, pursuing advanced teacher training in Ayurveda will is essential. To learn more about this topic, reach out to us at PremaYogaInstitute.com and we will be happy to help! Also, we’d love for you to consider enrolling in our next Online and RYT Accredited course below:
In fact – you’re invited to enroll in our upcoming Yoga Therapeutics Essentials program, which includes:
Introduction to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga
Exploring the doshas (body/personality types) as inspiration in practice and teaching.
Adjusting the yoga practice for time of year, time of day, and time of life.
Bringing your practice off the mat in a practical, holistic way.
Using intake to personalize the yoga practice for your clients.
Yoga Therapeutics Essentials program format features:
Convenient self study hours
3 weeks of meaningful live hours with your faculty and cohort
Option to complete online or in person for selected hours at Pure Yoga in New York City
In-person registrants receive one month of complimentary yoga classes at Pure Yoga through February (for non-members only)
LEARN MORE AT: PREMAYOGAINSTITUTE.COM
Prema Yoga Institute is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.
Learning Yoga Modifications to Support Mental Wellness
Learning Yoga Modifications to Support Mental Wellness
Yoga has the unique ability to combine physical movement and mindfulness. Practitioners can let go of the past and future, while embracing the now. From research and anecdotal experiences, yoga teachers know first-hand that yoga reduces stress and improves mental focus. Yoga also provides patience, compassion, and confidence.
Teaching yoga requires that all body shapes, diseases, and mindsets are welcome. This blog will give a general overview of ways to create a more accessible space for the body and mind from the faculty at Prema Yoga Institute (RYS300).
Create a space in your Yoga instruction that better supports mental wellness
Teaching yoga has many layers - sequencing, music, lighting, tone, and messaging. The priority of any yoga session is accessibility and safety so that all participants feel welcome and allowed to explore their bodies and minds.
When addressing mental wellness specifically, the session becomes more accessible when a few things happen. When movement is guided in a non-competitive manner, clients are not distracted by others in the room. There should be an emphasis on mindful and slow breathing, to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. Offer postures and modifications to include all clients, and eliminate some postures from your sequencing that exclude clients.
Teach yoga with awareness, watching your clients for signs of stress and exertion. How are your clients breathing? Are their eyes wandering or the bodies falling out of poses? Do you sense there is a strain to the practice? There's a fine line between encouragement and pushing into an unsafe space.
Yoga's contraindications to mental wellness
Anxiety and depression are two unique situations where the body's movements directly impact the mental state. Some yoga postures are more appropriate than others to address these states.
Generally speaking, anxious clients benefit from closing poses such as forward folds. Conversely, depressive conditions benefit from opening poses.
Teaching yoga for these conditions, often not divulged by the student, requires practiced observation and tact. Learning to read eyes, breath, and subtle movements as you guide can give clues to your clients’ needs.
Guide for the mind
Include aspects of meditation and pranayama as you guide yoga for mental wellness. Pair this with compassionate responses to known stressors to alleviate anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia, and high-stress levels. Yoga can help a yogi down from an agitated state of mind and into a more peaceful place.
Have the same purpose as you expertly guide asana to transform the mind from its heightened "fight or flight" state into the peaceful "rest and digest" state. What's good for the body is also good for the mind. Consider the sequencing and pace of asana, the particular poses, and their relationship to mental wellness. Asana may need to become more restorative or slow.
Weave pranayama into your classes, and use guided meditations before and after practice to center the experience. All efforts to reinforce the mind-body connection help your clients adjust behaviors and attitudes to reflect positive mental wellness.
Take yoga home
Yoga has the distinct honor of targeting unmanaged stress, and advanced yoga teachers encourage their instruction go home with their clients. When yoga blends into daily life, self-awareness increases, and the student gains more freedom and influence over their mental wellness. Your repetition of simple sequences and breathing exercises help your clients care for themselves, as these practices are easily duplicated off the yoga mat.
It's not easy to incorporate these techniques and teaching methodologies into a yoga session. Exploring your yoga education with continuing education classes, immersive courses, and RYT300 and RYT500 programs provide an opportunity to learn and practice new teaching skills.
If you are interested in advanced yoga teacher training, consider contacting us today at PremaYogaInstitute.com or check out our upcoming Yoga Therapeutics Essentials course below.
While you’re here - learn how you can enroll in our upcoming and accredited Yoga Therapeutics Essentials program, which is available in-person and online:
CREDIT
Successful completion of this course provides the following credit simultaneously:
100 hours towards an Advanced 300 Yoga Teacher Certificate from Pure Yoga to submit to Yoga Alliance
100 hours towards PYI's IAYT-accredited 850-hour Yoga Therapy Certificate Program (additional prerequisites apply)
Yoga for All Bodies
Review anatomy, detailing how to prevent injuries in yoga and support rehabilitation.
Create accessible classes for Back Care, Older Populations, and Beginners.
Adjust one-on-one yoga for back care, joint health, and proper alignment.
How to make yoga accessible with chair yoga and sequences at the wall.
Adapt the practice for osteoporosis, scoliosis, arthritis, common injuries, the effects of aging, and more.
Pranayama, Philosophy, Meditations
The science of breathing.
The path of health and wellness in the Yoga Sutras.
Modifying the practice when anxiety, depression, and mixed anxiety/depression may be present
Meditations for balance and wellness.
How to integrate meditation into your Slow Flow and Restorative classes effectively.
Restorative Yoga Essentials
The science behind down-regulating yoga.
“High prop” and “low prop” options to practice restorative anywhere.
Acupressure points for self-massage and energetic flow.
Building a successful restorative class that’s modified for the seasons and for your clients’ needs.
Slow Flow Essentials
The neurological argument for slow flow and restorative yoga.
Desikachar-inspired sequences to move the lymph and support immunity.
Normalizing props to make vinyasa accessible to all bodies.
The physiological basis behind warm-ups Sequencing for ease and sustainability.
How to create a calm and meditative flow.
How to build heat with a limited range of motion.
Sequencing for the Seasons.
Introduction to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga
Exploring the doshas (body/personality types) as inspiration in practice and teaching.
Adjusting the yoga practice for time of year, time of day, and time of life.
Bringing your practice off the mat in a practical, holistic way.
Using intake to personalize the yoga practice for your clients.
Care for the Caregiver Focus: Restorative Yoga
Yoga Therapeutics Essentials program format features:
Convenient self study hours
3 weeks of meaningful live hours with your faculty and cohort
Option to complete online or in person for selected hours at Pure Yoga in New York City
In-person registrants receive one month of complimentary yoga classes at Pure Yoga through February (for non-members only)
LEARN MORE AT: PREMAYOGAINSTITUTE.COM
Prema Yoga Institute is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
If you found this information useful, visit our Blog often or subscribe to our Mailing List for similar content.