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Sue Joy’s canine companion, Traffic, 11, masters a sun salutation during a “doga” (dog yoga) class in August among the sunflowers at Campell’s Cross Farm in Caledon. Yoga with animals is one of the many contemporary variations of the ancient practice.
pick your pose All yoga classes are not the same. BY NICOL A ROSS
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o some, yoga has come a long way since it was first practised about 5,000 years ago. To others, it has lost its way. As much fun as yoga with babies, with pets and on stand-up paddleboards may be, some believe classes like these aren’t in keeping with a practice meant to lead to “the union of individual consciousness with that
of the Universal Consciousness, indicating a perfect harmony between the mind and body...,” as described by Ishwar V. Basavaraddi, director of the government-sanctioned Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga in India. The path people take in search of that union is a matter of individual choice, but my preference is plain old yoga. This is what works for me. I leave a class
Types of yoga This is a guide to the main types of yoga, but keep in mind that new approaches are constantly being developed. One of them may suit you to a T.
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Vinyasa The most athletic Hatha Physical-based, but suitable for beginners
feeling more agile and an inch taller. I may not be in perfect harmony, but I’m in a lot better state of mind than when I rushed into the classroom a few minutes late. As the proliferation of specialized yoga-with and yoga-for classes suggests, there are now so many different types of this ancient practice, and so many studios and instructors available, that it can be confusing. The trick is
Iyengar Great when recuperating from an injury Kundalini Fast-moving physical and breathing exercises
to understand that all classes are not the same. Yoga comprises many types and degrees of difficulty, taught by instructors who bring their own style. As a result, it can take time to find the class(es) and teacher(s) that suit you. I asked Caron Shepley, my instructor and the founder of Blue Dog Yoga and Healing, why she practises yoga. I had expected her to say it improves flexibility or even strength, but instead, she said, “I would sum it up in one word: balance.” By “balance,” she wasn’t referring to the ability to stand on one foot doing tree pose for minutes at a time. She meant the balance among body, mind and spirit. I get the body part of yoga. Yoga improves my flexibility and my strength; hence I can slip easily into my kayak and paddle hard for hours on end. I even understand the mind part. When I get into a 60-minute class, especially if it includes new or more taxing poses or “postures,” as the moves performed in yoga are called, I usually forget, if temporarily, the concerns that have been dogging me all day. As they say, I’m more in the moment. But spirit? What did Caron mean by spirit? Basavaraddi makes it clear that yoga doesn’t adhere to any religion or belief system, so it isn’t that kind of spirit. As he has explained it, the word yoga derives from the Sanskrit word yuj, which translates as “to join,” “to yoke” or “to unite.” The balance, or the joining of mind and body, is said to lead to nirvana. I can appreciate what this means, but that is not why I do yoga, and I doubt it’s the incentive for those who attend classes with their babies or their pets. Animals are known to have a calming effect on people, and the increasingly popular yoga-with-animals classes are often
Ashtanga Physically demanding, for more advanced yogis Hot (Bikram) Practised in a hot room
Yin Slow stretching for long duration Restorative Relaxing for body and mind
