What is Pranayama?

ByAaron Fleming April 21, 2018March 16, 2021

Pranayama, the yogic art of breathing, leads to a control of the emotions which in turn brings stability, concentration and mental poise. Pranayama is a bridge which helps the student of yoga to cross from the realm of purely physical development to that of the spirit and forms a crucial stage in his journey towards self-realisation.

In Light on Pranayama B.K.S. Iyengar defines Pranayama this way:

‘Prana’ means breath, respiration, life, vitality, energy or strength. … ‘ayama’ means stretch, extension, expansion, length, breadth, regulation prolongation, restraint or control. ‘Pranayama’ thus means the prolongation of breath and its restraint.

Pranayama is the 4th limb on the 8 fold path of Ashtanga Yoga. It comes after Asana (the 3rd limb). Once Asana has been developed then a formal Pranayama practice is introduced. In Iyengar Yoga Pranayama is first taught in a reclining position, with the upper body supported by props. This practice helps facilitates stillness and maximum relaxation so that the breath can be presented more clearly to the practitioner.

What is the Gentle class all about?

ByAaron Fleming July 27, 2017July 27, 2017

Since we are offering a new Gentle class this fall I thought I would write some to explain what this class is like and who would benefit. The new Gentle class will be offered on Thursdays at 4:30pm, beginning on September 7, 2017. (You can sign up online or at your first class.) First let…

Post convention and still aglow

ByAaron Fleming April 23, 2019April 23, 2019

It’s been five days since I returned from the national Iyengar Yoga convention and I am still aglow. I have never attended a convention mega class so I didn’t know what to expect. I figured there could be a lot of sitting and listening to lectures–boy was I wrong! We were up and down, moving…

Q&A with Dawn Baurichter

ByAaron Fleming September 3, 2019September 3, 2019

I sat down with my mentoree Dawn (pictured here) to discuss her experience with Iyengar Yoga and talk about a new class she is offering this fall. Aaron Fleming: Hi Dawn, tell us a little about yourself. Dawn Baurichter: In addition to yoga I enjoy being outside, traveling to national parks and walking the trails….

Why it is important to have a yoga teacher

ByAaron Fleming October 22, 2019September 9, 2021

Do you think it’s important to have a yoga teacher? I do. This past weekend I traveled up to the Ann Arbor School of Yoga to attend the weekend intensive with my teacher, Laurie Blakeney. (In the photo below, that’s me standing on Laurie’s shoulders!) I have been attending these weekend intensives regularly for years….

Beginners and practitioners

ByAaron Fleming May 14, 2019May 14, 2019

At the national Iyengar Yoga convention in Dallas this past April the teacher, Abhitjata Iyengar, the grand daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar, differentiated between beginners and practitioners. She instructed the beginners to concentrate on gross actions. The practitioners were asked to work more subtly. I wondered, who were the beginners? And who the practitioners? The criteria…

Stamina and focus in yoga

ByAaron Fleming March 3, 2020October 25, 2021

Why do we want to build stamina in our poses? The poses are the playground for exploring how the body, mind and breath relationship. We first learn simple actions within simple poses. (such as the triangle pose, seen here above). Actions such as how to lift the knee caps or how to straighten the arms….

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