FREE YOGA & MEDITATION COURSE

Lesson 2:

Learning to move

1. What a vinyasa is.
2. How to move in your own way through the practice.
3. The tools to begin to practise on your own. 

Introduction

Watch the demo video

Practise along with this video

We now come to the yoga movement part of the course and in this lesson you’ll learn how to do a sun salutation, also called Surya Namaskar A.

This is a great practice that strengthens and opens the whole body, refines the breath and focuses the mind. There are some new terms that you will hear and will be important for you to understand when we talk about movement in yoga:

1. Vinyasa: Vinyasa is a term that you'll hear that translates as breath/movement synchronicity. When my breath begins I start moving, when my breath ends I finish moving. It's this focus that's at the core of what you'll learn and take away from this lesson.
2. Count: In this lesson you'll see numbers, both in English and Sanskrit (we were introduced to a count in lesson 1) and these are how we count ourselves through the practice to and from standing. Being able to count yourself through the practice is a way to focus the mind as you move. 
3. Looking place: Each time we move and breathe there's a place where we look, where we hold our gaze. This is a really important part of the practice too, as we're able to hold our attention on the breath as we move by keeping our gaze fixed on one point.