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5 Benefits of Vinyasa Yoga 

Vinyasa Yoga, in Sanskrit, means “to place in a purposeful way”. And that is was exactly happens during AmaSer’s 8:00 am Vinyasa Flow Public classes Monday through Friday. During Vinyasa Yoga, the breath becomes alive and energizes the body to create a beautifully flowing practice of intentional asanas layered on top of one another. The manifestation of breath and repeated pattern create incredible benefits to the body, mind, and soul!

There is a reason why Vinyasa practice is one of the most popular forms of yoga, here’s why!

1. A Heart Healthy Practice

The quick movement paired with synchronized breathing creates a wonderful environment to get your heart rate pumping! Also known as “moving meditation”, Vinyasa helps alleviate stress, thus actively lowering your blood pressure. Not to mention the amount of sweat you are able to work up from Vinyasa!

2. Strengthen Your Body

Vinyasa Yoga, commonly known as...

The Hindu Roots of Yoga 

Within Hinduism there are six major schools of thought: Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Vendanta, and Yoga. Each one is inspired by the holy Vedas and other Hindu concepts.

Yoga, from the Sanskrit word 'yuj' means to unite. It is usually described in Hindu texts as a way to control the senses and the mind. The most famous Hindu text describing yoga is the Bhavad Ghita, which dates all the way back to the 6th - 3rd centuries BCE. In it, Krishna describes 4 types of yoga:

• Bakti, or devotion
• Jnana, or knowledge
• Karma, or action,
• Dhyana, or concentration.

Achieving Moksha 

The ultimate goal of each is to achieve Moksha, or unity with God and escape from the cycle of birth and death. No single person is born saved, though the Divine resides within all people. All people, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, have the ability to achieve Moksha. Moksha can be attainted through a person's actions, words, and thoughts, as they...

"Open your chakras", you have surely heard this somewhat esoteric phrase, often taken up with irony and amusement by those who do not know their history. We will try a first approach with this article and discover the 7 main chakras. Indeed, it is not easy to feel their presence on the mat, especially if it is during a first class or if they are illustrious strangers to you.

So what are chakras?

Definition

A little point of terminology in Sanskrit: chakra means "wheel" or "disc", to designate circular objects and in a way the circle of life.

According to Hindu traditions, the body is made up of 72,000 energy channels, the nadis. They carry the vital energy of the body. These nadis intersect at the level of imperceptible centers which are about one hundred and in particular at the level of the chakras, subtle energy bodies. They are numerous but the main ones in yoga are 7 and correspond to precise zones of the body.

Location and function 

The chakras are not placed by chance...

Hi, my name is Lucy and I have recently moved to beautiful Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. I heard all about Avani’s yoga center AmaSer, so I decided to come along to one of her Yin & Restore classes on a Tuesday afternoon. The class started just before the sun was beginning to set and the afternoon was turning to dusk.  Here are five things I learnt about yoga! 

1. Yoga is accessible, even to a newbie like me

I would not exactly class myself as a Yogi. I was a little nervous before going to class. What if I obviously stuck out as a rookie, what if I could not hold a posture? Avani made me feel welcome as soon as I entered the class. She begun by explaining the purpose of the class and demonstrated every pose by including a number of variations to make sure you were comfortable and could really connect with how you held your body – without hurting yourself! It was easy to follow and made me feel like I was being cared for, rather than judged.

2. Even a...

What is Functional Yoga? 

Original Piece by Avani | 2016

Functional Yoga is a term you’ll hear a lot around AmaSer, whether dropping in on public yoga classes or living on site for yoga teacher training.   This is a somewhat new term in the field of yoga (considering the loooong history of the practice), though it is certainly not a new idea.  The history of teaching anatomical alignment in the West served a purpose: to standardize the yoga poses in order to spread the study of yoga more effectively…and to more people much more quickly.  Some of the cues for alignment work with a large population of bodies.  And some do not (for example the dreaded: “shin parallel to the top of the mat” cue).  This concept of standardizing is not uniquely Western.  Iyengar Yoga as well as Yoga Works have sought to standardize these cues for decades.

There was a time that yoga was in such high demand that it was difficult for yoga studios...