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Combining different Yoga types or styles into a practice

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Don Briskin

Forum Posts: 69

Member Since:
April 27, 2015

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September 9, 2008 - 12:10 am

Namaskar Everyone:

The idea of practicing one form of contemporary Yoga is a self-restraint. Many of the styles of today are branches from the same tree. A smaller system makes it much easier to transfer the knowledge. This is not meant as disrespect, but there are many less techniques for a student to learn from Bikram than from Iyengar, Kriplau, Sivanada or Viniyoga.

To streamline a style makes sense when teaching yoga students. Teaching 26 yogic techniques is much easier for students to learn than hundreds of asanas, a dozen flowing sequences, ten pranayams, and four forms of breath awareness meditation.

The purpose of making a yoga system smaller is to enable a student to learn and remember the basics. Some yoga styles like Iyengar, Kriplau, Sivanada or Viniyoga have so many techniques, you could spend your life in study of one of these systems. To learn all of Hatha is so much information that it may not happen in one life.

There is no harm in trying different styles in one's practice. Learning new things is a joy of life and yoga.

Best of luck,