Purifying the body before Yoga Asana practice

Hello soul family. I thought I'd write a little blog about my new yoga classes and business - Rock Beam Yoga and what inspired me to fuse Vinyasa yoga asanas with Reiki and crystal healing. It's a very unique fusion that has not been rolled together in a yoga class before, so I wanted to explain why I chose to bring together these very special elements. Last year I attended a very traditional yoga teacher training school in Goa, India, to further my yoga journey personally and to equip me better, to become a yoga teacher. What a trip and life changing experience it was....

I travelled to a school called Sarvaguna Yoga in the beautiful region of South Agonda. I have to admit, I was very enticed by the stunning location and that the yoga school sat on one of Asia's most popular and beautiful beaches. But what really inspired me was the teachers themselves and that they were teaching a very traditional Eastern methodology of yoga asana, yoga history, philosophy and anatomy. I wanted to learn the true Indian authentic roots of yoga, and for that I felt I would need to be taught by Indian yogic masters who had immersed their whole lives in that way of living.

I was not only taught the foundations of yoga history and instructing yoga asanas, teaching ethics, how to teach others safely and all about anatomy but I was also given the very key knowledge that before we start yoga practice we must look to cleanse and purify the body. This was a very fundamental element in the course. There are several techniques used such as Pranayama, using the breath to cleanse and purify the mind, body and soul before moving the body. These are used in many Western yoga classes before moving into the asanas but sadly, sometimes they are not. Sometimes, we rush to class and start yoga asanas pretty much straight in.

My teachings were so profoundly focused on this, that it struck me that more focus needed to be given to preparing the mind, body and soul before undertaking yoga poses in a class in the Western hemisphere. The purpose of 'yoga' is to find one's true self. Peeling away the layers to reveal the true you. Getting out of your mind and into one consciousness. I thought about Pranayama and also quietening the mind as a great plus but then something struck me. What would happen if I could incorporate my Reiki healing into preparing the body for yoga asana practice? So I tried it out. I created a sequence that incorporated Reiki healing to begin yoga practice, lying down in Savasana. I maximised the healing and meditation using crystal work during this phase. Then this rolled into breath work, chanting or whatever was intuitively found to clear the mind. Then we moved in yoga asana practice and then again, once finished, it rolled into another Reiki healing meditative state, in Savasana.

I was so stunned with the results I cannot begin to capture the experience in words. Those that I have worked with so far have given similar feedback. I felt great gratitude and relief that they had experienced what I had. They could see and feel the benefits too. I felt as though my entire chakras had truly been awakened and activated during practice, more so than ever before. When I came to enter my yoga poses, I could reacher longer, further, get up and out of my body and mind in a much greater, deeper dimension. My body felt so energised, alive, bursting with vitality and a perfect state of just 'being'. So present in the moment. And what a relief that feeling was! It has always been brilliant to go through the experience of any well instructed yoga class but this was different. I felt as thought I had been really nurtured from within, and was totally opening up, before even beginning to move my body. I seemed to have a much greater feeling of exhilaration and balance was surrounding me and somehow the whole experience felt much more complete.

I wanted to share the reason and passion behind my new concept Rock Beam Yoga and to allow others to have some insight into this. If we are informed as a community then perhaps this might tempt you to try this style out sometime to see if this works for you too. And more importantly, it does bring us all back to a very key fact that perhaps more yoga schools and instructors need to focus on how they are teaching their students or class to properly prepare for yoga practice. Before moving the body. Before the physical aspect. I hope this story has inspired others to not just arrive to class to undertake yoga poses. But to be mindful that when yoga instruction is properly prepared for with Reiki, meditation, Pranayama etc. then it makes the experience so much more 'otherworldy'. And after all, that is what yoga is all about.

Thank you for listening. See you on the mat soon soul-fam.

Namaste, Nina x