I was asked the other day why I’m only offering Hatha classes? Why don’t I offer all the different styles that other studios do? This is a really great question.
Hatha yoga actually has quite a deep meaning to it, I am going to try my best to describe it here. Let’s start with the word yoga or yog. There are two translations of yoga that you may have heard your instructor describe before- either “union’ or “to yoke”. Yoga is the yoking together or the creation of union.
Hatha is the combination of two Sanskrit words (Sanskrit is an ancient language from India and is the predominant language in which yoga philosophy is found). “Ha” is the sun and “Tha” is the moon. There are two main energy channels in the the body- Ida Nadi and Pingala Nadi. Ida is the the moon energy channel and Pingala in the sun channel. Ida and/or the moon is related to the feminine energy. Where as Pingala and the sun is masculine energy.
When we combine the two words-Hatha Yoga; what we are actually talking about is creating union between the feminine/moon energy with our masculine/sun energy. When these two energies are in balance, this will bring about inner peace and contentment. All yoga, when taught and practiced with awareness, will help create this balance in our energetic system. This being said, all yoga is Hatha Yoga.
This probably doesn’t help you understand why on a studio schedule you see all these different styles- Vinyasa, Yin, hatha, restorative. I did talk about all the different styles of yoga that are typically taught in a studio, in a musing that I wrote at the start of this year- “Let me help you navigate a yoga schedule”, so I won’t go into all the different styles again. But as I explained there, Hatha is typically seen as a slower style of yoga class. There really aren’t any rules that I need to follow when teaching a hatha class. As my husband knows, I don’t really like to be told what to do! I can add in a little bit of yin, or we can do some flow and it’s all hatha.
With classes at HeartFelt Yoga limited to seven people and everyone saving their spot ahead of time, I now know who is coming to class before class starts. Under the heading of hatha, I can create a class that will meet the needs of the people in front of me. As an instructor, this really excites me! I have an opportunity to build sequences that can bring about that balance of energies within.
In all honesty, I could have simply answered the question with the answer “because hatha is my favourite”. But, just like the meaning, it runs deeper than that for me. I have a chance with these smaller classes to offer you, the student, something a little different than what is offered elsewhere- this is why hatha!
Until next time,
Sandra