Can I Learn Yoga through Videotapes and DVD's?
By: Foras Aje
Well, even though that was what got me started with Yoga, from experience, it is safe to say one has to know something about Yoga BEFORE you look into learning from Video-tapes and DVDs on Yoga
The reason for this is because yoga is such a direct and precisely executed form of exercise that requires attention and extreme detail.
When one considers that is was made from millennia of impeccable analysis of the human body (both physical and spiritual), and if you have heard anything about 'chakras' or your aura or charisma, you'd see that Yoga can literally make (or break) one's control of these forces.
A prime example is this: when you execute a pose, Yoga demands that you counter pose to offset its effect on the body. This is essential to balance the effects of whatever pose you may be executing as ardent Yogis believe that for every action there is a reaction, and this even more so with yoga poses.
Moreover, based on research on arguably the two most authoritative books on the subject of learning Yoga; (The Complete illustrated Book Of Yoga by Swami Vishnu-Devananda and Light On Yoga by BKS Iyengar), yoga calls for a Sattvic Diet laying on the principle of "you are what you eat!" and in addition to all of this it must be mentioned that certain principles come into the branches of Yoga such as avoiding excessive talking, laziness, bad sleeping habits...etc.
These are things that most people don't mention when viewing Video-tapes and DVDs on Yoga.
They seem to make them more of just a physical thing (which it could be), and just jump from pose to pose avoiding the principles of the groups of the asanas (poses), the counter-poses etc.
Still, to whet one's appetite about learning Yoga, Video-tapes and DVDs on Yoga could be of some use...at least to see what the poses look like.
So are these forms of educational media useful for learning the almighty Yoga? Well, they cant hurt and though they may help to a degree, your own research and practice is what will make you too a well rounded yogi or yogini.
In Friendship,
Aje
Foras Aje is an independent researcher and co-founder of BodyHealthSoul LLC. Stop by His Yoga for Beginners Blog today for more information on yoga video clips
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