More about Svaroopa® Yoga: Finding Deep Release and Ease
"Svaroopa® yoga is…the scientific maximization of your body's capacity, dissolving the tensions that inhibit your body's natural functioning and inherent healing capacity. The release of the inner blocks allows you to live in an inner ease, in your body and in your self, which is your birthright." – Yoga International
Recently featured in Yoga International is Svaroopa® yoga, which offers a new way to experience yoga practice: releasing tensions in the deepest layers of muscle along the spine to experience core openings.
The poses begin with muscles that connect to the tailbone—the pivot point of the body—and sequence up the spine through the lower back, waist, rib cage, shoulders, neck and head. Simultaneous to these upward changes, the hips, legs and feet begin to realign as well, and the whole body changes, from the inside, out.
The core release along the spine happens with precise alignments in carefully selected poses. Instead of straining to hold a pose with inherent tension, your body is supported by blankets, allowing it to release into the pose, getting immediate, reliable results. You begin to experience one of the basic principles of Svaroopa® yoga, “support equals release.” Leaning into the angles of the poses will enable you to let go of deep tensions and unconscious holding patterns in your spine and in your body.
With the poses, significant physical changes begin to occur: as the deep core muscles release, the nerves, tissue, organs and bones that have been compressed within those muscles also become less and less constricted. The body’s systems—respiration, circulation, digestion and elimination—begin to find their natural balance and improve. This core opening relieves aches and pains as the body moves toward restored health and vitality.
The inner spaciousness that you feel in your body also affects your mind and heart. In the practice of leaning into yourself and finding support, you begin to experience shifts in relationship to yourself, to others and to your life. Learning to let go and finding deep release within yourself translates to a different—and more effective—means of living, one of less straining, efforting and pushing.
With the continued practice of Svaroopa® yoga, you can learn to find this easeful state within yourself and to access it on your own. This is yoga’s promise: the moment your mind becomes still, you are able to live fully in the present moment.
The 90-minute classes are designed to meet you where you are in your body, personalized to your needs. For this reason, class sizes are small—up to 8 people. In home practice, you can release core muscles along the spine in as little as 20 minutes, using sequences of reliable poses.
How is Svaroopa® Yoga Different
from Other Hatha Yoga Styles
By Rama Berch, RYT, CSYT, founder of Svaroopa® yoga
The poses taught in Svaroopa® yoga (like most other styles you will encounter) are ancient Hatha yoga poses. Each style of yoga approaches these in its own way. In Svaroopa® yoga, each pose, or angle is approached in a way where students, with practice, begin to be able to release the muscles that attach to the spine. This release begins a process of healing in the entire body/mind and opens a pathway to finding the deeper dimension of being; the true meaning of the practice (of yoga) in mind/body/spirit.
Most yoga classes, whatever the style, are taught in a way that creates stretch and movement for the spine and the rest of the body. However, depending on how the poses are taught — and how the student holds each pose in their body, it is very easy to unintentionally create more tension in the muscles that attach to the spine, even while getting stretch and movement. Most people have very deeply held tension in these muscles already. So much so, that they have very limited ability to perceive it — because the area has become numb.
Those of you who come to class have often heard me say, "A tight muscle is a weak muscle." A tight muscle is also a muscle that does not get good circulation and no longer has the elasticity of a healthy muscle. Nor does it even necessarily have the ability to send a sensory (pain) message to the brain that it needs some help!
This tension creates compression in the spine, leading to myriad physical/emotional problems. We may not even realize it is there until one of these problems, which originate from spinal tension, surfaces (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome, depression, irritability, low back pinched nerves, ruptured or herniated disc pain, sciatica, constipation, knee problems, Yes! even knee problems!). It is easy to create more tension in the spine, because we cannot feel it at its source, and therefore are not aware that we are doing so.
Svaroopa® yoga’s focus is on creating lasting spinal opening. Students are taught a fundamentally different way to "tune" into these deeper tensions and release them; giving them the opportunity for the classic Hatha yoga poses to be deeply effective and healthful.
Deborah Woodward, Registered Yoga Teacher, Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher
804.338.1105 | Easy in Your Bones, LLC