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Private Yoga Instruction

“The poses give you great benefits, both physical and more than physical. Even if you begin yoga to treat your body better, to heal it or decrease its pain, you soon find that core opening gives you more…an inner expansiveness, calmness, peace, clarity, happiness or joy.”

—Swami Nirmalananda

For beginner, intermediate or advanced

In private yoga sessions, beginners learn the basic, foundational poses and breathing practice that are the starting point for a home practice.

 

Students who have been taking classes for months or years can schedule private sessions to learn what poses are best suited to their needs as their body evolves.  

 

Clients in life transitions--between jobs, entering retirement, beginning or ending relationships--find private sessions wonderfully supportive and life changing. 

 

This an excellent choice for those who prefer private lessons or who can’t come to regularly scheduled classes.

 

  • 60-minute session, $75

  • Series of 5 or more 60-minute sessions, $65 each

Contact Deborah (Shivaani) Woodward

 or text/call 804-338-1105

How is Svaroopa® Yoga Different from Other Hatha Yoga Styles

By Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

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.

 

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