With over 8 years of practicing yoga and loving every minute of it (about 90% of the time, I mean there are SOME days I'm like "yeah, yeah'.whatever'as with all things in life..) although I personally do the "Sivananda" Style of yoga as illustrated in the Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga by Swami Vishnu-Devananda, I have observed that indeed there are many styles of yoga to choose from
What's more intriguing is one can borrow pointers from different styles to enhance one's exclusive practice.
What do you mean by that Foras?
Well, as informative as Vishnu Devananda's book is, it was from the "Iyengar"Style of yoga heralded by B. K. S. Iyengar, that I learned the art of counter-posing the Shoulder Stand with not only the fish but the Bridge poses, and for how long.
But the flip side to Iyengar's information is that he barely touches on Surya Namaskaras (the Sun Salutations) which arguably form the core of an adequate yoga practice.
So what's an interested party to do when making a choice on yoga?
Well, as the title suggests, first of all, just like Christianity that has several denominations but essentially at the core all the same, you may have to do some research to see what style fits your needs. Try to weigh each style against the rest, see which one(s) seems to be
1. The Oldest: As most likely that would be the one from which all other new ones evolved from and honestly still reference.
2. The Most Concise and Detailed: With advent of the internet, books, yoga studios, trying to cover this point when picking the right Yoga exercise for you should not be difficult to accomplish.
Now, I don't want to hype any particular style over the other but personally, I lean towards the Sivananda Style of yoga and perhaps that's because with my practice of the style, I have noticed that for myself and my body, it seems to be the most concise and orderly method of the various styles and after 8 years of its practice, my body would be my best judge.
Nonetheless, as the adage goes, one man's music is another man's noise (a twist of it but still'), although I have enumerated methods in my online medium for doing yoga, do your own research first and let your intuition be your best guide.
Hey, one thing is a constant in ALL STYLES'the poses are essentially the same, how to get into them, how to hold them and how to exit from them.
The order of sequence might differ from style to style, but 'you still will be doing Yoga and that is always a GREAT IDEA!
In Friendship,
Foras Aje
