Week 8: Sivananda Yoga

On Thursday, Jen from The Yoga Hive Studio instructed the class on Sivananda yoga. Jen has been teaching yoga for almost 18 years now. During the class she would both talk us through the poses and show us how to do it for certain poses. Sivananda yoga was founded by Swami Vishnudevananda in 1959. This practice usually stays the same each time it is practiced. Sivananda yoga has five different points that is practiced. These include proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, and positive thinking/meditation. This class focused on proper breathing and started off with savasana.

Yoga has made its way across the world. In today's world yoga is no longer just about healing and spirituality, but a trend. Yoga has become part of pop culture because of celebrities who promote it or has been seen wearing something associated with it. For example, Miley Cyrus was seen wearing yoga beads and suddenly everyone was doing it as part of a modern trend. There has been other celebrities that have practiced yoga, making it "cool" and "trendy", making others want to also practice yoga to fit in with them.

Most people in the US practice yoga because it is seen as just an exercise and because they are following someone else's footsteps. With yoga being more a trend or exercise there are stigmas associated with it. People may call it a "woman's workout" or a "skinny person's practice". This is usually because most of the celebrities that have been open about doing yoga have been skinny women, however yoga can be practiced by anyone as long as they have the motivation to keep it up. I myself have seen it as that but with more practice, I know that as long as I try my best I can do it.