Kripalu Yoga

A truly nourishing yoga practice is about becoming our truest, most integrated selves. In clearing away the debris of old physical, mental and emotional habits, we create more room to blossom into our wholeness. This sweet wholeness benefits the world as we begin to move, speak and love with ever increasing clarity and presence.

Kripalu Yoga is a practice for both on and off the yoga mat. On the mat, it integrates physical postures, breath awareness and meditation into fluid form. We are then encouraged to bring the resilience, honesty, and the deepened awareness we find into our lives off the mat.

There are three phases in the methodology of the Kripalu practice.

Stage One: Body and Breath Awareness

We learn proper alignment in the yoga poses, gain strength and steadiness, and begin to release long-held physical tension. We are encouraged to practice with an open and empathetic attitude towards ourselves.

Stage Two: Focusing Inward

We begin to investigate yoga poses through longer holdings, “our minds focused on the intensified flow of sensation, emotion, and thought that results. Holding a posture not only strengthens the physical body, it produces meditative states of introspection.”
We learn how to accommodate the release of old emotional stories and mental tension from the body.

Stage Three: Meditation-In-Motion

“This stage of practice is a form of moving meditation that arises from intuitive promptings of the body. With the mind deeply relaxed, we can allow the body to move spontaneously and naturally as guided from within.” This experience of practice arises out of a deep inner absorption in the innate wisdom of the body-mind.

(text in quotes is taken from Kripalu yoga: a guide to practice on and off the mat, by Richard Faulds)