Practicing Yoga for more than the physical postures

An exploration of the Anusara Yoga method

By Kristina Wischnowsky, co-founder of Yoga to Transform

Yoga is a wonderful practice to help you reveal and step into your authenticity… that is, if you are willing to practice Yoga in a way that offers you more than a focus on the practice of the physical postures (asana) alone. 

There is so much more to Yoga than the physical practice.

I’ve learnt the richness a Yoga practice can offer my life through my practice of Anusara Yoga, which highlights specific compliments to the physical asana practice. In this blog I will break down some of the broader aspects of practicing Anusara Yoga, which are in summary:

• The physical Yoga practice is taught using Anusara Yoga’s Universal Principles of Alignment, which support you to align optimally, and therefore practice safely, in the pose. 
• Key yoga philosophy is taught during every class, via the heart-centered class themes – this encourages you to bring this philosophy to life off your Yoga mat. Anusara Yoga’s philosophy is based on a non-dual Tantric path that has its origins in modern Kashmir and India in the 5^th Century.
• The Anusara Yoga method encourages you – as you align your mind, body, and heart – to connect to a deeper understanding of the broader impact of these alignment principles in your life.
• Progressive class sequencing means individual poses are taught to prepare students for a level-appropriate ‘peak pose’.
• Holding it all together is an uplifting community of heart, referred to as a Kula – meaning your progress on the path is supported by others on a similar journey.

As a practitioner of Anusara Yoga since 2008, I can tell you that the practice has continued to inspire me to keep stepping onto the mat – and into the philosophy – to reveal more of my true nature, and ground me in returning home to my body, mind, and soul.

Let’s unpack those points above, starting with the Universal Principles of Alignment.

The Universal Principles of Alignment (UPA) are Anusara Yoga’s way of building the poses, to support each student to experience their deepest expression of the pose. This means that wherever we’re at on our journey – from absolute beginner to a well-seasoned practitioner – the practice is suitable, appropriately challenging, and achievable.

There are five Universal Principles of Alignment (UPA):

• Set the Foundation, Open to Grace
• Muscle Energy
• Inner Spiral
• Outer Spiral
• Organic Energy

It’s important to note, Yoga poses are in themselves simply arbitrary shapes we make with our body. We learn how to align ourselves ‘optimally’ (i.e the particular shape and way of our body and its movements) within the pose to enable prana (life force) to move as freely as possible throughout the body.

The focus of Anusara Yoga is not to achieve the picture-perfect pose.

It is, rather, to support the student to connect with the goodness and beauty of who they are. This means that in an Anusara Yoga class you will see all the students expressing each pose uniquely. An Anusara teacher will support the student to use the principles of alignment to find more freedom in their body in that moment. 

Each UPA has associated feeling elements, physical and energetic effects, and supports the student to be able to refine the pose in the optimal way for their body.

Each Anusara Yoga class has a heart-centered theme based on the school’s non-dual Tantric philosophy. Non-dual simply means that students are taught to shift their perspective to see the oneness that holds everything together and see the divinity in everything. 

To quote from an influential teacher of mine:

We are taught that we are all unique expressions of the divine, participating in the flow of life so that the divine can come to know itself”

Christine du Fresne, Unity Yoga

Anusara Yoga teachers are taught to not use a theme sandwich (introduce the theme at start of class, then summarise the theme at the end of class) but are taught to weave the theme into the UPA and throughout the class, so the student really connects with it.

The heart-centered theme is used as a tool to build greater awareness – aka consciousness – in the student, and ability to connect to their true nature. The philosophy teaches you that your true nature is innately good and perfect; we practice to reveal this and remove our internal blocks to feeling this as our truth – in essence, to feel more alive in our body.

Each Anusara Yoga class is taught with progressive class sequencing, to ensure that the class will safely and progressively prepare the student for their ‘peak pose’. A peak pose is simply the most suitably ‘challenging’ expression of a pose, always offered as an invitation. Students are encouraged to feel connected to the heart-centered theme in their body, and may choose to decline to practice whatever peak pose is offered, if it does not support this. Teachers provide variations of the peak pose, props and modifications to the class to support each student to be successful in their practice.

Many beginning or senior students will be very challenged by ‘easy’ poses such as Warrior 1 or Tree, and long-standing students of yoga will be better challenged by ‘hard’ poses such as arm balances like Firefly Pose (Titibasana) or deep backbends like the Eka Pada Rajakapotasana cycle.

Finally, we arrive at one of the most vital aspects of the Anusara Yoga method – the kula.

Psychology says that each of us are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. This means that if you want to positively transform your life, you need to consciously choose the people you spend time with, so they align with the more positive vision you hold for yourself.

Then, start hanging out with them NOW.

This is why Anusara Yoga supports students and teachers to be part of the Kula. The Kula will encourage and remind you to practice your Yoga on and off the mat as you move through each day. Without a community of people to support you to stay on the ‘right’ path (choosing to see and reveal your true nature), life may make you forget.

Anusara Yoga teaches us that the practice is more than the physical postures. It teaches us to connect to the heart-centered theme in your body, mind, and heart as we move through each class, and most importantly to take that embodied experience and express it off the mat after each class. This could look as simple as a shared coffee and catch-up after class, which over time creates a community of care and collaboration, weaving and growing into many facets of our lives. It is this that gives the practice the ability to be enlivening, inspirational and transformational.

The postures will move you. The philosophy will move you. Movement is the backbone of your life experience.

Kristina Wischnowsky is an Anusara Inspired Yoga Teacher, registered at Level 3 with YogaNZ. She has been teaching and attending Yoga classes and workshops in Christchurch since 2008. Kristina is a co-founder of Yoga to Transform, an online Yoga Studio that supports students to feel more connected to, at home, and alive in their bodies through the practices and philosophy of Yoga.

While Kristina has studied under many internationally renowned Yoga Teachers, her great passion is the Anusara Yoga method. She is excited to be hosting ‘The Art of Anusara’, a 20-hour workshop held over two weekends in March 2023 with Experienced Certified Anusara Teacher Christine du Fresne. Click here for more information.