Yoga with Melissa 43 is a review of the yamas and niyamas.

The five yamas which determine our outward behaviour in the world are:

1. Ahimsa or nonviolence

2. Satya or truthfulness

3. Asteya or  non-stealing

4. Brahmacharya or balanced living (often interpreted as celibacy)

5. Aparigraha or non-hoarding

The five niyamas or personal practices determine how we relate to ourselves include:

1. Saucha or cleanliness

2. Santosha or contentment

3. Tapas or self-discipline

4. Svadhyaya or self-study and  inner exploration

5. Ishvara Pranidhana or surrender to the Divine

In this hatha yoga class  we will review each of the yamas and the niyamas with corresponding breath practices or pranayama, asanas or yoga postures, kiryas and mantras.

We begin the yoga class in child’s pose with metta meditation. We move into shoulderstand and fish pose for satya or truthfulness. We come to standing for some balancing tree pose. When we come back down we do some kneeling and reclined twists, rabbit pose, seated twists, and forward folds. We finish the class with a kundalini kriya for the third chakra.