“What style of yoga do you teach?” has been my least-favorite question ever since my first teacher training in 2007. Because here’s what I learned there: yoga is yoga. Yoga is good. Many of these style names you might be familiar with are generally inventions of the West, and have often served to create little cults and big ego-trips about which style is the “best”.
Akhanda Yoga
My training is in Akhanda yoga, the style developed by my teacher Yogrishi Vishvketu. Akhanda means whole, complete. It is a total approach to yoga that honors the traditional path and purpose of yoga. Each class includes a theme, soundwork, poses, breathwork, and meditation. We also include postures in all stations (sitting, standing, crouching, lying on the back, lying on the belly, and inversions) and with all directional movements of the spine, so physically it’s complete.
However, beyond those requirements, we as teachers are free to be creative, choosing our own themes, designing our own classes ranging from beginner to advanced, and sequencing the poses as we see fit based on our intention for the class.
We also have various styles within Akhanda, including hatha-raja, classical kundalini, and five koshas. (I’ll be sharing more about those as time goes on.) Each of these is still recognizable as an Akhanda class because they all still meet the requirements listed above, but there are other frameworks we follow that make them unique.
My Style of Yoga So Far
For the last nine years, I’ve been teaching a slightly adapted Akhanda. I never claimed to teach Akhanda–in fact, when people asked me, “What style of yoga do you teach?” I would always say that I was trained in Akhanda, I explained what Akhanda was, and then I told them how my classes usually go.
For the last nine years, my classes have always included a theme, a brief meditation, breathing techniques, and postures in each of the stations and with each directional movement of the spine. So, it was almost Akhanda. The only thing I usually missed was the chanting. However, after this latest training, I’ve remembered how important it is and I look forward to including it again.
A recent refinement to the Akhanda approach is the inclusion of the Akhanda mantra. We recite it once at the end of each class, followed by OM, shanti, shanti, shanti. (Shanti means “peace”.)
My Online Yoga Classes
As of now, my online yoga class offerings are not Akhanda yoga, though most of them are heavily influenced by Akhanda. Moving in to 2017, I intend to add some Akhanda classes as well as keep up with my pilates ring classes and maybe some non-Akhanda style yoga.
My In-Person Yoga Classes
If you come to one of my yoga classes, it will most likely be Akhanda from here on out. That may depend on the studios where I teach.
Just Do Some Yoga
I beg you: don’t get caught up in a certain style of yoga being better than any other style. It’s okay to find and stick to one that resonates with you, but not at the dismissal of all others. Even Vishva, who developed and champions Akhanda, reminds us that all yoga paths are beneficial.