Healing the body with Yoga

Vinyasa yoga as a path to mental and physical freedom

The Element Series Vinyasa Yoga

Yoga has been the tool that has healed my body and given me a gateway to connecting with my intuition and mental liberation through embodied breath and movement. Throughout the many practices I have had in my life, yoga has been the constant support and framework for inner and outer clarity and strength. These are some of the main reasons why I have maintained a daily practice for many years.

I changed my life to solely focus on these methods and practices with the intention of going deeper and to share what has helped me so much in my life with others.

For nearly all of my Yoga journey I have been an Ashtanga practitioner and teacher, with some additional study at the Iyengar school of Yoga and various forms of Hatha / Vinyasa Yoga, but my background had originally had been in sports and competetive sports. What I have cultivated from this is a broad understanding of body mechanics, injury prehab / rehab and comapssion, as I have worked through so many inuries and imbalances in my own body and students over the years.

The Ashtanga system which I teach at my shala here in Oslo, when taught correctly within the Mysore style setting is an excellent methodology to open the body, breath and mind to the practices of Yoga. As much as I love teaching this system, it is limited in it’s reach if it is not practiced in a progressive way and adaptations made to the system for different body types.

Mysore style Ashtanga Yoga

Often Ashtanga is taught in a led style class setting only, where students maybe learn the half of primary series and potentially the full primary series. This in my opinion is not the most optimal way to learn this system and when I have come across students who have learnt it this way they often have imbalances in thier body / mind as they were never taught a way to progress through the system as a whole.

Also if students were never taught adaptations to the system for thier body type, they can more often than not be ‘stuck’ in the series and feel that they can’t progress in an intelligent way.

Over the years I have worked with a variety of different people from different backgrounds, ages, with different injuries and body types that are not ready for, or have the necessary desire to work through the Ashtanga system in a Mysore style setting.

So as a teacher and body worker I felt it was necessary to develop a better way to approach Primary Series and to also develop a new system / series of postures that could accomadate this group that was more balanced in essence, could accompany a wider range of ages and mobilities and something that could be practiced in itself without a need to progress into deeper asana work.

I have been testing and developing these systems over a number of years which I am now ready to share. I’ve called it The Element Series and Ashtanga Made Available.

The Element Series

Element - Fundamental - Essential

Yoga sequences can be created for a variety of different reasons and intentions, but my goal and intention with postural yoga has always been the same. Health, healing, balance and effectiveness.

Like the Diamond Path in Buddhism. I have always been interested in the most direct methodology.

The Element Series is available for all body types and ages. I have created it for Ashtanga Yoga practitioners to use in conjunction with thier existing Ashtanga practice as an alternative to do on some days, and for Vinyasa students who love the energy and flow of Ashtanga, but require an alternative to the system that is more balanced in nature with more options and variation.

The Element Series is part of the The Asana Guide which contains a library of videos to aid each practitioner to understand the mechanics of how to move thier bodies and a breakdown of different movement modalities to teach you how to move your body correctly with better technique as well as injury prehab / rehab tutorials. The Asana Guide is there to help you work through The Element Series and Primary Series in Ashtanga Yoga in a safe and effective way.

Not all of us have enough time these days in the modern world to accomadate a regular practice, which is why I have focused this on essentially what works the best, and has the most impact on what I would say are the most essential areas of the body.

We start with The Supine Sequence. This yoga flow is something you can practice daily, whether you are recovering from an injury or have limited mobility as a way to ease the body into basic movements and create the neseccary openness, or for anyone new to mobility training and yoga who wants to learn a new way of moving to increase thier mobility, improve thier health in general and reduce pain and sensitivity in thier body.

The Supine Sequence

From here we move into The Element Series which I have broken down into three options relating to time: 25 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour 10 minutes and 1 hour an a half sequence that is Ashtanga Yoga based. Depending on time, and your capacity you should try and practice this 2 to 3 times a week. With this schedule you will easily start to see significant improvements in your moblity and general well being. As always, do what you can but more is usually better.

The Element Series

Primary Series - Ashtanga Made Available

Also part of The Asana Guide are three versions of Ashtanga Yoga’s Primary Series I have created to guide students through the Ashtanga first series. There is a short form for around 40 mins, Half Primary and Full Primary. Each sequnce is guided and students are given various options to help them work through the system with many adaptations to the help along with a library of classes which breakdown every posture in the series so students can practice these postures more safely and intelligently.

Also with the guide are classes on additional back bends and openers for the shoulders and hips to help with the more complex asana’s such as drop backs and urdhva Dhanurasana.

Primary Series - Ashtanga Made Available

I’ve met many people over the years who suffer with chronic pain, have negative relationships with thier bodies or who have stopped doing the activies they love and practicing yoga due to injury or pain and are looking for better moblity and a yoga practice that works, which is why I created these systems.

Start now and incorporate The Asana Guide into your life so you can have the ability to keep doing the things in life that you love and deepen your yoga practice.

To start practicing The Element Series and Primary Series head to The Asana Guide head and my Online Studio.

My Online Studio