Ashtanga and Anusara Yoga ~ From Jeanne Ann

Question: What’s the difference between Ashtanga and Anusara Yoga?
I’m reminded of something one of my acupuncture teachers said once: “ If you keep practicing, regardless of what style you’ve been trained in, at some point you’ll be doing your own style of acupuncture.” To a beginner this was a scary idea--who am I to be creating something new? And what if I like feeling protected by identification with a style?--but over time I’ve come to see that it’s a fundamental truth: even as we learn from others and honor our teachers and traditions, each of us is inevitably creating something absolutely unique as our lives and experience and understanding unfold according to our unique dharma. And as the Bhagavad Gita tells us, it’s better to do our own dharma imperfectly than someone else’s perfectly!

This is my preface to addressing different styles of yoga. So much practice has been done by so many dedicated yogis over such a long period of time, and out of that have emerged traditions, lineages, and styles of practice. Each style represents someone’s (or a group of someones’) insights and understanding of yoga practice, often building on insights of prior generations. Every style by necessity focuses on some things, and is less focused on other things. Each style is worthy of respect and honor. Ultimately each of us chooses what resonates for us, perhaps from a variety of traditions, and makes it our own--for our own discovery and enjoyment. Even for those of us who feel totally at home in one particular style of yoga, it can be a stimulating experience to explore other approaches to practice, and it just may enhance our own in unexpected ways.

Anusara Yoga is a style that was established in 1997 by John Friend, after many years of study, teaching and leadership within the Iyengar Yoga tradition. Anusara Yoga reflects both this central focus on alignment that it shares with the Iyengar method, and also the Tantric philosophy of John’s meditation path (Siddha Yoga). Anusara Yoga is deeply grounded in a Tantric philosophy of the intrinsic goodness of life and each person, and each class has a heart-oriented theme that aims to inspire students to perform each pose “from the inside out,” with a constant awareness of the grander spiritual purposes of yoga.

Anusara Yoga has a concise system of alignment principles known as the Universal Principles of Alignment--“Universal” because they all apply in every pose. For me, the Principles of Alignment are like a treasure map that helps us explore and open the body and heart to a greater flow of prana/shakti/life force. I think this opening and enlivening influx of shakti is what creates the transforming and empowering effect that yoga has had on so many of us and our students. Also, working with a clearly articulated set of principles brings great clarity and independence in practice, helping students answer their own questions--for instance, when you come up against the kind of question like “What am I supposed to be doing with my back leg in this pose?”

So back to the question of differences: Although my experience of Ashtanga Yoga is somewhat limited, I think of it having a strong focus on naturalistic flow--moving at the speed of "normal" movement--through vinyasa, moving with the breath, and generating internal heat. My Anusara Inspired* classes will move less quickly, though still moving with the breath, but often with more time spent in individual asanas to explore a particular alignment focus or dynamic. I think of it like cranking a microscope down a power or two to look and feel at a greater level of detail, or of slowing down a movie to allow more analysis of what’s happening in individual frames. An Anusara style practice can be as strenuous as a practitioner wants, but Intro level classes will tend to focus on basics--one person described this as "We make the easy things hard so the hard things will be easy." My experience has definitely borne this out--after focusing on "basics" I have returned to challenging poses with a new level of ease, even though I hadn't been practicing those particular poses at all. Alignment insights, once integrated into our bodies, become available to us more quickly in a faster-paced practice or in everyday movement.

Over the six weeks, I’ll introduce the fundamentals of the philosophical context and alignment method as expressed in basic yoga asanas--most of which will be familiar to Ashtanga students, though there may be some small variations. There are no set sequences in the Anusara Yoga style--each teacher creates each class “from scratch,” but there are principles of sequencing that are used so that each student can move safely through a range of poses, and progress from more basic to more complex variations. Modifications, props, verbal and hands-on adjustments, and demonstrations are all used as needed. The course can serve as an introduction to further exploration of the Anusara style, an opportunity for a few alignment epiphanies to bring back to your current practice, or just a taste of a different flavor from the wide world of yoga!

*”Anusara Inspired” is a registered designation for teachers who have completed a certain level of training but are not yet fully Anusara Certified. I am, however, Certified as a Hatha Yoga Teacher, and Registered with the Yoga Alliance as well as being registered as an Anusara Inspired teacher.

~Jeanne Ann