hey everyone welcome to yoga with

Adriene I'm Adriene today we're tackling

the question what is a vinyasa this

comes up a lot and it's a totally

awesome question because it's confusing

we go to public classes and the teachers

like and vinyasa vinyasa

mufasa so first things first we'll break

this down very quickly for you first

things first is like most sanskrit terms

the word vinyasa has many meanings the

first thing we'll do is break down the

word the Sanskrit word vinyasa means to

to place the the first part means to

place Yassa

in a special way so forget about that

chaturanga to updog for a second just

think about that that the Sanskrit term

itself means to place in a special way

now I'm not trying to get on my Sanskrit

high horse of our yogic high horse here

but I feel like that's really cool and

really important especially as a

beginner but even for anyone who might

be listening to this wanting to kind of

deepen your practice and embrace the

yogic philosophy in your asana practice

and hopefully in your everyday life so

to place in a special way for me that

brings up the idea of you know intention

to move with intention so honestly there

are many definitions to the word vinyasa

and for this vinyasa but to place in a

special way I feel like my favorite

definition is definitely like how do you

move with intention to move with

intention so that brings me to another

way of interpreting this word vinyasa

and that is that is a systematic

approach to moving from one point to the

next with the breath so very important

with the breath moving from point A to

point B with the breath so we have this

idea of moving with intention and now we

have this understanding or this idea of

moving from one pose to the next or just

moving from point A to point B with the

breath so it's breath and intention now

to like the park you know to the

confusing question but what you know I

look at a yoga schedule and I see

there's a vinyasa

class so linking body movement with the

breath has become you know this very

popular way to get the heart rate going

to flow in and out of the postures so

using my hands a lot so we also will

refer to this word as you know flow a

flow class the vinyasa class so you know

what to expect when you show up to that

class

to link breath and body movement

probably moves it a semi Swift pace if

you're in the West and then the final

kind of practical thing that you might

be wondering well what about when I'm in

that vinyasa class and the teacher says

and now take your vinyasa or rest you

know and that is looking at the word in

a whole nother way but still with the

same principles of moving with intention

linking body movement with breath and

that is that little sequence between our

downward-facing dogs so that moment

between Auto MOCA and Auto mukha usually

and so typically that'll be lowering

down to the belly opening your heart and

Kol removing with the breath and then

exhaling back to down dog or again

really common in the West and in these

kind of more fast-paced classes we will

and we and we do them here on the

channel as well we will take that

opportunity that vinyasa as a chaturanga

to upward facing dog and then a return

to your downward facing dog so I hope

I'm not confusing you there are lots of

meanings to the word vinyasa there are

also these practical applications the

name of the class

you know the noun the the moment between

the downward facing dog but if we really

go back to the root of the Sanskrit word

where we're talking about moving with

intention and using the breath as a tool

to do just that so hopefully it's helped

you figure out the word vinyasa it

doesn't always have to be that fancy

chaturanga to updog to perform a vinyasa

if you're in a class and that moment

comes along and you're not prepared to

do that or you're working on shoulder

stuff or you're just growing that

chaturanga as long as you're moving with

your breath you're doing it right

doing it awesome so anyway that's all

for today keep the questions coming we

love to respond to the requests because

it means that we're having a real

conversation we're not just yoga robots

wore this shirt especially for you is my

first time to wear it in a long time I

made this when I was in fifth grade for

a track-and-field day

that might be an overshare but I think

it's pretty cool okay anyway take care

everyone we'll see you next time free

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join the conversation namaste that was

really cheesy