Frequently Used Terms in Yoga
In this post we’ll explore some of the frequently used terms you might hear in a yoga class or conversation. There are a few topics that I look at more deeply, and others where I just skim the surface. In the future, many of these topics will get their very own blog post, so stay tuned for lots more to come. Wherever you find a Sanskrit word, there will be two recordings; one with a technical pronunciation, and another featuring how you’ll most likely hear the word pronounced in English.
Here’s a cue you’ll likely hear often in an asana class. It’s a fancy way for a teacher to get you from standing straight up to being bent all the way forward over your legs. Unfortunately, for a new student, it’s not usually enough information to properly communicate what the teacher is asking you to do, so people end up looking around the room and mimicking what they see.
This cue will always come when you are standing, and likely when your arms are raised up towards the ceiling. The hope of the teacher is that if your arms are up, you must be lengthening your spine, which is crucial to coming into that forward fold in a healthy way. But unfortunately, it’s easy to have your arms up, and your spine compressed at the same time.
Ultimately what you want to do in a “swan dive” is lengthen your spine to create a little space between the vertebrae, and then begin to hinge your upper body forward from the hips, keeping your spine long as you sweep your arms out to the side, eventually making your way into a standing forward fold. Length is the key to maintaining a healthy spine in your Yoga practice. If you hunch as you make your way down, you risk putting too much pressure on the discs between the vertebrae, and while you may not notice anything right away, over time, issues may arise.
So when you hear a teacher say, “Swan Dive,” make lengthening the spine your main goal; if you focus on not hunching while folding from the hip joints, you should be good to go. Don’t worry about your arms so much, they’re really just along for the ride. And feel free to bend your knees as you come down; it’s helpful in releasing discomfort along the whole back side of your body.
As you might guess, the goal is to come from a forward fold back up to standing. We begin in a standing forward fold, and then we want to strive once again to lengthen the spine before we begin to lift back up to standing. You can do that by stretching your arms alongside your ears to help encourage that length, or you might prefer to sweep your arms out to the side as you rise up. Again, the arms aren’t your biggest focus, it’s all about getting that space between your vertebrae to protect the discs between the bones.
Once again, try to avoid hunching your back; we want the movement of the body to happen at the hip joints, where your torso and legs come together. If you keep the upward motion at the hips and not in the spine, you should be safe. Keep in mind, bending your knees can be just as helpful in a reverse swan dive as it is in a swan dive.
When you hear the term, “Flat Back” essentially the teacher is asking you to bring your spine into a neutral position. We have three natural curves in the spine that are key to our healthy posture, so the idea isn’t actually to make your back flat (which is impossible), it’s to bring your spine into its natural positioning.
We often hear this cue when we’re in a standing forward fold. A teacher might ask you to “Inhale up to a flat back” and what they want you to do is inhale as you lengthen your spine and lift your upper body up to the point where your spine is once again neutral and your legs are straight. We don’t have to be standing upright in order for the spine to be neutral, as the action of a forward fold is happening in the hip joints. For some people, they can be folded entirely forward, with their upper body making full contact with their legs and still maintain a relatively neutral spine. So “inhaling up to a flat back” is going to look very different from person to person.
“Take a bind” essentially means to bind your body in a pose by wrapping one arm over or around a part of your body and then reaching back with the opposite arm and either clasping hands, or bringing one hand to hold onto the opposite wrist. The action creates a constricted container for the pose that can, depending on the pose, increase pressure on the abdominal organs, causing a massage effect that many in Yoga believe can be beneficial.
A simple example would be to wrap your arms around the back of your legs in a forward fold, while a more complicated example might be a pose called Bird of Paradise.
For some people, the boney structure of their shoulder joint prevents them from being able to take a bind, so using a Yoga strap is a great way to create similar effects, without forcing the body into an uncomfortable, or impossible, position.
It’s also important to note that taking a bind doesn’t always add benefit to a posture. Often it can compromise the openness and integrity of a pose, which in turn can actually detract from the benefits of the shape. When adding a bind to a pose, it should feel completely comfortable and in no way alter the healthy alignment of the original posture.
This is a simple way to say sway something back and forth, like windshield wipers move back and forth across the glass. The two most typical examples are to windshield wiper your calves or windshield wiper your knees.
To windshield wiper your calves means that when you are on your stomach, typically after a backbend, you can bend your knees and sway your calves back and forth, which can often help relieve minor discomfort or compression in the lower back.
Another way to windshield wiper is to sway your knees back and forth while seated or lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the mat positioned wider than your hips.
The action of Grounding Down means to press firmly through all four corners of your feet. It’s a way to stay engaged and connected to the earth.
This is a physical cue you’ll likely hear often in a class. It refers to the ball of your foot, just below your big toe.
This simply means lying on your stomach. Many back bends are done from a Prone position.
This means lying on your back. You might hear the term, “Supine twist,” which means being in a twisted posture while lying on your back.
More on this soon, but as a cursory explanation, OM, technically AUM, is a mantra (or sacred sound) that resonates deep in the body and attunes the practitioner to the deep resonant vibration of the entire Universe.
It’s often used at the start and/or end of a practice to tune in with the energy of the other practitioners and the Universe as a whole. There is no religious connotation to OM.
Shanti is the Sanskrit word for Peace.
You may hear someone say, “Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,” so essentially, they are saying “Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.” Shanti is said three times for a reason; the first time represents the speaker, striving for inner peace, the second is sent to those in the speaker’s immediate surroundings, and the third is sent out into the world for the betterment of all.
This is the most widely misused Sanskrit word in Yoga. Many people use Namaste as a way to a close out a class, or a way to end an email or a conversation. This is culturally inaccurate.
According to Susanna Barkataki, a leading educator when it comes to the cultural appropriation of Yoga, the Sanskrit word Namaste breaks down like this:
“namas (i.e., namah) = reverence, adoration, salutation, bowing
“te” (short for tubhyam) is the dative case for the second person pronoun = to you
namas-te is the thus reverence/salutations to you (i.e., the person you are greeting).
“as” does not = “I”, in fact it is the verb = “to be”
More, if there was an “as” in the word, because of the rules of sandhi, the term would then have to be namāste, which it is not.
There is thus, no “I” in namaste”
Namaste is a greeting for a revered teacher or elder. Many people say it means, “The spirit in me recognizes the spirit in you” and while this is a lovely idea, it’s not culturally appropriate or accurate. The misuse of the word Namaste is the most obvious example of the rampant cultural appropriation that takes place in the US surrounding Yoga. We’ll explore this in a future blog post.
This is a big subject. In the future you’ll find a blog post that dives deeply into this Yogic concept, but for now I want to keep it simple. Prana is life-force energy.
This is another one of those massive concepts that deserves way more than a few paragraphs, but it’s helpful to have a cursory understanding in case you ever hear the term.
Chakras are one of the several energetic systems that Yogis work with in the body. In the Tantric model (P.S. Tantric Yoga has NOTHING to do with sex), there are seven Chakras that are located along the central channel of energy in the body, loosely correlated to the spine. So think of the locations listed below as if they are along the spine.
1st Chakra: Muladhara is the located at the base of the spine, and is often associated with the color red. It’s typically called the Root Chakra.
2nd Chakra: Svadisthana is located just below the navel. It’s often called the Sacral Chakra and is associated with the color orange.
3rd Chakra: Manipura is located roughly just below the sternum, is often referred to as the Solar Plexus Chakra, and is associated with the color yellow.
4th Chakra: Anahata is at the heart, and therefore is often called the Heart Chakra, and is associated with the color green.
5th Chakra: Vishuddha is located at the base of the throat, and so you guessed it, is also known at the Throat Chakra. If you’re following our rainbow pattern here, we’ve come to the color blue.
6th Chakra: Ajna Chakra is said to be located at the pineal gland deep inside the brain, and so for ease, is associated with the center of the forehead. This is that Third Eye you might have heard of before. The color connected with Ajna is indigo.
7th Chakra: Sahasrara is known as the Crown Chakra and is associated with the very top of the head and beyond. It’s often depicted as purple, but can also be represented in the color white.
Many New Age methodologies place certain significance on these different energy centers, so in a future blog post we’ll discuss the similarities and the differences behind the Yogic approach, and the New Age ideas.
Bandhas are often misunderstood as simply specific muscular engagements of the body. You may hear a teacher say, “Activate your Uddiyana Bandha” when what they want you to do is activate your core muscles. While one could argue they are one in the same, Bandhas are much more complicated and nuanced than just engaging a muscle or two in a posture. Often, they involve a specific practice while activating those certain muscles. Though because many teachers and students are not aware of these subtle realities, when you hear the word Bandha in a class, they are likely just referring to a muscular engagement, so I want you to have an idea of what they mean. In the future, you’ll find a blog post going deeper into this subject.
The two main ones you’ll hear are Uddiyana and Moola.
If you hear a teacher say Uddiyana Bandha, they want you to mindfully pull your navel in towards your spine, and then up in the direction of your heart. Many people engage the core by just drawing the navel inward, but in order to create a stronger foundation for the abdominal muscles and the spine, that distinction of adding the upward motion is important and necessary. Try it a few times; first just pull your navel in, then relax, then pull it in and up, and see if you can feel a difference.
Moola bandha is a bit more “intimate” so to speak. The physical action is actually drawing the perineum upwards. Many people think of this as engaging the pelvic floor muscles, which it is, and women often compare it to doing a Kegel.
To quote Joseph & Lilian Le Page from their book, Mudras for Healing and Transformation, “Mudras are gestures of the hands, face and body that promote physical health, psychological balance and spiritual awakening.”
They are most often expressed by connecting the fingers and parts of the hands together in any number of simple and complex formations. Each finger represents a different element of the Universe, and when combined, can be used as a way to balance those elements in one’s own life.
Mudras are often used in meditation as a way to focus one’s energy in a specific way. They can be calming and/or energizing depending on how they are used.
Mantras are sacred sounds, either built from syllables, or actual Sanskrit words. AUM, or OM, is considered the most powerful mantra, though many people don’t see it that way. They think mantras need to be long and complicated to be effective, and while some are, nothing beats out OM.
Mantras are used as a way to focus the mind in meditation and can be used in conjunction with a Japa Mala to enhance the practice.
A Japa Mala is a set of 108 beads strung around a center Guru bead, which often has a threaded tassel extending down from it. They are used in meditation as a way to focus a Mantra practice. Essentially, you hold a bead between your fingers and say the mantra, then you move to the next bead and repeat the mantra, ultimately working your way around the entire string, repeating your mantra 108 times. You do not recite the mantra while holding the Guru bead, just the other 108 beads.
Lots of people wear decorative malas as a pretty fashion accessory, but when constructed properly, malas are a very utilitarian, though also sacred, object. The Christian Rosary is modeled after the Japa Mala.
The practice of Dristhi is a method of gazing or concentrating on a singular focal point. It helps the practitioner block out other visual stimulation thus creating more focus in the practice. In classes, it’s most often used as a way to steady oneself in a balance posture; you pick a focal point, something that is not moving, and you steady your gaze there, which can provide a sense of steadiness for the whole body.
But you can practice Dristhi in meditative way as well, which essentially means picking a focal point, whether that’s an image or an object, and subsequently keeping your focus on that image or object for a select period of time. This type of practice doesn’t technically fall under traditional meditation, or Dhyana, rather it’s a combination of Pratyhara, or sense withdrawal (because we are focusing with just one sense, our vision, blocking out all others), and Dharana, which is concentration. Both are important steps on the path to traditional meditation.
This a loaded word, especially these days in Yoga; one that can open a huge can of worms. We won’t open that can right now, but it’s good to have an understanding of the true meaning of the word.
“Gu” means darkness, while “Ru” means light; one might say that a Guru is a remover of darkness, or perhaps a bringer of light.
I’ve also seen the word broken down into “Gu,” still meaning darkness, but “Ru” means “that which dispels,” therefore Guru means dispeller of darkness, which is very similar to the above description.
Others say the Guru means weighty, heavy, great, and valuable.
So ultimately what we can surmise is that a Guru is a revered teacher who helps us see our true nature through their vast and weighty wealth of knowledge.
The term is often used as a way to say someone is really good at what they do, but this is highly inappropriate. A big red flag for me is when someone calls themselves a Guru, as Guru is a term offered by the person who has been deeply affected by the Guru, not as a way for someone to distinguish or label themselves.