ArtStar Yoga

ArtStar Yoga is located in the historical downtown of Emmett, Idaho teaching the Shaktiananda Yoga technique for all ages and levels; beginner thru advanced. ArtStar Yoga provides the community with the opportunity to explore Yoga in a way that challenges and nurtures all aspects of being. Yoga is ancient wisdom from India, China, and Tibet; as far back as from the Himalayas. ArtStar Yoga provides students with techniques to build enthusiasm and integrity. ArtStar Yoga teaches the Shaktiananda Yoga technique which involves exercise as a flowing dance with traditional Ashtanga which contains eight limbs or eight steps.

The Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga
Yama, ethics and morals; Niyama, religious observances, reflection, Asanas, postures and exercises, Pranayama, breathing exercises, Pratyahara, withdrawal of senses from objects, Dharana, concentration and mental focusing, Dhyana, meditation, Samadhi, Self-realization, superconsciousness oneness with God. All classes include exercises and postures (asanas), breathing techniques, (pranayama), yogic philosophy, and guided relaxation and meditation. Private yoga instruction and yoga therapy is available by appointment. We carry reasonably priced yoga props as well. Through the practice of the Shaktiananda Yoga technique increased flexibility, health, and the reconnection to innate joy and goodness becomes a way of life. Shaktiananda Yoga is a transformational journey, and is for anyone, regardless of age, size, fitness level or background, can begin. 

Yogic Postures
‘Asana’ means staying or abiding. Asana is one way in which a person can experience the unity of body and mind. Asana is defined as that which is comfortable and easy, as well as firm.  In the west, asana is called "posture". Yogic postures (asanas) are prescribed for the purpose of comfort and firmness during meditation and the practice of pranayama. An upright seated posture in which one can sit with comfort and no need to move is ideal for meditation. Asana is a dynamic position, in which the practitioner is perfectly poised between activity and non-activity.  There is a corresponding mental balance between movement and stillness.  Patanjali teaches that each posture reflects a mental attitude; whether that attitude is one of surrender, as in a forward-bending asana, or the strengthening of the will, through backward-bending postures, or the creation of a physical prayer with the body, as in the practice of Padmasana, the well-known lotus posture.

Asana Practice
The Yoga Sutra says that when the asanas are mastered the individual is more able to handle opposites and learn to adapt.  Asana practice improves the ability to stand with ease, sit comfortably, or to cope with different demands.  If we want to practice pranayama and meditation, we have to be able to sit comfortably erect for a period of time. Asanas help us focus on the breath rather than the body during pranayama practice. If we can sit comfortably and effortlessly erect there is nothing to distract us from our concentration on the breath and experience a deep meditation. Once the mental attitude has been created, it can then be spontaneously expressed as an asana; if one takes on the external form of an internal attitude, soon that attitude moves through body into mind, thus creating it there. Whichever way one works, the results are the same. Asana is thus both a preparation for meditation and a meditation sufficient in and of itself.

Another advantage of asana is that it is direct.  It can temporarily bring peace and quiet the mind. This quieting encourages the balancing of the mental functions of the individual, since it allows the intuitive aspects of the mind to have free play. This soothing effect on the brain has been verified by EEG data of brain during meditation. It has great healing implications. Patanjali suggests that the asana and the pranayama practices will bring about the desired state of health; the control of breath and bodily posture which will harmonize the flow of energy in the organism, thus creating evolution of the Spirit called Self-realization.

Shaktiananda Yoga was developed in 1968 by ~Shri Swami Maha-Shaktiananda
 Founder of Self-Realization Shala Order™; 1970; in Canada.