By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Yoga slows down your inner pace, something truly needed in modern life. When you are able to stand down from red alert, your mind benefits along with your body.

Though some yoga systems have you speed up in order to slow down, the classical practice is done slowly. In other words, you slow down by slowing down.

It’s something everyone longs for, whether they plan an island vacation or to build a backyard living room. Or maybe simply an afternoon nap on the couch. You slow down by slowing down.

Even the ancients did their poses slowly. No internet, no superhighways, no airplanes or rocket ships, so they didn’t need to counterbalance the frenetic pace of life. Yet the yogis did slow poses back then.

The point is to use your body to cultivate an inward expansion into the deeper dimensionality of your own Beingness.

Each pose is used to dissolve the physical tensions your mind has created through its focus on need, greed and fear. As you melt away the old patterns, you enliven your body, thus awakening your nervous system, glandular system, circulatory and respiratory systems as well as your brain.

Vibrant health and vitality are only the beginning. The bliss of Consciousness is the goal.

Your spine is the conduit of Consciousness, documented in the ancient saying, “Every pose is for your spine.” Slow yoga gives you the time to unravel the deep tensions that have twisted and compressed your vertebrae.

In Svaroopa^® yoga, every pose targets a specific area of your spine, decompressing your vertebrae and unlocking your energy. Your nervous system runs on energy, which comes from your spine, extending through your whole body. Best of all is the bliss that flows through as your energy awakens and spreads.

Speedy yoga was an innovation starting only 100 years ago, a mix of British calisthenics and classical yoga. Since India had been conquered and ruled by the Brits for 100 years or more, the adaptation was a survival need.

My 1970’s training was in the classical practice. I watched speedy yoga be adopted by the health clubs and YMCA classes. Then an international competition was begun, now called “yoga sports.” Slow yoga was eclipsed by the speedy, showy and sexy yoga in the foreground. Yet yoga is more powerful when it is done slowly.

I was in residence in my Guru’s India Ashram when a yogic adept came to visit. Asked to give a yoga demonstration, he performed one Sun Salutation. Moving slowly, it took him almost five minutes to do one. It was beautiful. It was poetic. It was almost like the gandharvas were playing their celestial instruments to accompany him. And it was a profound athletic feat, much harder than speedy yoga could ever be.

Svaroopa^® yoga is a slow yoga. Profoundly healing, it is deeply nourishing on a spiritual level as well as physical. It opens up a mystical process of exploration, beginning with your breath and body, then deepening inward.

What do you find in there? Svaroopa, your own Divine Essence. You find who is living in this body, who is making choices and acting upon them, who is moving into the world.

As you explore your own Beingness, you discover who is having the experiences you are having. It’s not about the experiences — it’s about the experiencer. You discover your own Self. For this, you have to slow down.