What is Hatha yoga?
What is Hatha Yoga?
Hatha means ‘forceful’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
Asana - yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’) to gain control over the body
Pranayama - breathing techniques, to gain control over the breath
Mantra - chanting or reciting, to gain control over the mind
Mudra - hand gestures, to manipulate and stimulate pranas (subtle energies)
Bandhas - internal locks to stimulate chakras (energy centres)
Shatkriyas - cleansing techniques
Shatkarmas - cleansing techniques
Hatha yoga postures are practiced slowly and with more static posture holds.
Broken down, the Sanskrit word 'Ha' translates to 'sun' and 'tha' translates to 'moon' equating to Hatha (pronounced Ha ta) the practice of balance.
What to expect in my Hatha yoga class
It can be intimidating going into a yoga class for the first time, where most people seem to already know what they are doing, but remember, we are all beginners in this 'practice'. I teach from a 'bus stop' perspective as everyone in the class will be at different levels of ability, fitness and wellness. Each posture can be broken down or built up depending on what your level of fitness and ability is. So, 'bus stop 1' would be the basic or most gentle variation of the pose, then once you feel you're able to move on, you would try 'bus stop 2' and so forth, but only moving within your own range of movement.
Centering and Breathing
The class will begin with a grounding practice, exploring how you are feeling in the present moment, letting go of your day or week, noticing any sensations in your body...all the things that will serve no purpose for the duration of the class. We practice a basic breathing exercise to focus awareness on the 'now' which also calms the nervous system and reduces any anxiety felt at that time.
Warm up
After the centering and breathing practice, we move on to warm the muscles and joints preparing them for the asana (poses) practice. This could be with Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) which is a combination of 12 back-to-back yoga poses. It's a cardiovascular workout that involves everybody part with stretching, generating positive energy flow for the body. Alternatively, we may practice stand alone postures.
Asanas, warm down and into relaxation
Moving from the warm up into the main part of the practice is a gentle transition, focussing on moving the spine through all of it's range of movements, including standing or seated forward, back and side bends, twists and inversions. From here we move into relaxation, where you will reap the benefit of your practice, through a breathing and guided relaxation.
Benefits of a regular Hatha yoga practice:
Physical benefits
Yoga has been turned into something you can ‘fit in' to a busy modern lifestyle. But it came from something that was the complete opposite, and was viewed very differently to how we view yoga now.
Whilst the majority of us ‘fit in’ a morning practice, or ‘pause’ to switch on a five minute meditation app, the ancient Hatha Yogis were renunciates. That is, they renounced their lives, families, jobs and worldly responsibilities in favour of a life as an ascetic.
The ascetic tradition emerged on the borders of India and Nepal. Aspects that came to be a part of Hindu tradition, like reincarnation and karma, were central to their thinking. These were the original Hatha yogis – and Tapas, translated as ‘heat’, ‘glow’, ‘austerity’ or ‘discipline’ and referring to a sense of ‘burning’ off past karma and refining the body and mind – was their practice.
In order to perfect the body and senses, these Hatha yogis would perform extraordinary feats such as holding their arms in the air for hours on end. They would submerge themselves in cold water, never sitting down (not even to sleep). They’d stand on one leg, or carry out the ‘bat penance’ (hanging upside down).
We may think these are part of an obscure and long-lost tradition. However, these practices are still happening today, and there’s no sign of them becoming extinct any time soon.
The Buddha practised asceticism for a number of years. However, what many texts omit, is that he found no benefit in the practices, and eventually rejected them. He tried extreme breath control and fasting, as did Jain monks, who would sit and fast until death in order to ‘burn up’ their karma and escape the wheel of rebirth entirely, or return to a more desirable life.
From East to West
Originally, Hatha yoga practices were entirely focussed upon the breath and the means of controlling it. This way of practising has now come to represent just one of the branches of Hatha yoga - Pranayama. Extreme breath control was essentially considered the ability to control prana or one’s own ‘life force’, and therefore the ability to control life. These extreme bodily challenges and breathing techniques gradually became more accepted by society. Subsequently, the yoga postures and pranayama practices that came to develop in the years following are thought to originate from this. In a strange way, these extreme postures were a sort of performance.
They created a ‘buzz’, attracted audiences and earned the Hatha yogis money, eerily echoing the modern day Instagram photos of difficult yoga postures earning ‘likes’ and sponsorship deals…When India faced colonialism, many Westerners were able to see and experience Hatha yoga practices for themselves. This was partly due to the introduction by less extreme-minded tourists in India, of gymnastics, contortionism and body building. It was also due to ascetics who travelled to other lands themselves. These included the Hatha yogis who were discovered by Alexander the Great, and accompanied him back to Greece. The word of yoga began to spread.
When something spreads to different parts of the world, it can’t help but pick up influences along the way. Especially in the 1800s, contortionism, gymnastics and yoga postures do look almost identical. I suppose the only difference may have been the intention behind the practices; for either transcendence or treasures. Influences of body building and even European gymnastics began to merge with the original ascetic practices, and soon Hatha yoga became sequenced and taught to larger groups of people. It finally entered into Western consciousness when Vivekananda visited the US in the late 1800s and the first physical ‘performance’ of yoga graced the UK in 1893.
It’s important to understand that changes, evolution and ‘reinvention’ within Hatha yoga practices didn’t just take place in the West (we didn’t ruin yoga) but were happening across the East, too. Persia and other parts of the Middle East were also practising forms of Hatha yoga. It made up a part of Sufism, focussing more upon difficult postures intended to lead towards meditative practices.
The Evolution of Hatha Yoga
One of the long-standing arguments amongst scholars and academics within the yoga world is when yoga itself actually began. 5000 years ago, the Pashupati seal was discovered, showing a figure sitting in what appears to resemble padmasana (lotus posture). Many consider this to represent the origins of asana and yoga practice, and that it even depicts Lord Shiva. Others disagree and challenge that whilst the stone carving indeed dates back 2350-2000 BC, there is no recorded history or anything to prove that yoga existed for an entire 1,500 years after that. Other thinking suggests the carved figure is of a Eurasian tree god or even a goddess.
The next discovery of yoga after the Pashupati seal was in the ancient text the Atharva Veda. This discovery suggests yoga didn’t even exist until 1000 BC.
No matter how old yoga itself is, the Hatha yoga practices and asanas that accompany it are contested at length too. Chris Tompkins has three degrees in religion and Sanskrit, lectures and leads courses about yoga. He asserts that the Suryanamaskar (Sun salutation) practices of Hatha yoga originated from the ancient Vedic texts and were practised by yogis. These texts date back to 1700 BC, but others such as Mallinson and Singleton state that no one other than ascetics were practising yoga until the 20th century.
Whichever view you choose to follow, there’s no denying the rapid speed at which Hatha yoga evolved, morphed and adapted over time. From being buried alive, practising complicated breathing patterns, and reciting mantras for religious, ceremonial and sacrificial purposes, we now find ourselves in a much more comfortable and safe variation of Hatha yoga in the modern world.
Many of the postures we see today didn’t exist until the explosion of popular yoga within the past 50 years. Ancient asanas were not merely postures to begin with, but mudras – intended to seal and direct energy within the body. Savasana was originally meant as a way to practise deep and esoteric visualisation and encourage subtle energetic changes, going far beyond just five minutes of relaxation at the end of a sweaty class (although of course relaxation is highly beneficial in a busy modern world!).
The well-known text on Hatha yoga – The Hatha Yoga Pradipika – can be thought of almost as an anthology of many Hatha texts combined. It includes fifteen primary postures, seven of which are seated and eight non-seated, as well as an amalgamation of additional postures, totalling 84 asanas.
This is the first time we know of an asana being reimagined as something other than a seated position for meditation. After all, the word asana means ‘seat’, specifically a seat for meditation. 84 is a number used over and over again in spiritual practices, representing a connection between the individual practitioner and the universe.
From just one known asana in the 13th century, to 84 sacred postures, to 112 in the 18th and 19th centuries, we now have a plethora of postures, from the most gentle and restorative, to the most challenging and pretzel-like.
Creating change
Whilst the origins and practices of the many aspects of yoga and Hatha yoga still remain shrouded in mystery, one thing is certain: Hatha yoga practices – the asana, pranayama, mudra and mantra techniques many of us dedicate time to – create change. This is something they’ve always been intended to do.
They can change how we feel not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. They can enhance feelings of happiness and wellbeing, help release sadness and grieving, and encourage relaxation and dynamism.
We may not all be able to become ascetics and renounce worldly responsibilities in favour of yoga practice. However, we can use our yoga practice to become more connected, vital and engaged with the world we live in.
Hatha means ‘forceful’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
Asana - yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’) to gain control over the body
Pranayama - breathing techniques, to gain control over the breath
Mantra - chanting or reciting, to gain control over the mind
Mudra - hand gestures, to manipulate and stimulate pranas (subtle energies)
Bandhas - internal locks to stimulate chakras (energy centres)
Shatkriyas - cleansing techniques
Shatkarmas - cleansing techniques
Hatha yoga postures are practiced slowly and with more static posture holds.
Broken down, the Sanskrit word 'Ha' translates to 'sun' and 'tha' translates to 'moon' equating to Hatha (pronounced Ha ta) the practice of balance.
What to expect in my Hatha yoga class
It can be intimidating going into a yoga class for the first time, where most people seem to already know what they are doing, but remember, we are all beginners in this 'practice'. I teach from a 'bus stop' perspective as everyone in the class will be at different levels of ability, fitness and wellness. Each posture can be broken down or built up depending on what your level of fitness and ability is. So, 'bus stop 1' would be the basic or most gentle variation of the pose, then once you feel you're able to move on, you would try 'bus stop 2' and so forth, but only moving within your own range of movement.
Centering and Breathing
The class will begin with a grounding practice, exploring how you are feeling in the present moment, letting go of your day or week, noticing any sensations in your body...all the things that will serve no purpose for the duration of the class. We practice a basic breathing exercise to focus awareness on the 'now' which also calms the nervous system and reduces any anxiety felt at that time.
Warm up
After the centering and breathing practice, we move on to warm the muscles and joints preparing them for the asana (poses) practice. This could be with Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) which is a combination of 12 back-to-back yoga poses. It's a cardiovascular workout that involves everybody part with stretching, generating positive energy flow for the body. Alternatively, we may practice stand alone postures.
Asanas, warm down and into relaxation
Moving from the warm up into the main part of the practice is a gentle transition, focussing on moving the spine through all of it's range of movements, including standing or seated forward, back and side bends, twists and inversions. From here we move into relaxation, where you will reap the benefit of your practice, through a breathing and guided relaxation.
Benefits of a regular Hatha yoga practice:
Physical benefits
- Improves mobility in the joints
- Improves flexibility in the connective tissue
- It stretches the fascia and improves its condition
- Improves metabolism
- Improves the functioning of all body systems
- Stimulates cell repair and regeneration
- Improves blood flow to the spinal cord
- Improves energy levels
- Helps to calm down the senses
- Improves concentration
- Sharpens the focus
- Calms the nervous system and reduces stress and anxiety
- Relieves depression
- Brings balance to all emotions
Yoga has been turned into something you can ‘fit in' to a busy modern lifestyle. But it came from something that was the complete opposite, and was viewed very differently to how we view yoga now.
Whilst the majority of us ‘fit in’ a morning practice, or ‘pause’ to switch on a five minute meditation app, the ancient Hatha Yogis were renunciates. That is, they renounced their lives, families, jobs and worldly responsibilities in favour of a life as an ascetic.
The ascetic tradition emerged on the borders of India and Nepal. Aspects that came to be a part of Hindu tradition, like reincarnation and karma, were central to their thinking. These were the original Hatha yogis – and Tapas, translated as ‘heat’, ‘glow’, ‘austerity’ or ‘discipline’ and referring to a sense of ‘burning’ off past karma and refining the body and mind – was their practice.
In order to perfect the body and senses, these Hatha yogis would perform extraordinary feats such as holding their arms in the air for hours on end. They would submerge themselves in cold water, never sitting down (not even to sleep). They’d stand on one leg, or carry out the ‘bat penance’ (hanging upside down).
We may think these are part of an obscure and long-lost tradition. However, these practices are still happening today, and there’s no sign of them becoming extinct any time soon.
The Buddha practised asceticism for a number of years. However, what many texts omit, is that he found no benefit in the practices, and eventually rejected them. He tried extreme breath control and fasting, as did Jain monks, who would sit and fast until death in order to ‘burn up’ their karma and escape the wheel of rebirth entirely, or return to a more desirable life.
From East to West
Originally, Hatha yoga practices were entirely focussed upon the breath and the means of controlling it. This way of practising has now come to represent just one of the branches of Hatha yoga - Pranayama. Extreme breath control was essentially considered the ability to control prana or one’s own ‘life force’, and therefore the ability to control life. These extreme bodily challenges and breathing techniques gradually became more accepted by society. Subsequently, the yoga postures and pranayama practices that came to develop in the years following are thought to originate from this. In a strange way, these extreme postures were a sort of performance.
They created a ‘buzz’, attracted audiences and earned the Hatha yogis money, eerily echoing the modern day Instagram photos of difficult yoga postures earning ‘likes’ and sponsorship deals…When India faced colonialism, many Westerners were able to see and experience Hatha yoga practices for themselves. This was partly due to the introduction by less extreme-minded tourists in India, of gymnastics, contortionism and body building. It was also due to ascetics who travelled to other lands themselves. These included the Hatha yogis who were discovered by Alexander the Great, and accompanied him back to Greece. The word of yoga began to spread.
When something spreads to different parts of the world, it can’t help but pick up influences along the way. Especially in the 1800s, contortionism, gymnastics and yoga postures do look almost identical. I suppose the only difference may have been the intention behind the practices; for either transcendence or treasures. Influences of body building and even European gymnastics began to merge with the original ascetic practices, and soon Hatha yoga became sequenced and taught to larger groups of people. It finally entered into Western consciousness when Vivekananda visited the US in the late 1800s and the first physical ‘performance’ of yoga graced the UK in 1893.
It’s important to understand that changes, evolution and ‘reinvention’ within Hatha yoga practices didn’t just take place in the West (we didn’t ruin yoga) but were happening across the East, too. Persia and other parts of the Middle East were also practising forms of Hatha yoga. It made up a part of Sufism, focussing more upon difficult postures intended to lead towards meditative practices.
The Evolution of Hatha Yoga
One of the long-standing arguments amongst scholars and academics within the yoga world is when yoga itself actually began. 5000 years ago, the Pashupati seal was discovered, showing a figure sitting in what appears to resemble padmasana (lotus posture). Many consider this to represent the origins of asana and yoga practice, and that it even depicts Lord Shiva. Others disagree and challenge that whilst the stone carving indeed dates back 2350-2000 BC, there is no recorded history or anything to prove that yoga existed for an entire 1,500 years after that. Other thinking suggests the carved figure is of a Eurasian tree god or even a goddess.
The next discovery of yoga after the Pashupati seal was in the ancient text the Atharva Veda. This discovery suggests yoga didn’t even exist until 1000 BC.
No matter how old yoga itself is, the Hatha yoga practices and asanas that accompany it are contested at length too. Chris Tompkins has three degrees in religion and Sanskrit, lectures and leads courses about yoga. He asserts that the Suryanamaskar (Sun salutation) practices of Hatha yoga originated from the ancient Vedic texts and were practised by yogis. These texts date back to 1700 BC, but others such as Mallinson and Singleton state that no one other than ascetics were practising yoga until the 20th century.
Whichever view you choose to follow, there’s no denying the rapid speed at which Hatha yoga evolved, morphed and adapted over time. From being buried alive, practising complicated breathing patterns, and reciting mantras for religious, ceremonial and sacrificial purposes, we now find ourselves in a much more comfortable and safe variation of Hatha yoga in the modern world.
Many of the postures we see today didn’t exist until the explosion of popular yoga within the past 50 years. Ancient asanas were not merely postures to begin with, but mudras – intended to seal and direct energy within the body. Savasana was originally meant as a way to practise deep and esoteric visualisation and encourage subtle energetic changes, going far beyond just five minutes of relaxation at the end of a sweaty class (although of course relaxation is highly beneficial in a busy modern world!).
The well-known text on Hatha yoga – The Hatha Yoga Pradipika – can be thought of almost as an anthology of many Hatha texts combined. It includes fifteen primary postures, seven of which are seated and eight non-seated, as well as an amalgamation of additional postures, totalling 84 asanas.
This is the first time we know of an asana being reimagined as something other than a seated position for meditation. After all, the word asana means ‘seat’, specifically a seat for meditation. 84 is a number used over and over again in spiritual practices, representing a connection between the individual practitioner and the universe.
From just one known asana in the 13th century, to 84 sacred postures, to 112 in the 18th and 19th centuries, we now have a plethora of postures, from the most gentle and restorative, to the most challenging and pretzel-like.
Creating change
Whilst the origins and practices of the many aspects of yoga and Hatha yoga still remain shrouded in mystery, one thing is certain: Hatha yoga practices – the asana, pranayama, mudra and mantra techniques many of us dedicate time to – create change. This is something they’ve always been intended to do.
They can change how we feel not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. They can enhance feelings of happiness and wellbeing, help release sadness and grieving, and encourage relaxation and dynamism.
We may not all be able to become ascetics and renounce worldly responsibilities in favour of yoga practice. However, we can use our yoga practice to become more connected, vital and engaged with the world we live in.