When I am tired, stressed, and ready to end the day I turn to certain yoga styles and avoid the more fast paced and strenuous styles. These are three of my favorite night yoga styles that recommend to try at least once.

In general, these styles offer slower, cooling, and more passive poses. It does depend on the teacher, but try to explore different classes and don’t give up if you don’t like the first one that you try!

1. Yin Yoga

There was a teacher who would teach Yin Yoga where I used to study. They were usually the latest class on the schedule. I looked forward to these classes because it was super relaxing and I had a stressful job at the time.

The unique thing about Yin Yoga is that it is a completely Passive practice. Yin yoga goes through a series of stretch poses and lets you stay in one pose from 1-5 minutes at a time. So Child’s Pose could take up to 10 minutes!

It works by allowing the stretch to enter into your deep tissues. It also develops a release quality as you are instructed to completely let go, instead of engaging muscles you release them.

Gather pillows, and props to help you release no matter what level you are at. The great thing is that this type of yoga allows you widen and advance your hip poses including the “splits”.

2. Moon Salutation – Chandra Namaskar

The Moon Salutation is different from the Sun Salution (Surya Namaskar). It will help you to cool down, rejuvenate and relax. This sequence is designed for the night time, and for honoring the moon cycles. The Moon Salutation goes in a different direction than the Sun Salutation. It starts on the right side of the mat, we move sideways, and then end on the left side. The sequence is repeated the opposite way, ending on the right side.

There are different versions, which I encourage you to try both traditional and modern. The famous yoga teacher Shiva Rea teaches her version with before and after meditations and a lunar theme chanting option for each pose. This sequence acknowledges the need for a balanced harmony between our hot and cold energies. When you balance these energies prepare yourself for a spiritual union.

The Moon Salutation poses include: Standing Sidebend, Goddess Pose, Triangle Pose (Trikonasana), Malasana. Anahatasana, Anjali Mudra, etc.

The traditional lunar chant is “Om somaya namaha”.

3. Slow Hatha Class

Hatha Yoga focuses on balancing energies and connecting consciousness with your vital forces. In a slow Hatha class, low intensity poses work to cool the body and the mind down.

These can range in level and intensity, but the slower ones are great for late nights when you want to tune into your breath, body, and become more mindful. The teacher will guide you through holding a pose while breathing and often offer pure breathing exercises. Guided meditations might be used or a simple meditation at the end.

Common poses include floor poses, cat and cow, and inversion poses. Have a blanket ready in case you get cold during Savasana Pose (typically the last pose of the class).

To sum up, look out for these classes Yin Yoga (Passive), Moon Salutation (Moon Inspired sequence) and Slow Hatha (slow paced Yoga with breathing and meditation). Give your self permission to indulge in some relaxation and reconnection of your mind, body and Spirit. Also make sure to wear comfortable yoga leggings because you will feel better; you can shop some of them here.

Anusara Yoga – Everything You Need to Know

If you are a recent yoga enthusiast, you are most likely overwhelmed by the various different types of yoga styles. This article is dedicated to reviewing, explaining and informing you about Anusara Yoga.

This is a modern Hatha yoga system founded by the American John Friend. Anusara generally translates to “Go with the flow”, “Follow your heart” and “Flow with grace”. It is based on the Tantric philosophical system with principles of arrangement. It is one of the fastest growing and popular styles in the modern world. The main focus of this style is to experience joy in your daily life within the yoga practice.

Origin, Philosophy, and Principles of Anusara Yoga

Originally found by John Friend in 1997, this style focuses on life as a gift, and its goal is to make us remember and celebrate that fact through the yoga practice.

The base philosophy Anusara’s Yoga roots stand in is the assumption that all human beings are inherently good. The “Universal Principles of Arrangement” stand as a core in its practice and give guidelines on how to align your heart, body, mind and soul in such a way that it integrates a circulation within you which optimizes your strength, health, and general well-being. Finding the most important tools and using those principles stand as the most important factors of its practice.

How to Practice Anusara Yoga

Most common practices taught by Anusara teachers are the holding of a particular, specific key-pose for a longer period of time. The Vinyasa flow helps your breathing and teaches you new breathing methods which guide you to your asana practice. This helps to warm your body up and enables you to express yourself physically and release yourself from negative forces. While this might sound hard to grasp as a concept at first, the Anusara style is built in such a manner that actually benefits the beginner students the most as instructors and yoga teachers will mostly not try and physically fix the student’s pose, but give them the guidelines on how to properly use the principles of alignment. There are no actual “fixed poses” due to the nature of the style guiding the expression. Classes are usually finished with meditation to help relax the body and the mind.

What Are the Pros to a Regular Anusara Yoga Practice?

As in most types of yoga, this will also help you strengthen your body and mind, but also make it more flexible, help both physical and emotional injuries be healed faster, fix imbalances of any type that were previously naturally adopted by your body such as the wrong posture due to various reasons such as not sitting properly and so on. The main idea is to practice with awareness, intention, and emotion. Following these simple guidelines will help you improve tremendously, but the main benefit is your mind and heart being helped evolve to a new level of spirituality and balance.