What is Svaroopa® Yoga?

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Learn a unique approach to yoga! Svaroopa® yoga specializes in core opening and decompression of the spine - from tail to top. 

This therapeutic style of yoga reaches into and releases the deep-seated layers of spinal tension in your body. This inner opening creates healing and personal transformation, and allows for the illuminative inner experience of your own divine essence. It uses precise angles, props (Click here for what you need for a virtual class), and hands on personalized adjustments (or self-adjustments/therapeutic poses for zoom class) so that the body opens gently, yet deeply from the inside out.

This non-athletic, supported practice of yoga helps the process of your yoga practice and allows you to experience the true therapeutic aspects of asanas (yoga poses), called "core opening."

The benefits are far beyond physical! Core opening helps dissolve physical and mental blockages (pain, discomfort, and old mental patterns, etc.). Svaroopa® yoga is very approachable and beneficial for new students and people with physical limitations as well as experienced yogi to experience a powerful & authentic yoga practice.
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*If you have any physical limitations, please contact Ryoko before participating in group classes.
*Private lessons or Integrated Holistic Therapy are designed to meet each individual’s needs as well as help you progress deeper into your own yoga practice.
"Learn how to cultivate both stamina and flexibility simultaneously - a powerful combination for the body
as well as an essential life skills. Give yourself the tools to live in a tension free body & mind!"
Svaroopa means “the bliss of your own being,” "true form" in Sanskrit.

Svaroopa® yoga is very gentle & therapeutic yoga approach.

You will be surprised by the profound healing results in all levels. 

Svaroopa® yoga is yoga for everyone & every body. If you are feeling stiff or out-of-shape, try out Svaroopa® yoga to find the most essential parts of true yoga teaching. This style is also a wonderful counter-balance for people who are engaged in high physical training or a very stressful life style.

Svaroopa® yoga works within a completely different paradigm, “Release vs. Stretching”. Svaroopa® yoga is designed to unravel the deepest tensions in your body, those muscles that are wrapped so tightly around your spine (“Release”). Most other yoga styles place their emphasis on peripheral stretching and focus on other joints, like hips, legs, shoulders, and understand yoga as another form of physical exercise. You must avoid over-stretching ligaments and become a “deceptively flexible person”!! When ligaments get overstretched and your joints hyper-flex, your spinal muscles tighten up to stabilize those hyper-flexible joints, which you do NOT want.

Svaroopa® yoga is conducted in a supportive environment & utilizes the most effective angles for poses. This is not restorative yoga. Svaroopa® yoga introduces you to alternative ways to do familiar yoga poses in a deeply supported manner and with the best effective angles so that actual changes reach into the front of spine - releasing the layers of tensions throughout the whole spine by beginning at the tailbone and progressing all the way up to the top of the crown (“Core Opening”). Svaroopa® yoga allows your body and mind to release into the poses rather than trying to hold into them. It uses precise alignments with support from blankets/props as well as receiving safe, hands on personalized adjustment. “Support equals release”…the greater the support, the deeper the release.

Svaroopa® yoga poses creates space for the internal organs to rest in by releasing the tensions in the front of your spine and pelvic area. Your belly is not your fat, but rather your internal organs bulging outward when squeezed tightly by your tight spinal muscles.You will experience improved internal organ, glandular and immune system functions. You will even discover the back part of your lungs ~breathing with your whole body! This will also massage your internal organs for them to better function. 

Svaroopa® yoga will emphasize and take you step by step through different themed poses. This will help you to have enough opening in your body and mind to do your yoga practice in a safe and much more effective way, especially during standing, inversion & Vinyasa poses. Themes covered will include Daily Practice, Lower Spinal Release, Upper Spinal Release, Abdominals, Backbends, Standing Poses, Forward Bends, Neck & Shoulders, Balance & Inversions, Classical Poses, Vinyasa, and Seated Poses & Twists. Exploring different themes also allows you to be more aware of the changes happening in your body.

Svaroopa® yoga teaches you to align your bones and joints by using the natural support of your skeletal system. You will use your legs, arms and correct abdominal engagement for additional support instead of using your spinal muscles to hold that pose.Tightening the spine can be exhausting to your muscles. Standing poses and everything you do in your life will become easier and more effortless when you have enough spinal opening. Live in a tension free body & mind!

“Tight muscles = weak muscles.” Make a fist, hold it for a long period of time, and then try to squeeze that fist more…can you squeeze it more? The answer is NO. Do you notice your tight fist and forearm feel weak? This is what happens when you feel weakness in your body. The way you have been finding “strength” has been by overworking spinal muscles and this causes everything to tighten up and then weaken…even your breath! You need to release those tight muscles first to get proper functions in your musculoskeletal systems. Once those tight muscles start releasing, blood supply, oxygen, nutrients and prana (life force energy) flow into those area where you have been shut done. You cells feel alive again! With Svaroopa® yoga, your muscles automatically get stronger when your tight spinal muscles release.

Svaroopa® yoga will help you find your true strength and stamina. Bulging muscles and a “cut” body can be impressive on the surface, but true strength (“Inner strength”) comes from something inside. Inner strength is always there. You just need to find it as you quiet your mind. In Svaroopa® yoga, we cultivate true stamina and true flexibility which are essential life skills when you face challenges in your life.

“True strength comes from clarity of mind and strength of will.” ~ M.K. Gandhi

Svaroopa® yoga teaches you to how to release and lengthen tight muscles. Each lesson plan in Svaroopa® yoga class is designed to conclude with a “re-release” pose in case your spinal muscles tighten. You can apply this concept in your daily activities and use re-release poses after driving long distance, sitting in front of your computer for a long period, working on your garden, being stressed out, etc…

Breathe deeper and more efficiently by practicing Ujjayi Pranayama. You are guided though Ujjayi Pranayama* at the beginning of every Svaroopa® Yoga Class to soothe your mind and nervous system. 

*Do 20 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama once or twice a day to help improve your immune system, get rid of your allergies, and get aerobic exercise effect without tightening up your spine!! Read the article The benefits of Ujjayi Pranayama for more details. 

Overall, Svaroopa® yoga provides profound transformative experiences and changes in your body, mind, and emotions, and helps release inner blocks allowing your natural healing power to kick in. Say good-by to your back pain, neck/shoulder tension, and headaches. You will feel more calm, peaceful, relaxed, healthier and happier. You are bliss itself!
Information provided by Ryoko Suzuki, MS, LMT, CSYT (Sept. 2009)
The Benefits of Ujjayi Pranayama by Rama Berch ,C.R.Y.T, R. Y.T.(Originator of Svaroopa® Yoga)
Svaroopa® Yoga YTT I & II lectures & handouts – Copyright© 2005, 2003, 2001, 2000 S.T.C., Inc., All Rights Reserved
For more information, read Articles on Svaroopa® yoga:

" It's All In the Blankets (YOGA Magazine, Rita Farin)

"Svaroopa® Yoga -Yoga for EveryBody" (© Philip L. Milgrom, RYT, CSYT)

"Svaroopa: Yoga of Compassion & Alignment - Breath & Movement" (New Life Journal, Dec. 2003)

“The poses were easy to do, and extremely effective in releasing my tight areas as I fully relaxed into the support. By the end of the class, I had a feeling of peace. I had an awareness of a deep healing for a chronic pain that had lived in my sacrum for a long time, and it was no longer there”. (New Life Journal, P. Kilpatrick)

 Please visit Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram – Home of Svaroopa® Yoga & Meditation