Burgin - Yoga Class: 8 Essential Yoga Lessons for Beginners

Before walking into my first yoga class, I was scared and nervous. All I knew about yoga was that you had to be flexible, and I was anything but. Although I was just 19, I could barely touch my knees when bending forward, so the thought of subjecting my body to 90 minutes of various pretzel-like contortions was extremely intimidating. I assumed yoga would be close to impossible for me.

However, my fears and anxieties quickly vanished at the start of my first class. The instructor was warm, friendly and compassionate. She encouraged us to only do what we could, without pushing, pulling, or straining. But most importantly was how she guided our awareness inwards to connect with our breath and the sensations in our bodies as we were practicing the postures.

I found practicing the yoga postures in that first class challenging, but not at all impossible. I quickly learned in my first yoga class that it doesnt matter how far you go into a pose; what matters is doing the pose to your level of ability and with as much awareness of your breathing and body sensations as possible. Not only did I feel a tremendous relief that I could actually do yoga with my inflexible body, but my inflexible body felt amazing after that first class. I was hooked. Over twenty years later, I am still enjoying the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of a regular yoga practice.

I feel so fortunate that I was able to attend class on a regular basis when I started practicing. As the founder and executive director of YogaBasics.com, I hear from many people across the country who want to learn yoga, but who dont have access to a teacher or are too intimidated to join a class. Even those whove tried yoga classes often find that the level of instruction may not be appropriate or adequately address their needs as there are few classes that are geared specifically for beginners. So many beginning students turn to books and websites and start their yoga practice at home.

Although my website, YogaBasics.com, has a lot of content geared specifically towards beginners, I have realized that it might be daunting for new students to try to devise a program on their own. And while there are several good beginner books, this book is the first of its kind that leads the beginning student through a series of lessons to slowly and confidently learn and grow through several weeks of practice.

As a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher, Ive been teaching a wide range of students for the last 14 years. Ive observed new students from many different populations, from the young college student to the elderly retired person, and have discovered their specific needs and requirements for beginning yoga. All of my experiences with teaching beginning students have helped form the content of this book, as well as my overriding philosophy of keeping instruction simple and basic for beginners.

This book is based on a Yoga for Beginners program that I developed, first as a one-day workshop, and later on as a 6 week series of classes. This not only created the lesson format that forms the core of this book, it also gave me real-world feedback as to how to tailor and refine these lessons to meet the needs of the beginning student. It also gives me the confidence to tell you that this program works. If you diligently practice these lessons over the next several weeks, you will have the skill, strength, ability and confidence to be established in a regular home practice as well as go to a public yoga class.