Santosha Yoga

23/01/2023

There is hardly anybody in the world who does not know of or has not heard of yoga; and if there is such a person he is unfortunate. Even in those countries where religion has not got much scope, yoga flourishes. Ask anybody anywhere, on the train or plane, in a hotel or cafeteria, ‘Is yoga good for you?’ The answer again will be in the affirmative. Ask again, ‘Do you want to practise yoga?’ Nobody will say no. Even a person who does not practise, who cannot practise, who has no will to practise, will
say, ‘I want to, but I do not.’ If you ask, ‘Does yoga harm human life?’ The answer will be in the negative, ‘Yoga cannot harm anybody.’ If there is one place where everybody comes and meets, it is under the canopy of yoga. If there is one philosophy which is compatible with every philosophy and religion, it is the philosophy of yoga. If there is any practice that gives you satisfaction, fulfilment, a sense of your own existence, the will and hope to live, it is yoga.
Text by Swami Satyananda

23/04/2022

What does the word 'yoga' mean to you? Perhaps you associate it with an Indian mystic sitting in a trance high in the Himalayas, or with seemingly impossible contortions of the body. But, in fact, throughout the world millions of ordinary men and women have transformed their lives with the practice of this ancient science. Yoga is a system of postures, special breathing techniques and relaxation which harmonize all aspects of the individual. It originated in India some 5,000 years ago and in our century, a few forward-thinking yoga masters have revised these teachings into the form we know today, making the benefits available to all humanity regardless of race, religion, nationality, occupation or age.
Twenty minutes of yoga is worth hours of ordinary exercise. It is the way to good health and longevity, and will lead you to feeling youthful in body, mind and spirit. Yoga is the natural way to free yourself from the pains and nervous tension which sap away the strength and vigour of body and mind. Everyone can do enough yoga to experience great benefits almost at once. This is true for those aged eighty and beyond as well as for people of all ages who have allowed their physical condition to deteriorate. Many yoga practices can be done in a comfortable sitting position, standing up or lying down. Yoga is not 'exercise' in the ordinary sense. With the slow, gentle movements of yoga you can stimulate and relax every part of the body from the toes to the scalp and from the muscles and tendons inwards to the deepest internal organs and glands. Yoga awakens the vital force within, and, in addition, it is very enjoyable.
- Adrienne Fortey (UK) Courtesy of Yogamag dot net

Get started in Mirboo North or Morwell
Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

28/01/2022

The primary purpose of yoga is to teach the individual how to relax and achieve tranquility. Everyone wants peace and quiet, but how can we avoid noise? Just try to go within yourself for a moment and you will find that even if you plug your ears, the noise still leaks in.
Breath awareness
The yogic way to achieve inner peace is to watch the breathing process in the body, to become aware of each incoming and outgoing breath. You don't have to make an effort to breathe; the process goes on automatically all the time. This breath awareness relaxes the nerves and spontaneously internalizes the mind. It relaxes not only the abdominal, back and leg muscles, but also the most important areas of the brain which control the whole physical body, the emotions and the intellect. When you experience this relaxation, the strain of the day's work falls away, and you feel as refreshed as if you'd just had several hours of sleep. But even the relaxation of sleep cannot be compared with this state, because yogic relaxation brings emotional tranquility as well.
Swami Amritananda Saraswati
Text courtesy of Yogamag dot net

Santosha Yoga Offers traditional Yoga classes, courses and workshops involving all aspects of Asana, Pranayama, Meditation and Philosophy

01/11/2021

Group based chanting of mantra for peace, spiritual upliftment, emotional transformation and expansion of the heart energy.
Kirtan is an integral part of this tradition of Yoga and draws on the science of nada yoga which involves the use of sound and vibration to affect change and transformation in the personality and community.
This event is in Mirboo North on Sunday the 28th of November at 2:00.
Please register and for further details head to

Book in to Mirboo North Kirtan Kirtan is a technique of Bhakti Yoga, which uses sound in the form of Mantra repeated in song form to elevate the spirit and uplift the personality from the base and material consciousness to a higher consciousness. In this form of Yoga, called Nada Yoga, sound is the....

19/06/2021

Strength is not just muscular. Strength is mental, physical attitudinal. Strength is resilience in the face of change and strength is the control needed to withhold, direct and manage our energy to ensure a higher purpose is realised. Strengthen your resilience with 4 weeks of Yoga beginning Monday at 5:00pm Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

19/06/2021

Yoga provides Stillness, Stability and Balance. Classes resume for term 4 in Morwell and Mirboo North Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

19/06/2021

Yoga both requires and promotes consistency. Regularly turning up to practice, we strengthen mental and physical patterns of harmony, balance and peace. Turn up for yourself with 4 weeks of Yoga beginning Monday at 5:00pm Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

19/06/2021

Energy comes and goes. In Yoga we learn to observe and interact with the energies of the mind and body. We move the body and breath in ways that stimulates and regulates the flow of healing energy within and without. Energise with 4 weeks of Yoga, beginning Monday at 5:00. Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

19/06/2021

One of the most important aims of Yoga is to create balance. Balancing the extremes of daily life such as activity, passivity, emotional rollercoasters or the tensions which constrict our natural expression. Bring balance with 4 weeks of Yoga beginning Monday at 5:00pm. Http://santoshayogagippsland.com

25/01/2021

Before you begin with yoga, it’s important to dispel some myths and set aside the misguided expectations about what to expect from a beginners class. Such expectations may even be stopping you from starting in the first place.

1. Yoga is not an exercise class - Traditional Yoga is unlike a group exercise class and has completely different aims and objectives. The aim of yoga is not to raise the heart rate or push the body to new physical limits. Yoga is an ancient tradition with tried and tested methods for creating balance and harmony between the various systems in both body and mind. For this reason it is not necessary for you to have any practice or experience in physical fitness to join a beginners class.
2. Yoga is not difficult - it’s hard to explain what yoga is using images or even videos. This is why people misunderstand Yoga after seeing images of other people doing Yoga. The aim of harmonising mind and body and creating stillness, stability and poise, even in the face of stress and challenge is not achieved by doing complex poses. In fact it is the simple practices which have the most benefit in achieving the state of Yoga, which can never be captured by an image or description, but must be felt to be realised.
3. You don’t need a mat to do yoga - Not only do you not need a mat, you also don’t need to even be able to sit on the floor to do Yoga. All of the practices in a traditional beginner class can be done from a chair, even a comfy lounge chair, and yes... thanks to COVID revolutionising video communication, even from your own lounge room comfy chair.

In your first beginner level class you can expect to begin with a registration form, which will help your teacher understand any medical conditions they may need to account for. This is confidential information but is important for your safety. You will also be reminded of the need to avoid pain and be comfortable. Remember that comfort and stability are important factors and you should never do anything that causes pain or doesn’t feel right.
Lastly, any beginner class, worth it’s salt is going to teach some breathing and relaxation/mindfulness techniques which may or may not have you saying...”but wait I can’t meditate”. Let me assure you, that anyone can. If these are not included in the class, they may be calling it Yoga, but Yoga it is not.
Be sure to open your mind to what might be possible from your first class, so that you can decide for yourself what Yoga has to offer you.

23/01/2021

Yoga comes into one's life at a certain point in time to provide answers to the question regarding the purpose of one's existence. Yoga is not a philosophy or an abstract way of thinking; rather it is a very direct, precise and clear way of thinking. The whole system of yoga deals with attaining realization in relation to our nature, mind, body, life and existence. Therefore, yoga is known as the science of life. Yoga philosophy says that we are in a constant process of evolution. Our consciousness is continuously changing and evolving, and this evolution can be seen now at the level of intellect. We may not realize something until our intellect comes in between. We think about it, analyze it, rationalize it, then we accept it. After acceptance of a situation has taken place there is no conflict, but as long as we do not accept a situation, as long as we are not sure about something, there is confusion and conflict. In our present condition the concept of linear evolution is very much linked to the aspect of intellect, or buddhi in yogic terminology. It is intellect which says, “All right, I understand this and because I understand I can appreciate and accept it”, or “I do not understand that, therefore, I reject it”. This is how we continue through our journey of life. Things that have happened in the past remain with us in the form of memory, in the form of experience. Yoga says that these memories and experiences can be pleasurable as well as painful. The human mind constantly revolves around these memories and experiences. However, an effort has to be made to come out of this worldly conditioning of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Why do we need to move away from the conditioning of the world? Because of evolution. There are infinite possibilities which are dormant within us and we are not aware of them. There is the possibility of obtaining total awareness in our life, but we are not aware of it. Attaining total awareness is the aim of yoga. In order to get to that level, which is the result of an integrated consciousness, an effort has to be made to change certain conditionings which inhibit and restrict the expressions of our mind and consciousness. Paramahamsa Satyananda says that emotions are the most powerful factor in one's life. We feel an emotion and we relate to others according to that emotion. If we see a stranger, a friend, an enemy, our son or daughter, an emotion, a feeling arises. If we have a religious belief, there is an emotion related with it. If we see somebody whom we love and respect, there is a feeling, an emotion. We live in a world full of emotion. The main conflict in human life is due to disharmony in the realm of emotion, not in the intellect. This disharmony sometimes manifests in the form of anger, hatred, jealousy, frustration, love, affection, happiness or sorrow. So what we are actually interacting with in our lives is nothing but emotion. Yoga is not only a group of physical postures which we perform. Of course we have been trained in asanas, but that is only one aspect of yoga. What do we hope to gain from practising postures, breathing techniques, meditation and relaxation? Just temporary relief from stress and anxiety? Yoga is definitely used to reduce the level of stress and tension in our lives. Yoga is also used to reform the destructive mentality which manifests externally due to disharmony of the emotions. More than this symptomatic relief, however, yoga has something unique to offer, which is the means to become aware of oneself in order to evolve in life. This is the most important message of yoga.

- Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

Text from Yoga: The Science of Life Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati from yogamag.net

19/01/2021

All people wish to live in peace and happiness. The feeling of happiness and satisfaction subjectively experienced by individuals has been termed as psychological wellbeing (Okun and Stock, 1987). A few other terms like subjective wellbeing, quality of life, mental health and life satisfaction have been used as synonyms of psychological wellbeing (PWB). In recent years there has been global interest in the study of PWB and quality of life. This affective reaction of satisfaction is not necessarily related to material gain or the objective conditions of life. One may be dissatisfied with his life inspite of having plenty of wealth and family riches (Lawton, 1983). Psychological or subjective wellbeing is more a question of our attitude and approach to life situations. Freedman (1978) has shown how cognitive processes such as aspiration, social comparison and adaptation level are related to it. Concept of Health in Yoga From the yogic perspective, health does not just mean a disease free body. This ancient science believes in a holistic approach to health of which the body, mind and spirit are integral and interdependent parts. Yoga claims to endow perfect physical, mental and social wellbeing even under stressful conditions. Thus the yogic meaning of wellbeing is more than just psychological. It means physical fitness, mental agility and spiritual verve. This psychosomato-spiritual approach emphasises that we cannot think of sound health by only caring for one or two components of body, mind and spirit and ignoring the other. This results in an imbalance due to which harmony of personality is lost and the person suffers from psychological and psychosomatic problems. The rise in mental health problems in developed societies of the world is mainly due to ignoring the spiritual dimension of health and living an individualistic lifestyle. Yogic lifestyle aims at evolution of mind. It talks of the journey from gross to most subtle. This is conceived in yogic literature as the journey from annamaya kosha(physical body) to anandamaya kosha(blissful body). Annamaya kosha consists of our gross body. So long as we are concerned with this only we carry desire and aspirations concerning material objects to meet our sensual requirements and to derive pleasure. But instead of happiness and satisfaction, such cravings ultimately cause frustration, conflicts and maladies. On the other hand, when the source of delight is internalized, and one starts receiving internal stimulation in yogic sadhana(regular practice), life becomes blissful. The experience of ananda is extrasensorial and everlasting. Achieving this is total wellbeing for which yoga provides methods and practices. Yoga is both a philosophy of life and a science of human personality. When the life philosophy starts manifesting in one's behaviour and interactions, life becomes spiritually oriented and ultimately it results in a healthy and harmonious personality. Lifestyle refers to one's way of living. This includes diet, sleep, relaxation, exercise and daily work schedule. Many of our health problems develop on account of adopting a faulty lifestyle. In his famous book, Reversing Heart Disease, Dean Ornish (1990) has shown that coronary heart disease develops because of wrong living habits. So, the real management lies in adopting the correct lifestyle. Hatha yoga emphasizes cleaning of the body and the nadis(energy channels), whereas kundalini yoga prescribes practices for the awakening of extrasensorial, psychic power through the awakening of the chakras. So when we talk of yogic lifestyle, we do not like to bind our approach to any one yoga. Considering their complementary roles, one may combine elements of more than one yoga to make one's lifestyle more cohesive, purposeful and enjoyable.
Text courtesy of Yogamag.net

Yoga Classes, Courses, Workshops and Private Classes

12/11/2020

Yoga is back next Wednesday in Mirboo North with two spots remaining.

https://santoshayogagippsland.com/mirboonorth/

Swami Satyananda says:
Yoga is coming back to life. The science of yoga is being revived. Lack of insight in humanity was the cause of the loss, or rather, the disappearance of this ancient yogic culture. It was put aside, hidden and forgotten. It was replaced by materialism, together with pleasure seeking. Humans wanted more and more possessions, wealth and status. This materialism has driven human society to the edge of total collapse.
At this present time, when humanity is poised on the edge of this crumbling precipice, they are starting to think: ‘What have I done?’ and it is at this moment that they begins to search within and finds that ancestors, yours and mine, had a way of life, a culture called ‘yoga’. We are starting to relive it again. It is nothing new. Neither brought nor implanted from outside, but something that is already in the collective consciousness of all humanity.
Yoga is a mighty world culture Yoga should be given, not for the sake of yoga, but for the sake of the human being. Yoga is a way to perfect bliss, anandam. What is the aim of yoga? Samadhi(Perfect Realisation). What is the effect of meditation? Shanti(peace). What is the effect of dharana(meditation)? One­pointedness. What is the effect of pranayama(energetic breathing)? A good brain. What is the effect of asanas(postures); a light and healthy body. What is the result of niyama? A system or science of life. What is the effect of yama? Breaking down the complications in life. Yoga is a science of therapy, a science of self­improvement and a way of discipline. Yoga is actually a science for mankind, for his body, mind and spiritual growth. Besides all this, however, yoga is a culture and every nation must have a culture. Yoga is a mighty culture in the making, and very soon, it is going to direct the experiences, behaviour, thought and perception of humanity. Yoga is a way of life, a culture of tomorrow. In the coming times, yoga is going to direct the events of the world’s history, and you have a definite role to play in this. It is up to you to accept this great science with love, with admiration, with hope and with sincerity.
Yogamag.net

11/08/2020

It’s real out there. If you are a frontline worker donning PPE 4-5 times a day. If you are a healthcare worker doing your best to stop the spread of an unseen force which threatens to rip through our communities and expose its most vulnerable elements. The sick, the old, the poor, the homeless, the helpless and the weak. Remember as you don your mask that you are practicing the ultimate in Shanti(peace) in the face of this pandemic. A peace to the elderly and frail. A practice of peace to your fellow citizen, who may not believe what you believe, live where you live or have the same colour skin. A peace expressed to those all around you in this life. Wear your mask as an expression of a new kind of peace, do your work as a new kind of expression of generosity to all who need our help in this life and the next.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti. Also, instruction is back online and available via the link in the bio.

10/07/2020

Hari Aum,
This term’s Yoga offers an interesting additional benefit with your registration.
When you sign up for the 10 week term in person classes in Mirboo North, you get access to a free online course called Balance with Surya Namaskara, running parallel to the term's in classes.
The course will help you develop your Yoga through a home practice and offers online audio and video classes as well as readings and a home practice guides alongside weekly classes.
Available to All
For those students from Yoga venues, not up and running, , this might be the only option for you (Sorry Morwell :( )
Please head to the course page for more information and a preview via the link in the bio.
This Term
Surya Namaskara is the theme this term and as a practice, it has excellent benefits for invigorating, cleansing and realigning the energies of the mind and body.
If you are ready to sign for Mirboo North Classes, please don’t wait. there are still 2 places left via the link in the bio. As usual with all Santosha Yoga Courses, one tree is planted per class, thanks to One Tree Planted.

Prem and Shanti
Ananta.

10/04/2020

A lot of businesses right now are either not open or having a hard time looking open.
I made this sign at the start of the year after a dream which woke me at 3 in the morning outlining the exact method, materials and design for an a-frame sign expressing the need and availability of yoga in our community.
Whilst the body is certainly used during Yoga asana(physical postures), it’s not the body which is the main benefactor of a yogic Sadhana.
For all of us, it’s our thoughts which create our experience and it is our thoughts which can be stilled and uplifted by the regular practice of Yoga. For many of us a change in the right direction, a new habit, a change in lifestyle is a thing on a list. Something we’re meaning to get around to maybe sometime, when the conditions are right.
For many, taking up regular yogic practice remains a thing on a list.
But for some when the time is right, Sadhana becomes the pathway to a new way of being, a new habit, which imbibes life with a sense of wonder, tranquility and ease.
The challenge is to follow the signs and make the change.

Classes are on a term break at the moment, but our Sunday evening online program includes Yoga Nidra with a variety of experienced teachers delivering a LIVE half hour of deep guided relaxation and positive intention. Entry is for a small donation that plants 3 trees around the world per person.

Join via the website. Link in BIO.

04/04/2020

SUNDAY NIGHT YOGA NIDRA - LIVE TONIGHT AT 8:00pm(AEST). This week this comes courtesy of Audrey Burking() YOGA NIDRA: In the modern scenario, human life has become very fast, hectic and demanding. The present lifestyle demands adjustment on the part of the individual. Each of us, as per our coping resources, tries to adjust in this changing world. Some adjust by becoming overactive and others by withdrawing from the situation. When we fail to make a proper adjustment according to the demands of the situation, a state of negative stress or distress develops in our personality, which gives rise to mental or psychological problems. In most people the mind always remains in a state of arousal and tension. Yoga nidra, as a technique of pratyahara, not only provides relaxation to the body and mind but also has a number of benefits.

Yoga nidra is one of the practices of pratyahara where the awareness is internalized. Literally, yoga nidra means 'psychic sleep' i.e. sleep with full awareness. In the practice of yoga nidra the body sleeps but the mind remains awake listening to the instructions - text courtesy of Yogamag.net —Join tonight’s live class via link in bio at http://SantoshayogaGippsland.com