Yoga for Beginners Simple Yoga Poses to Calm Your Mind and Strengthen Your Body

YOGA FOR BEGINNERS

A Brief History of Yoga

We’ve touched on some of the history of yoga with Patanjali’s
sutras and the eight principles, but there is still so much to be
known. How did this thing we call yoga come to be?
The history of yoga can be broken down into five periods:

1. Vedic


2. Pre-Classical


3. Classical


4. Post-Classical


5. Modern

Vedic Yoga

The Vedic period of yoga spans the time of 500 to 1000 BC. It
is during this period that the Rig Vedas were written. These
books of hymns are the oldest known scriptures in existence,
and they contain the early beginnings of yoga. Rather than
emphasizing the postures, the Rig Vedas sought to join the
material and spiritual worlds. Everything was based on the
spiritual, and Vedic yogis were adept at focusing their minds
for long periods of time. This focus produced visions that
allowed the yogis to see the root of their very existence.

Pre-Classical Yoga

The Pre-Classical period of yoga is marked by the publica-
tion of the Upanishads, which arrived somewhere between