If you Google to word Yoga, you will get thousands of results. In my opinion, this shows how murky the waters of practice have gotten over time. It seems like every few years, there is a new type of Yoga that becomes popular, then will fade out and will make a comeback in a new form. Do you remember the high top fade? I heard it referred to as the black mans mullet, but now we see them coming back into style. I don't even understand why people began hating on mullets in the first place? It's a very practical hairstyle and I am proud to have sported one in high school. My balding head prevents me from every having that kind of fun again. Anyway, back to Yoga. In the end, Yoga is Yoga. It's all just a means to an end. There are thousands of techniques that people use, some better than others. What it comes down to is what works for each practitioner and to what level they want to take it. Do you want to use Yoga to lose weight? Go ahead and do the exercises. Do you want to be able to fall asleep at a whim? Go ahead and work on guided meditation. Do you want liberation? Kriya can help with that.

Kriya is Yoga is somewhat if a misnomer. Kriya in Sanskrit means to do or to complete. So just by taking the step of doing Yoga, you are doing Kriya. Getting into more detail however, Kriya is considred Raja Yoga, or Royal Yoga. It takes into account the greater whole of practice, takes what it perceives to be the "best of the best" and puts it into a systematic form of practice. To me, what gives it credibility is it's direct link to the Yoga Sutras. It's practices correlate to the Sutras to obtain specific results listed there in.

First rule: Self Pacing.

Yep, I putting the pacing of practice solely on YOU, save for the stuff I decide not to tell you, which you could probably look up anyway. As a general rule, people tend to either take on too much when they start, or just give up on it after a couple of tries. Your goal is to be somewhere in the middle. Yoga is more about the trip than it is the destination. There are many stops along the way, but we do not want to hang out at each stop. This does not mean that we are not allowed to enjoy the scenery.

Second Rule: You are your own guru.

I'm breaking with thousands of years of tradition by saying this, but I find that you are your own best judge. This whole journey is an individual experience. Teachers are there for one reason, to guide a student. Many end up becoming cults of personalities because they get stuck in the grandiosity of it all.

Third rule: You get out what you put in

Simple enough. You do the work and put in the time, you will get results.

Technique Number 1: The Sit'n chill.

It's that simple. You just sit and chill out. Find a place that you can rest for a while. It doe not matter at this point. The purpose of this is to start making the time. Yoga practice is something that require as good deal of time, but you have to start somewhere. That place should be somewhere that you are comfortable. I am not saying that you have to lock yourself away in a room and stare at at candle. That is great if you can do that, but I'm being realistic here. If the best you got is sitting on the couch with your kids jumping all over you while you watch the cartoon you hate so much, just so long as you can begin to relax, go for it. If you can spare an extra five to ten minutes before your alarm goes off in the morning, just lay in bed and enjoy the stillness before the day starts. While laying in bed at the end of the day, take that few minutes before you start ruminating about all the garbage of the day or what you think might go wrong the next day. Just make some time.