About

Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy.

What exactly Hatha yoga actually is hasn’t changed for thousands of years. However our thinking and perception of it certainly has. Language is a powerful thing, and in different cultures the same word can have a variety of definitions. Throughout the evolution of yoga practice, the same word – Hatha – has come to mean different things too.
Popular thinking ‘in the West’ (an all-too-common expression now), is that Hatha yoga is about balancing the body and mind. ‘Ha’ represents the esoteric sun, and ‘tha’ the moon. The practice of Hatha yoga aims to join, yoke, or balance these two energies.
A yoga class described as ‘Hatha’ will typically involve a set of physical postures (yoga poses) and breathing techniques. These are typically practised more slowly and with more static posture holds than a Vinyasa flow or Ashtanga class. And indeed, that is how we describe our Hatha yoga classes on EkhartYoga.
Literally however, Hatha means ‘force’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with the body, including:
- asana – yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’)
- pranayama – breathing techniques
- mantra – chanting or reciting
- mudra – hand gestures
- shatkriyas and shatkarmas – cleansing techniques
- types of visualisation.