Types of Classes at Namaste Yoga
At Namaste Yoga in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona, we offer a variety of classes and workshops for all abilities and interests. Our classes are themed to represent the five elements (fire, water, air, space, and earth) and are designed to take you on a sensory journey that transports you out of your daily life and into your inner self. We use pure essential oil aromatherapy, cinematic video screens, tactile surfaces (like our special antimicrobial flooring), and a state-of-the-art sound system to temporarily transport you out of your daily life and focus your energy on your inner self.
In ancient yoga philosophy, it is believed that everything is made up of a combination of the five elements. While all styles of yoga help to balance your chakras and your relationship to the elements, we have chosen certain aspects of each element for inspiration in developing our classes at Namaste Yoga. Classes such as Seasonal Fire, Supported Warm Yin, and Warm Flow have a deep meaning to us that we want to share with you!
Earth Element
The earth element is associated with your root chakra and is tied with safety, support, and stability. It is very common for us to feel out of touch with the earth in our modern lives. If you have heard of “earthing” or “grounding”, these are techniques designed to bring us back to our most basic and natural selves. Earth and water elements are increased with yin and hatha yoga practice, which help you to feel more grounded and stable. Yoga poses that bring awareness to your feet, hands, sit bones, legs, and hips, and help you feel like you are on solid ground include mountain pose, warrior I, warrior II, child’s pose, forward fold, and corpse pose. Try noticing how you are supported by the earth when you are in these poses.
To honor and nurture our connection to the earth element, we created a class that we call “Supported Warm Yin” at Namaste Yoga, where we focus on bringing you stability in this slower-paced, deep tissue stretch, warm yoga class. You can expect to hold poses for an extended time, relieving stress and anxiety by teaching us to sit with and observe sensations as they arrive in our body, while improving mobility, flexibility, and releasing tension and stress from the body.
Water Element
The water element is related to your sacral chakra and is associated with adaptability, flow, feelings, freedom, fun, and change. Yoga poses that focus on ease and fluid movement help you to increase your water element. Goddess pose, pigeon, seated forward bend, and Malasana (Yogi Squat) all increase your water element, inviting softness, agility, and fluid movement into your life.
We were inspired by the element of water to create our vinyasa-style class “Warm Flow”. This class is beginner-friendly while still being great fun for advanced practitioners. In the spirit of water, this class is always changing.
Fire Element
Fire is linked with the solar plexus chakra and relates to purpose, self, identity, metabolism, transformation, intensity, abundance, and power. Ashtanga, power, and hot yoga classes are said to increase your fire and water energy. Some poses that increase heat are plank pose, warrior III, boat, handstand, and bow pose. These poses increase confidence by physically challenging you, lighting a fire of inspiration in your life.
At Namaste Yoga, our signature class is called “Seasonal Fire” and is designed to light a fire in your yoga practice and in your life! The sequence is fixed for 3 months so that you can learn it by heart. This enables you to flow like lava through the series, focusing on connecting your breath to your movements to get you into a meditative state while you burn calories and detox in this hot yoga class that changes with the seasons.
Air Element
The element of Air (or wind) is associated with your heart chakra and your sense of touch and represents motion, expansion, and lightness. It is represented by both the breath and creating space in your body. If your air element is out of balance, you may feel anxious or overwhelmed. On days when you are feeling this way, a slower-paced practice may be a good fit for you. Poses such as wheel, camel, cobra, upward-facing dog, and mountain pose are all used to increase your air element, bringing you a sense of rhythm, grace, mobility, and an open mind.
We offer special breathwork (pranayama) workshops at Namaste Yoga to connect us to the air element.
Space Element
The Space (or Ether) element corresponds to your throat chakra and is tied to openness, space, communication, spirituality, and consciousness. Cow pose, fish pose, and neck stretches are all great ways to open your throat chakra and increase space in your body. You can also create more space inside with poses like extended triangle, lifting you up, full of possibilities and potential. Staying present and increasing awareness are the effects of increasing space in your practice.
As we progress in our yoga practice, we become increasingly conscious, bringing our yoga practice “off the mat”. There are 8 limbs of yoga; Asana (or postures) and Pranayama (breathwork) are only 2 of the limbs. When we broaden ourselves by attending workshops that teach us about the other 6 limbs of yoga, we are in the realm of the element of space.
We look forward to honoring our connection to the elements with you at your next class!
Namaste.
