What opens your heart? What makes you feel receptive to new ideas, creative, and compassionate? The many branches of yoga reflect the diversity of our temperaments, goals, and individual personalities. Whether it’s rigorous exercise that opens one’s heart, or music, or service to others, there’s a branch of yoga for everyone, be it a traditional branch or a unique combination of many. Here are the modern forms of today’s most relevant branches:
Goal: To develop a personal relationship with the “divine,” which could include a higher power, nature, or the self
How to get there: Prayer, chanting, or one’s own preferred ways of expressing devotion
Common personality traits of a Bhakti yogi: Committed, sincere, strong in faith
Goal: To gain freedom through physical discipline
How to get there: Do yoga poses to purify and prepare your body and mind
Common personality traits of a Hatha yogi: Active and energetic; enjoys a physical challenge
Goal: To understand the truth though intense study and debate
How to get there: Read, study, analyze
Common personality traits of a Jnana yogi: Intellectual, philosophical, drawn to pursuits of the mind
Goal: To selflessly help others
How to get there: Volunteer work, public service, adopting a cause
Common personality traits of a Karma yogi: Generous, selfless, altruistic
Goal: To focus the mind using sound
How to get there: Chant a mantra, or repeat a chosen sound to reach a higher state of being
Common personality traits of a Mantra yogi: Focused, musical; appreciates solitude
Goal: To clear the mind in order to experience moments of peace and clarity
How to get there: Cultivate a consistent meditation practice
Common personality traits of a Raja yogi: Curious, scientific, drawn to direct experience