Tools of Yoga:

Pranayama:

Pranayama/conscious breathing; there are various different Pranayama practices, which may be worked in various ways. Pranayama can be used towards many different types of health issues. Regular Pranayama will increase your ability to stay focused, create more clarity & more relaxed state of being. Pranayama may also be used to increase the effects of the yoga class or as prep for meditation. Pranayama is a very powerful tool and must be taught by an experienced yoga teacher.  

Meditation:

Meditation is one of the Five Principles of Yoga. It is the practice by which there is constant observation of the mind. Absorbing the contents of the mind and its nature. Meditation requires you to focus your mind at one point and make your mind still in order to perceive the 'self'. Through the practice of Meditation, you can achieve a greater sense of purpose and strength of will. It also helps you achieve a clearer mind, improve your concentration, calm the mind, replace negative thoughts and patterns with the positive and discover the wisdom and tranquility within us. Through Meditation we accept what comes up, most of what we see will be memory.Getting to know the mindRefining the mindDirecting the mindAsana and Pranayama enable us to prepare ourselves for meditation. Always starting where we are at. 

Visualization:

Visualization in brief is about positive thoughts, feelings/qualities, which can come from an external source or internal, such as our own mind, these all have an amazing way of stimulating our senses, through visualization we can send clear messages to the universe for what we want to manifest or achieve in our life. Visualization is very effective and powerful tool we can use to create the life we want to live. Coming from my own experience, visualization does work, however it's a process that does not happen over night, one needs to believe in visualization for it to work. Visualization can be used both on and off our yoga mats as well as in Meditation. 

Mantra:

We can use Mantra to focus the mind and direct the attention inward; Mantra can assist in lengthening the breath in Pranayama. Mantra can result in a number of material benefits for the student such as relaxation, reduced stress, better self image, Mantra can generally improve quality of life, the repetition of words can have a calming effect on the mind, can increase concentration and confidence. Mantra can also be used to assist in our path towards any goels we may have.   

Sound and chanting in Yoga:

The use of sound/chanting in yoga is a very powerful tool with many benefits. Traditionally chanting/sound was used to link the mind and heart, chanting was also a way of communicating knowledge, for example the yoga sutras. Sound/chanting in yoga is like the external sounds that we hear everyday, it effects us on some kind of level, such as, if we hear a love song for example, the song can create feelings and emotions to rise, such as joy, pain, love, or if we hear the sound of a bird or the sound of waves slowly rolling onto the shore, this can create a sense of calm. It is the same for internal sounds, we can use sound to create certain qualities in our body/mind, the purpose of chanting/sound depends on our intention. In yoga we chant on something that holds some sought of meaning to ourselves, a chant that we feel applies to ourselves or that we believe in. For example a chant of Karuna ya namaha has the intention of cultivating compassion. 

On a physical level chanting/sound in our asana practice has many benefits, such as a heating effect and a cleansing effect, using sound while we do asana is a very good way to lengthen our breath and to focus your mind.