- May 26
Different Styles of Yoga Explained - Finding the Practice That Nourishes You
- Carolin Waldmann
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Yoga is such a beautifully vast and ancient practice.
And yet, when we first begin exploring it, the many different styles can feel a little overwhelming.
Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Scaravelli, Kundalini, Nada Yoga - where do you even begin?
The beautiful truth is that yoga is not one single experience. Each style offers a different doorway into presence, connection, movement, healing and nourishment.
Some practices are dynamic and energising. Others invite softness, stillness, and deep inner listening. And often, what supports us most changes through the different seasons of our lives.
Rather than trying to find the “perfect” style, yoga gently invites us to ask:
What do I need today?
Below, I’d love to guide you through some of the most well-known yoga styles so you can begin discovering which practices resonate most deeply with you.
Hatha Yoga - Grounding, Breath & Foundation
Hatha Yoga is often considered one of the most traditional and foundational forms of yoga.
Classes are usually slower paced, allowing space to settle into each posture with awareness and breath. There is less focus on flowing continuously and more emphasis on alignment, balance, steadiness, and mindful presence.
Because of its spacious and accessible nature, Hatha can be a beautiful entry point for beginners - while also offering experienced practitioners a chance to reconnect with simplicity and depth.
This practice teaches us how to slow down, breathe consciously, and truly inhabit the body.
Vinyasa Yoga - Flow, Creativity & Embodied Presence
Vinyasa Yoga is often known as “flow yoga” because movement and breath are woven together in a continuous sequence. The practice can feel like a moving meditation - fluid, rhythmic, energising, and deeply embodied.
One of the beautiful things about Vinyasa is that it is incredibly adaptable. A Vinyasa class can be strong, dynamic, and heat-building, or soft, slow, grounding, and floor-based. Some flows are creative and uplifting, while others focus more on relaxation, nervous system support, and gentle nourishment.This flexibility allows the practice to meet you differently each day and through different seasons of life.
Rather than perfection, Vinyasa encourages us to stay connected to the present moment and move in relationship with the breath.
Yin Yoga - Softening Into Stillness
Yin Yoga is a slow, meditative practice where postures are held for longer periods of time.Unlike more active styles, Yin focuses less on muscular engagement and more on gently accessing the deeper connective tissues, fascia, joints, and energetic pathways of the body.
But Yin is not only a physical practice. It also becomes an invitation into patience, surrender, observation, and presence. In the stillness, emotions can arise, thoughts become more visible, and we are invited to soften our constant need to do, fix, or achieve.
Yin can feel deeply nourishing for both body and nervous system, especially in fast-paced or overstimulating seasons of life.
Restorative Yoga - The Practice of Deep Receiving
Restorative Yoga is one of the gentlest yoga styles and centres around complete support and relaxation.
Using props such as blankets, bolsters, cushions, and blocks, the body is fully supported in restful postures for extended periods of time. There is very little effort required physically. Instead, the practice focuses on allowing the body, mind, and nervous system to deeply exhale. Restorative Yoga can be especially supportive during times of stress, burnout, grief, exhaustion, or emotional overwhelm.
Kundalini Yoga - Energy, Breath & Inner Awakening
Kundalini Yoga combines movement, breathwork, meditation, mantra, chanting, and repetitive sequences called kriyas.
This practice focuses strongly on awakening energy and expanding awareness. Kundalini can feel both energising and deeply transformative. Some people experience emotional release, heightened clarity, increased creativity, or a stronger sense of intuition and connection.
The practice is often less focused on achieving complex physical postures and more centred around energetic presence and inner transformation.
Ashtanga Yoga - Discipline, Strength & Devotion
Ashtanga Yoga is a structured and physically demanding style of yoga that follows a specific sequence of postures practised in the same order each time.
The practice links breath and movement together in a steady rhythm and builds strength, endurance, flexibility, and concentration.
There is something deeply meditative about returning to the same sequence again and again. Through repetition, the practice becomes less about external achievement and more about inner discipline, commitment, and devotion.
Iyengar Yoga - Alignment, Precision & Awareness
Iyengar Yoga places strong emphasis on alignment, precision, and awareness within each posture.
Props such as blocks, straps, blankets, and chairs are often used to support the body and create accessibility for different needs and abilities. Because poses are held for longer periods, students have the opportunity to explore posture in greater depth and develop a deeper understanding of body awareness.
Iyengar can feel both therapeutic and deeply educational.
Bikram & Hot Yoga - Heat, Intensity & Detoxification
Hot Yoga refers to yoga practised in a heated room, while Bikram Yoga follows a very specific sequence of postures and breathing exercises.
The heat encourages sweating, circulation, endurance, and flexibility, creating an intense and energising experience. Many practitioners enjoy the feeling of detoxification and mental focus that can emerge through the practice.
At the same time, hot styles of yoga may not feel supportive for everyone, especially if the nervous system is already overwhelmed or depleted. Listening to your body and honouring your own needs is always essential.
Scaravelli Yoga - Freedom, Breath & Intelligent Movement
Scaravelli Yoga is a softer, deeply intelligent approach to yoga inspired by the teachings of Vanda Scaravelli.
Rather than focusing on achieving perfect shapes or forcing the body into postures, this practice invites a more intuitive relationship with movement, breath, gravity, and awareness. There is a strong emphasis on softness, spinal freedom, grounding, and allowing the body to move organically rather than through tension or control.
Scaravelli-inspired practices often feel fluid, nourishing, exploratory, and deeply connected to the inner experience of the body.
Nada Yoga - The Yoga of Sound & Inner Listening
Nada Yoga is often known as the “Yoga of Sound.”
Rooted in the understanding that everything in the universe carries vibration, this practice uses sound as a pathway into meditation, awareness, healing, and presence. Nada Yoga can include chanting, mantra, breath, singing bowls, music, humming, or simply deep inner listening. Rather than focusing primarily on physical postures, the practice invites us to experience how sound moves through the body, affects the nervous system, and creates space for stillness and connection within. In a world filled with constant noise and distraction, Nada Yoga gently guides us back toward inner quiet and attunement.
The practice can feel deeply calming, nourishing, emotional, and meditative - helping us reconnect not only with sound around us, but also with the subtler inner landscape of feeling, intuition, and presence.
Yoga Is a Relationship and Doorway to Access the Silent Doorway of Stillness within - Not a Performance
The beauty of yoga is that it can meet us in so many different ways.
Some days we may crave movement, strength, and energy.
Other days we may need stillness, softness, grounding, and rest.
Yoga invites us to listen.
To become more present within ourselves.
To nourish body, mind, and spirit.
To move away from performance and closer toward connection.
And perhaps that is the real heart of the practice:
Not becoming someone else.
But returning more deeply to yourself.