The moment I enter the yoga studio my heartbeat slows and my body immediately morphs into a calmer version of myself. During the few moments that I stand and wait for my class to open I watch as other students silently float about the room around me. Having just finished their class, they now exit with a refreshed outlook on life. Having a dazed yet childlike smile and an overall sense of happiness about him or her, as if they just woke from a much needed yet refreshing yearlong nap. This is why I choose to roll out my mat multiple times a week; to reap the physical, mental and spiritual benefits those 90 minutes of pure bliss, known as yoga, can offer me. When asked, people would generally agree that yoga can be categorized as a type of strenuous physical activity. Furthermore to possess prior strength and aerobic conditioning before attending a class that is above a beginner level would be wise. But what most won’t tell you is that you do not have to be athletic. Yoga is not a race to the top, a race in which you must be the most physically fit person in the room in order to conquer …show more content…
The caged animal inside me is drawn to the faint smell of sweat subtly hidden by the fresh scent of tea tree oil. Sweat is like a pheromone to me, in the most animalistic way it sucks me in and suddenly my mind is replaying a highlight reel of all the moments where I felt empowered by my strength, full of energy and full of life. Glowing with excitement, I silently tip toe through the room drifting towards my favorite spot at the front of the room. I’ve grown accustomed to my home base in this class, and I have more than an emotional tie to this precise spot. I have tried and tested many other spots and this is the perfect mix of humid and hot. The mirror directly in front of me stays clear of condensation from the heat and the juxtaposition of the door to my right is crucial for the second half of
Yoga: The word Yoga came from the Sanskrit word yuj which means to “join” or to “integrate”. It is the Indian ancient activity for the meditation and self-improvement. If we breathe slowly in a calm way then we will slow our heart rate and if we focus on the mind we will develop mental peace and well-being. Yoga makes the body strong, fit and flexible. It also improves the human body’s respiratory, circulatory, digestive system and hormonal systems.
When most Americans hear the word 'yoga', they think of a petite girl in a ponytail and leggings, carrying her purple yoga mat. This image has become so completely part of the culture of American yoga that the general response when suggesting yoga as a training method is either "That's for girls," or "But I'm not flexible." These responses were generated by an overall ignorance regarding yoga as a practice. Imagine, for a moment, a very large and muscular man with the soles of his feet together on the ground in butterfly pose. Now imagine that one man in a large room with twenty men much like him in the same yoga position. A scene like this is the new normal;
Yoga provides excellent mind and body exercise that will help with strengthening muscles, keeping your body flexible - and relaxing your mind.
The yoga class that I attended was on Thursday, September 22nd, at 6:30 P.M., at the Tiftarea YMCA. When comparing our typical class period to the YMCA’s yoga session, there were several differences and similarities between the two. At the YMCA, equipment such as yoga straps were used to help stretch our ham strings and hip flexors was utilized. Yoga blocks, were also commonplace to help “feel” the muscles needed to be used certain poses like the bridge by placing it between our knees, and squeezing it to see which muscles were activated. Another difference, while our class has the instructor in the front of the room, at the Y, the instructor was in the middle with people on both sides of her during instruction. One of the last major differences
Today, many people are taking up yoga techniques for physical exercise, and most don’t know the history of yoga. They believe there is nothing wrong with implementing this form of exercise into their daily regiment to promote a more healthy body.
“Pre-schools, schools, and community centers should offer yoga as part of the opportunities for children and young people to enjoy learning and practicing it from an early age. Obviously, the results of such an investment can be observed over the long-term by having future generations experience less stress.”
Body fitness is a state asserted to be highly essential in ensuring healthy living. It often realized through regular physical exercises. Yoga is a technique that may be deemed an old means of working out however recently most people adopt its use in as a way of ensuring they stay fit and in shape. For instance, most sports personalities have added yoga to their working out strategies. Similarly actors use the work out approach to ensure they stay in shape.
In the United States, yoga has become a mainstream activity and is being used by increasingly more people mostly due to the physiological and psychological benefits correlated with it. Saper et al. (2004) conducted a study in order to address the prevalence of yoga in the US. They found that approximately 7.5% of adults (about 15 million) in 1998 had used yoga at least once in their lifetime and about 5% of adults reported they practiced yoga within the last year. Yoga claims to help reduce mental stress and anxiety. Correspondingly, studies have demonstrated the positive health effects of yoga in children (Butzer et al., 2015), adults (Streeter et al., 2010), and the elderly (Alexander et al., 2013),
Yoga has been a popular practice for over 5,000 years with over a hundred different types of yoga currently in practice today. Many begin yoga exercises in order to relax their mind and body, creating a healthier state of living for those who practice regularly. Yoga doesn't just focus on the aspect of body movements, it also focuses on proper breathing and posture, something that is critical for everyone in order to keep basic health issues at a minimum. Yoga is an easy everyday practice that has more benefits than most may realize.
Breathe Yoga Center is a yoga studio situated at 4005 Granby Street, Norfolk, Virginia 23504. Their Flow Classes are Flow; Flow and Stretch; Flow 2; and Power Flow. Their other Regular Classes are Align and Flow; Breathe and Restore; Gentle Yoga; and Yin. Breathe Yoga Center offers private yoga instruction and trainings for yoga teachers. Students, military personnel and senior citizens get special price discounts.
The practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible; it also improves the functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind.
The benefits of Yoga are endless. It effects the human mind and body in a variety of ways. Roughly 15 million Americans practice yoga, annually there is an expected increase of twenty percent in participants in the United States ("Yoga Statistics"). While Yoga is often thought of as a practice that involves circus like poses and seemingly impossible flexibility; it not. Even bedridden patients can gain benefit from imagining themselves going through the poses and practicing breathing techniques that are appropriate to them (Dickenson 24-25). Yoga is not something that you do at the studio and leave behind. It becomes a way of life; leading to healthier habits, improving psychological health, and encouraging spiritual growth. An article on
Some select programs are simply amazing. The teachers are well informed and absolutely love what they do. They practice what they preach. They dedicate their lives to creating the most amazing experience for their students. They teach yoga because it’s transformed their lives. It’s what they were born to do. They understand that yoga is more than a physical practice and that belief overflows into the way that they
In today’s environment, many people are suffering with the stress and anxiety of day to day living and are finding themselves unable to cope with life’s little emergencies. Prescription drugs are on the rise due to the increasing need for people to deal with their stress and anxiety. However, many people are searching for ways to be less stressed and live a happy and healthy life without drugs. If stress and anxiety are getting the best of you, then think about grabbing a mat and giving yoga and meditation a spin. With that in mind, this paper will take a look at the benefits of yoga and meditation to create a more peaceful and healthy lifestyle.
My yoga journey started more than ten years ago with an intense and dedicated interest in learning yoga postures from Ashtanga, Hatha, Jivamukti, etc. In the beginning I practised most days of the week and imagined that I would never tire, in spite of long trips to the studio in the early hours of the morning. A pleasant reward was that my blood pressure dropped back to normal and I could stop taking medicines. So, from the start, I knew that yoga could provide health benefits as well as an enormous feeling of wellbeing. No matter how tired and fed-up one felt at the beginning of a session, the mental lift afterwards was deeply satisfying. Meditation, Savasana, or corpse posture, wound up every session so it also became clear that postures or asanas were only part of the remedy. Meditation and yoga practise from the very beginning fired my interest in searching for an inner consciousness. This is an easily misunderstood word and means many different things to many different people. Some will associate it with awareness, or mindfulness