Yoga Services:
Yoga is a 6000-year old practice that was developed by ancient priests who understood that mind-body-spirit is connected. It was used as a movement meditation that challenged their bodies. This helped to close their minds to the outside world, and inside “mind-chatter”, so that they could pray without distraction. Yoga is not a religion, and we do occasionally teach the Hindu folk-lore attached to some of the poses. We assume that these creative and fascinating stories have caused the thought that Yoga is a religion. Our Yoga classes are for all levels, and most of all FUN!
Reasons to do yoga...
Are you looking for reasons to start practicing? Here are ways yoga improves your health – reasons enough to roll our the mat and get started.
Improved flexibility. During your first class, you probably won't be able to touch your toes, but if you stick with it, you'll notice a gradual loosening. As your muscles loosen you'll notice improvement in your posture, and that some of those aches and pains are starting to dissipate.
Strengthen muscles. Strong muscles do more than look good, they protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain. When you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility.
Improved posture. As mentioned before, you'll have improved posture.
Happy joints. Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that normally isn't used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.
Bone strength. It's well documented that weight bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga requires you to lift your own weight.
Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. This can also help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues.
Lymphatic drainage. When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph, (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.
Pressure drop. If you've got hight blood pressure, you might benefit from yoga. Read the rest of these reasons to do yoga, and find out why!
Chill out! Yoga lowers cortisol levels. If that does not sound like much, consider this: Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, which temporarily boosts immune function. If your cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis, they can compromise the immune system. Temporary boosts of cortisol help you with long-term memory, but chronically high levels undermine memory and may lead to permanent changes in the brain. Additionally excessive cortisol has been linked to major depression, osteoporosis, (it extracts calcium and other minerals from bones and interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. In rats, high cortisol levels lead to what researchers call “food-seeking behavior” (the kind that drives you to eat when you're upset, angry or stressed). The body takes those extra calories and distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain and the risk of diabetes and heart attack.
More benefits of YOGA
Happy, happy! Feeling blue? One study found that consistent yoga practice improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamin oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol.
Weight change! Here's the one I'm sure you've been hoping to see! Move more, eat less. Yoga can help you on both fronts. A regular practice gets you moving and burns calories, and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of your practice may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater.
Brains! An important component of yoga is focusing on the present. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves coordination, reaction time, memory, and even IQ scores. People who practice regularly tend to be less distracted by their thoughts. (One of the main reasons the Hindu priests developed this practice in the first place!)
Nervous System. Yoga encourages you to relax, slow your breath, and focus on the present, shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (fight of flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter is calming and restorative; it lowers breathing and heart rates, decreases blood pressure, and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs.
Balance. Yoga increases proprioception. (The ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space.) This improves balance.
Just breathe! We hold our breath. A lot. Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming and more efficient. Yoga has been shown to improve various measures of lung function, including the maximum volume of the breath and the efficiency of the exhalation. Yoga also promotes breathing through the nose, which filter the air, warms it, and humidifies it, removing pollen and dirt, and other things you'd rather not take into your lungs.
Peace of Mind. Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, and anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems – from migraines and insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart attacks – if you learn to quiet your mind, you'll be likely to live longer and healthier.
Deeper look. Many of us suffer from chronic low self-esteem. If you handle this negatively by taking drugs, overeat, work too hard, sleep around; you may pay the price in poorer health physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you take a positive approach and practice yoga, you'll sense, initially in brief glimpses, and later in more sustained views, that you're worthwhile! If you practice regularly with an intention of self-examination and betterment, not just as a substitute for an aerobics class, you can access a different side of yourself. While better health is not the goal of spirituality, it's often a buy-product, as documented by repeated scientific studies.
Healing Hope. In much of conventional medicine, most patients are passive recipients of care. In yoga, it's what you do for yourself that matters. Yoga gives you the tools to help you change, and you might start to feel better the first time you try practicing. You may also notice that the more you commit to practice, the more you benefit. This results in three things: you get involved you own care, you discover that your involvement gives you the power to effect change, and seeing that you can effect change gives you hope. Hop in itself can be healing.
Connection! As you've read through this list – that did not include EVERYHTING – you probably noticed a lot of overlap. That's because they're intensely interwoven. Change your posture and you change the way you breathe. Change your breathing and you change your nervous system. This is one of the great lessons of yoga: Everything is connected. This interconnection is vital to understanding yoga. This holistic system simultaneously taps into many mechanisms that have additive and even multiplicative effects. This synergy may be the most important way of all that yoga heals!