Yoga - A little bit of 'you' time!

In a world where everything for tomorrow needs to have been done yesterday, time is precious. We barely have time to fit a days work in, let alone keeping the house tidy & making sure the kids are fed and watered. Finding a moment for ourselves is nigh on impossible. Our brains never ‘switch off’ properly, the stresses build up and we have to fight to keep them down. As a Soft Tissue Therapist, I see clients on a daily basis with tension related postural problems causing varying degrees of discomfort and disabilities, many of which could be eased and perhaps even controlled with a simple slowing down of pace by finding just an hour in the week to relax, unwind and simply be.

People find their relaxation in many ways, losing their thoughts in music, switching off to ‘Coronation Street’ or even raising their heartbeat with exercise. Over the years I have played and taken part in many sports and classes. I still do. I’m a keen cyclist and often lose a few hours on long rides and I enjoy the camaraderie playing in a basketball team. The long bike rides act almost as meditations as the miles tick by, things that are troubling me are played over in my mind and by the time I step off the bike I have a clearer picture of what needs to be done or resolved in what manner. The physical, high energy time on the basketball court can really help to release built up frustrations and with the familiar warm ‘hum’ of hard worked muscles I know I’ll have a good nights sleep that night.

So where does yoga come in? For me it brings all of the benefits I feel from various ways of relaxation, into one activity. I study a classical form of yoga which is known as a Hatha Raja Vinyasa, developed by my guru Sri Dharma Mittra and this is what I teach. You may have heard of Ashtanga Yoga, a phrase thrown about in western society but isn’t really understood. Here it is associated with a hard yoga class that gets you sweating and the muscles working hard, but in fact Ashtanga means Eight Limbed (Ashta = Eight, anga = Limb) and these are the eight parts of a full yoga practice. These Eight Limbs help the mind and body to unwind, relax, strengthen, loosen up and settle into a deeper sense of silence. A yoga class doesn’t have to be hard to accomplish the desired effect it just has to be well structured with all the right pieces, so yes my classes are an Ashtanga Yoga, but in the true sense of the word because I practice and teach all Eight limbs.

My classes are perfect for people who have never tried yoga before. They’re run as a drop in style so you are not tied up week in week out, simply turn up when you feel like it. As you get more familiar, I try to push you a little bit so that you progress in the poses and feel the benefits yourselves both physically and mentally, but only as far as you are comfortable going. Classes are based around relaxation and this is how we start and finish, going within ourselves to find the inner peace, using a series of gentle stretching, twisting and strengthening poses followed by breathing and meditation to help us settle the mind.

There are many health benefits to a regular yoga practice, too many to mention, but I’ll leave you with 10 reasons to practice yoga and an open invitation to try one of my classes in the new year. I am starting a new gentle yoga, breathing and meditation class at 18:30 and have moved my regular Dharma Yoga level 1/2 to 19:30 on Wednesdays at Bank Farm in Carlton. So A little bit of ‘You Time’ has never been more accessible.

10 Reasons to practice Yoga:

1. STRESS RELIEF: Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

2. PAIN RELIEF: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain, and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.

3. BETTER BREATHING: Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

4. FLEXIBILITY: Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

5. INCREASED STRENGTH: Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

6. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well-being and self-esteem.

7. IMPROVED CIRCULATION: Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

8. CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING: Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

9. FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

10. INNER PEACE: The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.