For 5,000 years, people have stretched and breathed their way to well-being. It’s time for you to catch-up!
When you wake up in the morning, you stretch from head to foot. Then you succumb to a mighty yawn that flushes your system with oxygen that wakes up both body and mind. You may not realize it, but you have just practiced yoga. Yes, it’s that natural.
People think yoga is about turning into a human pretzel and mastering esoteric Eastern philosophies. But yoga is essentially about gently bringing your body and mind back in touch with each other. Yoga is about healing and restoration.
Why Yoga?
In our fast-paced, results-oriented world, a yoga session comes like a breath of fresh air. Yoga heals the body and improves your level of health.
“I really feel that the most powerful healer of all is deep relaxation,” says Yoga teacher Judith Lasater, P.T., Ph.D., author of Rest and Renew: Quiet Yoga Poses to Reduce Stress and Tension. “Yoga allows everything to relax. That aids your muscular system, your circulatory system and other parts of you that suffer from the effects of stress.”
Yoga poses also help cleanse organs. Dr. Lasater teaches that moving your body through the different poses forces blood out of vital organs, allowing fresh blood to take its place. This gives your organs more nutrients, making them stronger and more resistant to disease. Pranayama calms your mind, strengthens your lungs, and reduces disturbances and impurities in the body. Dr. Lasater and other experts have documented improvements in conditions such as infertility, arthritis, high cholesterol, back pain, asthma, and many more.
Yoga builds strength on so many levels. On a physical level, as you move and breathe through the poses, your lung capacity increases. The poses shape and build your arms, legs and abs.
But the benefits of yoga go beyond the physical. When you focus on your breath—when you find peace and stillness in a difficult pose—then your inner strength increases. Your self-awareness grows as learn your body’s physical limitations. In a yoga class, you never strive to outperform your classmates. Instead, you use your breath to relax into a pose. Ganga White, outstanding yoga teacher and founder of the White Lotus Foundation, teaches, “The most important purpose of Yoga is to bring about a deep transformation of the individual--an awakening of intelligence that is free of dependencies and romantic beliefs and ready to meet the accelerating challenges of the 21st century.”
No pain equals gain
“The old saying ‘No pain, no gain’ doesn’t apply to yoga,” says Lilias Folan, known as the First Lady of Yoga since her groundbreaking 1972 Yoga series Lilias! and Yoga and You. Go gently—never push your body until it hurts. “Yoga should make you feel good!” she adds. This is one of the reasons yoga is different from conventional exercise.
Ganga White gives these tips for beginners. Find a comfortable, warm place with a level floor. Breathe smoothly and continuously throughout the practice. Do not hold your breath. Wear exercise tights, shorts, or loose comfortable clothing, no shoes or socks. Please do not strain or force to hold or attain any position. Work within your own limits and abilities. Allow body heat to build during the practice.
“Start slowly and work up to any difficult poses,” says Nancy Ford-Kohne, founder-director of the Yoga and Health Studies Center in Alexandria, Virginia. If you were able to execute a difficult cobra or spine twist yesterday, you may not be able to do so today. Respect that each day, your body changes. If you can’t do a particular pose today, choose a simpler pose. Realize that you can try again at your next session. Most importantly, always wind down and relax after every session. End with the corpse pose for at least five to ten minutes.
Ford-Kohne shares her motto: “Inhale energy and healing, exhale fatigue and stress.”
Yoga Routine
Below is a Daily Routine of 10 recommended poses. Pick three or four poses per day and alternate them every day to give your body a complete workout.
1. Mountain Pose
2. Sun Salutation
3. Warrior Poses
4. Dancer Pose
5. Tree Pose
6. Corpse Pose
7. Spine Twist
8. Baby Pose
9. Boat Pose
10. Cobra Pose
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