Reducing pain or dealing with stress is often why people turn to Yoga. Yoga teaches us to breathe more deeply and to connect to our bodies. Yoga helps us have more empathy and compassion.
Mindfulness-based Yoga will help you to release tension.
We use simple breathing techniques with gentle postures. Yoga will help you to improve your posture, stand up straight and walk tall. The way you carry yourself is pretty much intrinsic to your health. Yoga has been proven to be a helpful tool in the fight against back pain and other lifestyle-related issues. Yoga aims to purify the body and the mind using Asana (postures), Mudras (gestures), Pranayama (breath control), and the Kriyas (cleansing techniques).
The practice of Yoga dates to over five thousand years ago to ancient forest dwellers called Rishis, sages who dwelt in the Indus valley in northern India. Observing nature and searching within themselves, they evolved physical postures and breathing exercises stretching, cleansing, and centering the body, cultivating vitality, clarity, and focus.
Yoga is translated as union, unity, or yolk to join. It comes from the Sanskrit word yuj. This unity or joining is described spiritually as the union of the individual and universal consciousness. On a more practical level, Yoga helps coordinate the breath, mind, and body to encourage balance internally and externally, promoting relaxation and ease. In the West, the most widely taught form of Yoga is Hatha Yoga. Yoga classes offer students postures and movements to stretch, strengthen and flex the body, develop breath awareness, relax, and meditate. Some classes may be low impact, while others can be very demanding. Yoga is a science of right living and, as such, is intended to be incorporated into our daily lives. It works on all aspects of the person; physical, mental, emotional, psychic, and spiritual.
Yoga helps us achieve inner stillness and peace; Yoga is an excellent way of keeping fit, giving the body an all-over workout. Yoga improves muscle tone, giving you core strength, balance, and stability. Yoga will bring balance and harmony into your mind, thus creating health, happiness, and fulfillment. Yoga really can make a difference in everyone’s lives.
Styles of Yoga
There are many different forms of Yoga, including Ashtanga Vinyasa, which is a vigorous and physically demanding practice, Iyengar places great importance on precision and alignment, Satyananda emphasizes spirituality and awareness of the self, Kundalini is more about meditation and for those who seek a state of higher consciousnesses, Viniyoga includes a flowing session combining breath with movement, flowing in and out of the postures in time with the breath Bikram (hot Yoga) has a set sequence of postures and is practiced in a heated room with temperatures of 36 to 42c, this can help students to sweat out toxins and stretch further than they could have done before, Brikram yoga may not be suitable for particular health complaints, Sivananda has a set amount of sequence that allows students to pace themselves.
Here in the West, the widely taught style of Yoga is Hatha, which concentrates primarily on postures and breath. However, Hatha Yoga is the umbrella term for all Yoga, and teachers will incorporate their teaching style.
Some of the many benefits of Yoga
Please note: if you have persistent, chronic, or severe back pain, you should check with your doctor, who will advise you on anything specific to avoid.
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