Many think yoga is about touching your toes. It could be, but we believe it is much more! To us, yoga is about connecting to yourself, finding peace of mind, and learning tools to support greater alignment in your physical body, emotionally, and to your purpose. Why? To help you live a happy, healthy life.
Through yoga, movement, breath and meditation we connect to our physical and emotional bodies.
Here are 10 Reasons To Practice Yoga & Mediation:
- Yoga provides an avenue to build greater strength, core & muscle memory for better posture
- By strengthening the fine muscles we gain greater power for our large muscles & prevent injury!
- Endurance based strength building (Power/ Vinyasa yoga) encourages us to be conscious of our alignment
- Placing aligned pressure on our bones, helps build fresh cells & strengthen joints to prevent osteoporosis & alleviate pain from some types of arthritis
- Yoga is an effective way to re-hab the core (after birth), the lower back (a common concern I see) & more!
- By connecting to our breath (which we can do whenever, wherever), we let go of our mind and find peace
- Yin style helps release muscles and fascia, which store muscle memory, also providing emotional release
- Through breath and movement we find freedom within, allowing us to access mental clarity & objectivity
- Breath and movement also give us energy! I recommend taking a break every hour to move and breath
- Stronger intuition is also developed through meditation and breath, knowing how to connect to yourself
These are just a few of the reasons yoga and meditation are beneficial for anyone of any age or circumstance, even if you experience chronic pain – if fact if you do, yoga and meditation often greatly help!
My Favorite Types of Yoga
I used to be a hard core power style yogi, barely being able to stay in Savasna (resting at the end) – this was during a hard time when I was younger and I really should have been meditating but I became disconnected. As you grow on your yoga and meditation journey, and even each day, the style of yoga you seek will differ. For the past 10, these have become my favorite styles of yoga, as they help me feel most aligned and at peace:
Yin, as I mentioned encourages the release of muscle and fascia. By holding gentle poses on the mat and focusing on our breath, we allow for a physical and emotional release. Muscles store memory. Think about how your body natural defends itself if your were to fall or you sense a threat – muscles contract, often in bizarre ways of holding yourself, and the breath becomes short and shallow. We go into fight or flight. Life can be stressful with crazy pressures externally and those we create for ourselves, which means unfortunately most of us are in this state on a daily basis. Consuming stimulants also doesn’t help. Yin offers a chance to let this all go. By holding gentle stretch poses, we teach our bodies that we can relax and let go, which often also releases the memories in the muscle areas targeted of why they are cramped or storing tension. Truly a beautiful practice. This is very similar to the idea of Craniosacral Therapy – gentle, non-invasive touch allows us to feel safe, and our body knows exactly how to heal itself physically and emotionally! It’s really quite amazing.
Kundalini is a beautiful way to naturally learn to calm the body and mind, or conversely create an alert yet calm state for clearer, more intuitive thinking. Kundalini works with the breath (pranayam), mantra, movement, and the nervous system. If you are looking for a way to dig deeper into your meditation, Kundalini is a wonderful practice to help you access this sense of alignment and connection.
Vinyasa or Flow is all about moving with our breath, or rather letting our breath move us. Keeping a steady inhale and exhale flow, we learn to let our body be guided. By allowing ourselves to simply focus on the breath, we allow our minds to release, which encourages a meditative state and clearer minds. And it’s a great physical work-out!
Each of these forms of yoga encourage us to connect more deeply with our breath, to release our minds and allow us to become more aligned with our true purpose and nature – which in turn brings us greater peace and joy! As we continue to practice, being able to connect to our true selves becomes second nature. This means it’s easier for us to release stress (and learn to protect ourselves if we tend to take on that of others), and connect to ourselves more intuitively to make better decisions which will make us happier and healthier.
A Simple Meditation for Greater Peace
You can do this anywhere and only need 2 minutes. Close your eyes and begin to feel into your feet (if standing) or hips (if sitting). Begin a slow, long inhale for 4 seconds, retail for 4 seconds, exhale for 6 seconds, hold out for 2 seconds. Repeat for as long as you wish. We can get much deeper from here, but this is a wonderful, accessible practice.
If you have any questions about which style of yoga is best for you, please send me an email: katie@studio202community.com
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