What are Yoga Classes for?
The Yoga classes are suitable for all levels, including complete beginners. So often I hear people say how they'd love to try Yoga, but fear they lack the necessary flexibility and strength. I simply ask them to attend a class and, 'almost' without exception, the response is something along the lines of .......... 'I absolutely loved it!'
When you practise yoga regularly:
you become supple, flexible, strong and fit
Yoga postures lengthen and strengthen muscles and ligaments and put joints through their full range of movement. Combined with appropriate breathing, they provide exercise that increases fitness without being tiring.
you move gracefully
The postures are beautiful to look at and encourage grace of movement.
you develop good posture
The postures work on a deep level realigning the skeletal structure of the body. People who take up yoga often grow noticeably taller because their spine stretches and they learn to hold themselves properly
you look better
Firm muscle tone, bright eyes and clear complexion contribute to the radiant appearance of the person who has embraced yoga. This, combined with good posture and grace of movement, makes for a pleasing outward appearance.
you live longer and remain healthy and vigorous, well into old age
Many people work hard and save for a comfortable retirement, only to find that when the time comes, failing health prevents them from enjoying it. With yoga, your 'prime of life' can last into your seventies and eighties. Taking up yoga is the very best investment you can make towards a long, healthy and active life.
you breathe smoothly and efficiently
Yogic breathing strengthens the diaphragm and encourages deeper, freer breathing. 'Breath is life' and as correct breathing, learned through yoga, becomes more and more habitual your energy levels and your health improve radically.
you sleep well
Stretching muscles and ligaments helps them to relax. Deep relaxation is a key ingredient of yoga and is conducive to deep, refreshing sleep.
you concentrate and focus well
Posture, yogic breathing, relaxation and meditation all help to calm and still the mind. When your mind is calm and still it can be your servant rather than your master and is available to you for whatever you wish to do with it.
you cope well with stress
The improvements to your health and the ability to relax deeply that come with yoga make you more resilient. Even in times of crisis you can learn to 'switch off ' and recuperate.
you have more energy and vitality
Many forms of exercise make you fit but can also be tiring. Yoga practice is energizing. You practice yoga not just to get fit, but also to 'recharge your batteries'.
you have less accidents
Yoga practice calms you. It brings poise, balance and mindfulness and helps you to live in the present. When you are calm and aware you are less likely to have accidents than when you are agitated and preoccupied.
you suffer less from illness and unpleasant symptoms
The energizing, relaxing and balancing effect of yoga all serve to boost the autoimmune system, helping it to prevent and fight illness and disease.
The list of illnesses acknowledged by the medical profession as 'psychosomatic' grows every year. The peace of mind which yoga brings serves to heal and prevent these illnesses and symptoms.
Yoga exercises massage and tone the internal organs and balance the glandular and endocrine systems. They thus serve to regulate the chemistry of the body helping it to remain free from disease.
you are more relaxed and live comfortably in your body
Deep relaxation, so central to yoga, feeds into your daily life, reducing your stress level and making you more relaxed generally. One of yoga's prime rewards is a sense of feeling comfortable in your body; a sense of lightness and transparency, which is not just an absence of discomfort but a positive sense of well being.
you enjoy increased self respect and self esteem
To practice yoga is to be kind to yourself, to nurture yourself, to 'treat your body as your temple'. When you realize that you are beginning to transform your health and sense of well being through yoga you grow in self respect and self esteem.
Let Nature Rock The freedom and simple beauty is just too good to pass up!
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.