Yoga Bliss
As you may know I am a physical therapist and also a yoga teacher. I fell in love with yoga for what it did for a shoulder injury but also for the affect on my mental health - quieting the anxious mind. The physical effects on our bodies and our health are equally powerful.
Maharishi Patanjali writes in the Yoga Sutras,
"Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah." "Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind."
As a yoga student I enjoy the sense of calm that comes after a yoga class - often called yoga bliss. You might know the sensation. That feeling you get after class where you need to spend a little time cleaning up your space, rolling up your mat, storing your props and speaking with others before you get in the car so that you will see the red lights on the drive home.
Other times we feel very clear, focused and inspired after a class or we feel an improved strength and sense of Self. “Yoga pushes back” is a phrase my teacher Shannon Paige Kenney, RYT-500 often repeated. Yoga can shake us to our core and challenge our beliefs, increase our awareness of body sensations and emotions and asks us to be true to our values.
Now if you are like me and many of my clients, you started yoga as an exercise class to help with aches and pains. For me it was back pain. I loved how yoga poses moved through all three planes of motion creating balance within the body, mind and spirit on and off the mat.
And the private sessions with my teacher that I did early in my practice helped me hear the cues and make adjustments and created awareness of muscles connecting and working together. This is some of why I intertwine yoga into the physical therapy services I offer. Why treat just one piece of the whole when we can use breath and poses to affect the whole body?
In case you are curious Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to find your perfect movement practice.
Yoga for our Bodies
Building Strength, Coordination and physical Balance
Her goal was to hike 3 miles around Emerald Lake in Banff, Canada.
My client, Mary, came to me after an ankle surgery. She was concerned about being sedentary while waiting to start PT and rehab. Chair and bed yoga was her ticket to sanity during a time when she felt held back waiting for the ankle to heal.
She continued with the yoga while she received PT for her ankle repeatedly telling me her lower back was feeling better. As she was allowed to put more weight on the leg, we progressed to standing and eventually balancing poses, tree pose.
🎉 After 6 months of weekly yoga. Instead of Emerald lake, her husband took her to Rome. She celebrated her strength and endurance by sending me a photo from the top of the coliseum. Then she added that she had actually run to catch a train are well. Needless to say I was quite impressed with her success.
It is important to note that we had found the right type of exercise for her… one that she could stick with and enjoy. I believe that is what made all the difference. And I see the bliss-ed out look in her eyes after each session.
Good news! Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to design a yoga practice to suit your needs and to support your ongoing practice so you can enjoy your life off the mat with confidence, strength and agility.
Yoga for our health
Becoming postmenopausal is an interesting time of life
I say this sarcastically as there are both positives and negatives. The hormonal shifts affect our sleep, body temperature regulation and weight. There is also research suggesting an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, auto-immune diseases like diabetes.
My postmenopausal clients complain that life is moving too fast and that it often feels as if they have more and more piled on their to-do-list between family, home and work.
Stress and the hormone, cortisol, is a factor in the above issues. Minimizing stress levels helps to decrease the negative effects of cortisol. Increased cortisol levels slows bone rebuilding and remodeling needed to maintain strong bone density and also interrupts our sleep rhythms.
The physical practice of yoga is a form of exercise to many of us, but it can be so much more if we can take the time to listen as suggested by Richard Freeman, author of “The Mirror of Yoga”. He begins by saying that, “Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is.”
But what we also notice is that the more we practice yoga, the more connected we are to our values and true Self. We also become better at saying “no” to unnecessary tasks and we get better at recognizing when we want to ask for help or delegate tasks to free up a moment or two. And its funny when we ask for help, our loved ones are so relieved that we might slow down, that they are quite happy to step up.
The more we practice yoga the more aware we become of what we are feeling in the good as well as the stressful times in life. It becomes easier to stay grounded within our bodies and thoughts while navigating life off the mat. Essentially the stronger we are physically, the more often we likely to recognize when we want to say “no” to something that think we should do, because our intuition says otherwise.
Most yoga poses engage the core muscles in some way from our standing poses to seated twists and forward bends. We step up the effects when we add breath to the poses and the transition between poses. More importantly a breathing practice wakes up the diaphragm muscle.
There are breathing practices that are specifically designed to focus and quiet the mind. For example research has suggested that 5 min of an alternate nostril or an asymmetrical breathing practice will have a positive effect on quieting our nervous system and the flight, fight, freeze and fawn responses. Hence the “calm” with the yoga bliss.
The good news is that the right yoga practice will find you once you are on your mat and it can assist with stress management and offer full body strengthening, flexibility, coordination and balance training and improve posture. Done with others it can also be a social event that nourishes the mind, body and spirit.
Body in Tune, LLC was born from a belief that quality of life matters; both life and physical balance matters.
I would welcome the opportunity to be part of your support team with regards to your muscles, joints, bones and osteoporosis. The goal is, after all, to help you feel confident in your body so you can play with your grand children, take that long-dreamed of vacation and get outside and enjoy a walk with friends.