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Stars do it, athletes do it, professionals in high pressure jobs do it, Moms do it, kids do it. What is it that makes the practice of Yoga so popular with so many DIFFERENT people? Some simply want a "Yoga Butt" but others come in hopes of restoring their troubled hearts, minds, or bodies. Yoga in America has become an artistic form of exercise, posture, and philosophy. Yoga starts on physical plane. The physical postures give us something tangible with which to start. The physical demands grab your attention and keep it (the practice of staying in the present moment). As you learn posture, awareness, and how you let stress (or life in general) move your body you learn how to adjust yourself so you can live pain free. For example, your Yoga instructor may point out that you tend to raise your shoulder blades toward your ears causing pain and tightness in your upper back. The practice of Yoga improves health and fitness. This does not come without effort. The practice teaches us to be mindful by not pushing too hard, to be comfortable but challenged (steady) in each pose. As you become stronger and more flexible you have taken what requires considerable effort and made it effortless. Breathing is an integral part of Yoga, as you become more familiar with postures you are ready to breathe. Learning to keep your breath even and smooth during a challenging pose helps you reduce distress in your life. Deep breathing stimulates the autonomic nervous system (the calming branch of the nervous system). This tends to slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and reduce the amount of circulating cortisol (the stress hormone which can cause arterial blockage, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers) in your blood stream. As you become physically stronger and mentally less stressed you learn to develop focus and concentration into your practice of postures. Yoga teaches you to be centered in action, to hold form, alignment, steady breath, gaze, and focus while moving through a set of postures. Grace and control under pressure. This calmness amidst the chaos of life allows you to respond most appropriately to what is swirling around you and to not let entropy control you. You can not control some of life's situations, but you can control how YOU respond to them. At this point your practice becomes a moving meditation --medicine for the mind, medicine for the body. Yoga has been touted to alleviate disease and illness. It has recently undergone a lot of scrutiny by the Medical field. Scientific studies have proven the health benefits of Yoga, and many other benefits remain yet to be "proven". What we do know is that drugs have side effects. Well, Yoga has side effects too; better strength, better balance, peace of mind, stronger bones, cardiovascular conditioning, improved posture, etc, etc. Yoga is a natural health system that, once you learn the basics, you can do at home for free with very little equipment. The Power of Yoga
Yoga offers a way to bring balance to your whole being: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. The practice of Yoga is designed to cleanse and purify the organs of the body, each pose has specific benefits that positively effect the body on many levels (organ, tissues and bones, hormones, nervous system, mood, . . ). Bobbi Misiti is owner/operator of Be Fit Body & Mind at 212 Third Street in New Cumberland. Be Fit Body & Mind offers Yoga and Fitness classes. For more information call 770-2348 or go to: www.bfityoga.com
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