BeachFront Meditations

NEW ☀ Beachfront Meditations Sunday 4.30pm  Come experience a variety of relaxing and uplifting meditations, revive...
Posted by Ymsa - Yoga Meditation Studio Palm Beach on Friday, December 5, 2014

Relax, Renew, Yoga

As an effective method of stress management, yoga is spreading into the business world, the helping professions, nursing and old age homes, and is used in the treatment of alcoholics, hyperactive children and youngsters with learning disabilities.

Hatha Yoga is among the most popular forms in the west. It emphasizes the practice of postures, which stretch and strengthen the body, help develop a sense of balance and flexibility, as well as body awareness and mental concentration. All forms of yoga incorporate the practice of proper breathing techniques for relaxation, to rest the mind from its constant chatter, to experience an internal calm, and to energize and also purify and detox the body.

As stress levels in society reach new heights, Yoga, and Yoga meditation, is growing in popularity in Western society, as is Mantra Yoga, the yoga of chanting.

Newcomers are hoping that yoga will provide them with a means for handling stress and diffusing tension.

Stretching and toning, though beneficial, aren't the primary reasons people turn to yoga. The difference between regular exercise and yoga is that yoga has a meditative quality, which is what most people want to help balance their hectic lifestyles.

If you would like to try yoga check out our class timetable.

Namaste

Yoga and Meditation

Meditation alleviates stress

Do you feel stressed? Are you getting worn down by the daily grind? For most of us, our bodies think that we're running away from a tiger all day long. The constant challenges and pressures we face daily can really affect our health.
Did you know that as little as 10 minutes, each day spent in meditation can counteract that stress and bring you many powerful benefits. This is an excellent tool recommended by physicians to their patients. It's incredibly effective, and it’s free.
Meditation helps alleviate:
1. Stress
Meditation is a wonderful way to reduce stress. Not only does the practice of meditating give you some much-needed “down time” to rest physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it also directly impacts your entire nervous system by reducing your body’s production of stress-related chemicals such as cortisol. Meditation decreases oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and increases the intensity of alpha, theta, and delta brain waves, which increase the relaxation response.
2. Pain
There is a significant body of research work demonstrating that meditation can reduce chronic pain. In a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, patients suffering from backache, chronic migraine and tension headaches were able to decrease their pain medication and some patients were even able stop their pain medication with a consistent meditation practice.
3. Anxiety
A 2009 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that meditation decreased anxiety and increased hope in its participants. A separate study showed that cancer patients who practiced meditation for as little as seven weeks were significantly less depressed and anxious than their counterparts who did not meditate.
4. Cardiovascular disease
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine followed patients with coronary heart disease who instituted a meditation practice for 16 weeks. Patients’ blood pressure and heart rate variability improved compared to a control group. In another study, researchers studying the effect of meditation on atherosclerosis reported that those who had practiced meditation for six to nine months had an 11% decrease in the risk of heart attack and up to a 15% decrease in the risk of stroke.
5. Insomnia
A study at the University of Minnesota showed patients with primary chronic insomnia who followed a three-month meditation program at home significantly improved their ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Check here for our weekly Yoga and Meditation Timetable

Relaxation - Holistic Yoga Stretch and Meditation

Holistic Yoga Stretch…

Benefits body, mind, heart and soul.

The benefits of Yoga are well documented and have been appreciated by Eastern Cultures since ancient times. More recently the West has begun to embrace the holistic benefits of Yoga.We can always gauge what the current trends are by the media and yes sadly by the advertising. Have you noticed how many laptop owners get down to the beach and sit in the lotus yoga pose while gazing out over the tranquil ocean. Ah - Yes, progress:-)

Seriously though, the practice of Yoga has devotees world wide and is glorified as being the absolute best exercise for the up-keep and maintenance of the physical
body.

Yoga works all areas of the body, internally and externally, helping to keep the body (our life vehicle) in as tip top condition as possible.

Classes begin with a few minutes of sacred sound meditation, followed by Yoga Nidra and then the Yoga stretches begin. Yoga Nidra is repeated again at the end of the yoga stretches. We then finish off with a few minutes of "Spiritual Food for Thought" and group singing meditation which perfectly rounds out our Yoga practice.

A blissfully rejuvenating experience for body, mind, heart and soul.

Will post an easy relaxation class at a later date, so that you can experience it for yourself.

Warm regards

Yoga Meditation Holistic Yoga - Om Hari Om Meditation

Om Hari Om

The use of relaxation and meditation in yoga classes is very common. Mantra's such as OM HARI OM or Gauranga are generally practised at the beginning and the end of a holistic yoga class. These Mantra's are transcendental sound vibrations, not ordinary sound. They are the perfect way to end a holistic yoga class. After physically working the body out during yoga, it is an opportunity to rest the heart and mind on the beautiful sounds of the meditations. Sometimes sung out loud as a group, or "call and response" where the teacher leads the meditation and those who want to join in do so if they wish. Very cleansing for the mind, relaxing for the mind and body and very nourishing for the heart. Often called "Food for the soul". Very enjoyable and loved by all.

Yoga Benefits the Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Nervous Systems

Fight or Flight: Sympathetic Nervous System

Frequently referred to as the “fight or flight response”, the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for alertness and wakefulness, as well as the ability to respond to stress.

In response to stimulus (mental or physical), hormones including noradrenaline and adrenaline are released by the adrenal glands. While it is technically very difficult to measure these hormones in individuals, simple signs of sympathetic activation can be seen in individuals including: increased pupil dilation, sweating, increased heart rate and blood pressure (frequently used in lie detection testing).

Heart rate and blood pressure are probably the easiest and most reliable of these signs to clinically measure and are most frequently used by medical researchers to study human response to stress, as well as recovery from stress.

Recovery & Regeneration: The parasympathetic nervous system

If the sympathetic system is the accelerator of our internal stress response system or what makes us turn ON, the parasympathetic system is considered to be ‘the brake’ or the OFF button. The parasympathetic system’s main role is to conserve energy. One way of doing this is to slow heart rate and energy needs, particularly when we are resting or sleeping. Parasympathetic activation is dominant when we are truly resting or sleeping (provided we are getting uninterrupted, quality sleep).

The parasympathetic is the part of your nervous system that slows you down, it’s responsible for telling your muscles to relax, improving your digestion and assimilation, boosting immunity, and helping you sleep better.The parasympathetic nervous system counteracts many stress-related symptoms and the negative by products of life in this world. Hatha Yoga increases the flow of prana, or life force, in your body.

Scientists have declared that today’s modern life style; the junked up, wired up caffeine fuelled society, frequently experiences an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic balance. This has a tendency to make us prone to mental and physical burn out, periods of decreased mental concentration, immune imbalance and many stress related diseases including cardiovascular disease. The true long term effects of the modern wired up society we live in today will probably not be fully known for decades to come.

Nadi Shodan Breathing

(Remember to Breathe)

So what is helping you feel and live better? The answer is life force. Almost all styles of hatha yoga and pranayama increase the flow of prana, or life force, in your body.

Namaste