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 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.

Yoga Pose Tadasana or Mountain Pose

I havn't posted for a few days, have been trying to sort out the spammy sites that have been using my url to try to get traffic to their nasty sites. I did think about changing my blog and starting up another one, but figure I will just wait it out and hopefully those sites will eventually disappear. To protect yourselves do not do a google search for our site, instead type the full address into the browser bar.

http://holisticyogateachertraining.blogspot.com

This is the only way you will be able to get to this blog safely.

K... lets get started. I was going to begin with the triangle pose as I did get a request for information on that particular asana. Instead I have decided to begin with Tadasana or Mountain Pose. This asana forms the stable base for all standing poses.

Tadasana / Tada = Mountain / Tadasana = Mountain Pose

Step by step instructions

1. Stand with both feet together, or with your feet hip distance apart
2. Lift and gently stretch the toes, spread them wide and lower softly to the ground
3. Now we all know what a tripod is right! It's a 3 legged piece of equipment used for stablizing and supporting a camera. We are going to use this same principle to help us achieve a strong supportive base in mountain pose
4. Lets begin by pressing the big toes, the little toes and the heels firmly into the ground. This forms the tripod, the strong base for mountain pose
5. Alright so now we are going to gently rock back and forth—heels to toes, heels to toes
6. Come back to starting position, visualise your tripod and adjust your feet so that your weight is evenly distributed thru both feet
7. Lift the inside arches and press the outsides of the feet into the floor
8. Come back to starting position, visualise your tripod and have your weight evenly distributed thru both feet
9. Become familiar with how that feels
10. Lift the 3 arches, the inside arches, the outside arches and the arches across the broad part of your feet
11. To make sure we are not dropping thru the inside arches, activate the adductor muscles, this automatically lifts the inside arches
12. Moving up the legs to the knees, gently lift the knees by activating the thigh muscles or quads
13. Now focusing on lifting the front of the hips, gently lower the tail bone
14. An easy way to achieve the best position is to first of all place one hand on our belly just below the belly button and the other on the lower back. Visualise having tail feathers and sticking out those tail feathers – next we want to visualise a dog with it's tail between it's legs and imitate by tucking the pelvis under. The best position is somewhere in between those two extremes. Experiment and feel what's most comfortable for you
15. Next, lengthening the spine and lifting up thru the sternum. Broadening thru the lungs and rib cage. Be aware that we don't want the ribs to stick out, so draw them back towards the spine. Soften and lower the shoulders
16. Rotate thru the shoulders, moving the arms away from the body palms facing forward. Extend and lengthen the fingers. Relax the arms bring them back to your sides with the thumbs facing forward. Keep the shoulders soft. Think about the shoulder blades releasing downwards towards your waist
17. Gently lengthen the back of the neck, and lower the chin down to a neutral postition, with the chin relaxed
18. Draw up through the crown of the head, imagine a string running up thru your spine and out the top of your head, softly lengthening and opening up the body growing tall

Benefits:

Improves posture, reduces flat feet, relaxing, helps fallen arches, improves circulation, improves lung capacity

Variations:

1. Can be done with eyes closed for a more focused inward experience and to improve balance
2. Can raise the arms chest height interlock fingers and raise arms over head pressing palms towards the ceiling.
3. Bring arms behind, bend at the elbow, opposite hand on opposite elbow. Switch and hold for same amount of breaths

Variations and Modifications

1. Check your alignment against a wall. Stand with heels, sacrum and shoulder blades, but not the back of your head against the wall

Practise Mountain pose a couple times a day, this will help you to feel both grounded and relaxed.

See you next time

Lil