What is the Difference between Yoga Classes, Yoga Therapy Classes and Individual Private Sessions???

So, what is the difference between Yoga Classes, Yoga Therapy Classes and Individual Private Sessions?

 This can be confusing. Below is a clarification of what this all means…. At Yoga for Life.

Yoga Classes stretch and strengthen the whole system, including the mind and emotions, General classes –

·        Create flexible and strong muscles and promote healthy joint function

·        Stimulate healthy immune function

·        Develop healthy breathing and overcome bad breathing habits

·        Promote deep healthy sleep, essential for the body to carry out maintenance and healing

Yoga Therapy Classes are a programme of 5 classes designed to target particular areas.. They are specially designed for those who find their pain and tension is becoming a problem in daily living. The classes help address -

 

·        Pain & stiffness in particular areas, such as hips, shoulders, knees or lower back

·        Create counterbalance for sports which overuse one side of the body, at the expense of the opposite side, such as golf and tennis, which over time can lead to pain and discomfort

·        Help people become aware of what they can do to reduce tension and stiffness

·        The current programmes include Hips and Shoulders; Lower back and Sciatica

Private Yoga Therapy Sessions are for those whose pain has become so intense or overwhelming that it is interfering with their daily living. 

Many of these issues can be reduced or eliminated by individually designed and targeted sessions using traditional yoga asanas and breathing techniques, combined with modern understanding of kinesiology, anatomy and physiology. Initially the movements are slow and small so that the mind and body can become aware of where the pain is coming from and what we have been doing, muscle-wise to compensate in order to relieve the pain. As this awareness grows there is space to change many of these habits and retrain our muscles to move within a pain-free range. Each session builds on the previous session and every session is unique, in that it is specifically tailored to address the needs of the individual on the day.

All of the above techniques are complementary.   All of the above techniques are suitable for people of all ages and abilities and are entirely complementary so you can choose one or combine them all for a faster more holistic result.

  

QUOTE:   "My lower back pain and sciatica used to be so bad that I couldn’t drive more than 20 minutes before the pain became excruciating. After coming to yoga and yoga therapy sessions, I haven’t thought about it for months. No pain, nothing."  Sheree  

Supermarket shopping, finding grace in the aisles

Coming out of the supermarket today, awareness of warm sunshine and birds singing vociferously in the trees. Their chatter is vibrant, loud and attention grabbing. My spirits rise as the warmth of the sun hits me and the change of timbre in birdsong is unconsciously registered. It is SPRING. Funny how the words we intuitively use seem to be literally true. It was the feeling of uplift in my chest, and the sense of expansion that caught my attention. I was taken aback for a moment. This is so different from the feelings I usually associate with supermarket shopping

I reflect for a moment on how much I usually dislike the whole supermarket routine. How much focus, and resistance, there is to “finding a carpark, as close as possible”,  “the list”, “the specials”, “the size of the checkout queues”, getting in and out as fast as possible, the drudge of unpacking it all at the other end, and all the negative thoughts and judgments that go with food gathering in modern style. 

Yet how different it can be. Supermarket forays and market browsing on overseas trips are adventures, when time is not an issue and the experience is impelled by curiosity and expectation of things new and different.   Often lack of local knowledge or language forces me to seek assistance and suddenly an interesting conversation ensues; there is laughter, new information, new opportunities arise. This is heart opening and fun, as opposed to the closed off feeling that resistance and habit brings to shopping at home, when I am doing everything to make the experience as brief as possible. All that negativity is the opposite of equanimity, the goal of yoga. To be sanguine in all situations, without ego. To take each experience as it comes, without expectation and not loading it with desires and previous experiences. Ironically, it takes so much effort to be in this negative, resistant mindspace!

All it takes to bring a sense of peace is a change of attitude. It isn’t so hard. How lucky am I to have the option to drive a few miles and buy what I need, when I need it. Gratitude, that I live in a country where I can drive to one place and buy food to feed my family, when for so many just finding enough food to survive from one day to the next is the only goal.

Next time I will try to shop with more grace. 

5 Tips to Beat Insomnia

We all know how ragged we feel after a night of tossing and turning. Here are some ideas to help you get a good night’s sleep.  Deep sleep is essential for the body to carry out its daily maintenance routine; repairing and healing injuries and removing old and damaged cells. Insomnia raises cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and keeps them elevated. 

Cortisol is essential as part of the body’s response to stress, but prolonged stress with sustained cortisol production is very damaging. High cortisol levels weaken the immune system, and this is associated with serious illness, such as heart attacks, stroke, fatigue, weight gain, lack of concentration leading to accidents, the premature death of cells and early ageing.  

1            Do a lazy stretchy Sun Salute or a similar whole body stretch. The emphasis here is on SLOW and EASY movements. You are not raising energy but releasing wound up energy and tension and removing stagnant energy so the body and mind can fully relax & do its maintenance work as you sleep.

2            Have a bath rather than a shower.  Physically, it is more relaxing to lie horizontal the body in a warm water rather than standing in a shower. But this is not the only reason for baths being better at bedtime. The running water of the shower flows negative ions over your body, invigorating you, which is why showers wake you up (and are great in the morning). Whereas, when you lie in the bath, positive ions flow around your body and promote a feeling of calm and relaxation. As you lie submerged in warm water it is also possible that there is a latent psychological memory of being bathed in the warm fluid of the womb. 

3            Have a warm milky drink before going to bed. Yes, it does contain calories, but it might come down to a trade off between a good night’s sleep and breaking a pattern, before sleepless nights become the norm and lead to chronic stress and more serious health issues. If you are lactose intolerant you can substitute almond or soy or rice milk. If you want to lessen the calories, add warm water.

There is debate about the positive effects of warm milk, but like much that is medical, it often leaves out important aspects. Milk contains the amino acid, tryptophan, which helps in the production of the sleep inducing brain chemicals, serotonin and melatonin. Some research has posited that a glass of milk does not contain enough of the chemical to induce drowsiness. 

However, the fact remains that it does work for many of us, and other theories suggest that there maybe psychological and physiological factors  at work here, on more than one level. 


Consider that a glass of warm milk warms the body and when the body temperature is raised, body also responses slow. People sleep better when they are warm because the muscles relax more, and warm milk coats and soothes the stomach creating a sense of wellbeing, that is readily apparent when babies fall asleep after nursing.  

Milk is associated with mothers and a mother's love and care. Comforting feelings and remembrances can produce chemicals in the brain that actually form a sensation of well-being and relaxation. This brain chemical, serotonin, is associated with sleep. This feeling of well-being and relaxation may cause the sleepiness.

If you are milk allergic, consider almond milk, soy milk or rice milk.



4            200 steps after eating. Many wakeful nights are the result of indigestion. That feeling of bloating, wind and discomfort often caused by a combination of too much food and alcohol, eating too late and food that is richer than our normal fare. Lying in bed slows the metabolism, at the very time when we need it to work well to digest all that food. 

Swami Satyananda recommended that we go for a walk after eating, or if that option isn’t available, do at least 200 steps. Try jogging on the spot, especially with big arm movements before retiring to bed. This is a great way to shake down that food and allow the body space to do what it needs to do.



5            Play a Yoga Nidra track to help you sleep. Yoga Nidra is different from ordinary relaxations. It is a scientific yogic technique which relaxes on several different levels.  It is preferable to stay awake in Yoga Nidra to get the full benefits, but if you do go to sleep it confers a much deeper and more relaxed sleep. This makes it ideal to play at bedtime, or if you are lying awake tossing with frustration.   

Put on your earphones so you don’t disturb your partner and it doesn’t matter if you let it play more than once, before you wake up and turn it off, and roll over and go back to sleep.   
The more you use Yoga Nidra, the more effective it becomes. (Make sure you have an authentic Yoga Nidra as there are many claims to this technique. Satyananda yoga is an authentic source and produces a large number of these CDs.)




It is really important to get a good night’s sleep. Don’t let the odd wakeful night become a habit. Act quickly to change the pattern.