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.