What is Yoga for? What are Yang and Yin Yoga?
“ If you do not take care of your body, where will you live? “
~Lao Tzu
~Lao Tzu
What is yoga for and how can it support you to live a healthy, happy and balanced life?
I believe yoga is there to support you in your daily life, helping you be more fulfilled, happy and relaxed.What is Yoga? Who is it for?
Yoga is for everyone. It can stimulate a process of transformation, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Yoga supports us to live healthy, fulfilled and peaceful lives. Through postures, breath work and meditation, the natural state of balance of yang and yin, within our bodies and minds, is restored. This harmonising refreshes and revitalises us.
Practising yoga can help with many conditions. It is a way to redress imbalances brought about by work, rest and play!It can help to restore the body to its natural state of balance, alignment and vitality. A balance of strength and flexibility is the body's natural state. The joints and the spine can be compromised if there is too much flexibility without the strength to sustain it, equally if the muscles are overdeveloped, they can limit the optimum range of movement of the joints and spine.
Uneven wear and tear of the body can result in joint problems as we grow older. Yoga can help you to appreciate how your unique structure affects your function and how to replace inappropriate and unhelpful patterns with ones which serve you better.
Scientific evidence supports findings that incorrect breathing impacts negatively on our being. Unhelpful patterns can be replaced, quietening the sympathetic nervous system, (the one where the body and brain are on constant alert), allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to take over, bringing about a quiet, relaxed, peaceful mind and body with a healthy immune system.
This journey, to improved posture, functionality, enhanced health and well-being, increased self-awareness and confidence, whilst not always smooth, is worthwhile. Encouraging the mind, body and breath to work together leads to physical and mental relaxation, the benefits of which extend far beyond the mat, into our daily lives. Practising yoga can enable us to develop greater inner strength and equanimity.
What`s yoga about?
It is a process of transformation on many levels.
It's not about trying to tie yourself into impossible knots, ( I don't, nor do I wish to!) or stand on your head for hours on end, it's about finding a pathway that will help support you to live your life. You don't have to be super bendy to be able to practice, quite the opposite, practising reduces stiffness.
Through a series of dynamic and static asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing exercises) and relaxation, increased mobility, strength and flexibility and a deep sense of well-being and relaxation can be developed. Yoga can help bring balance back into the body that has been lost along the way. Physical, and mental knots are untied leaving you revitalised and in a state of calm.
For me, the joy of yoga, is that it has much to offer to suit individual needs. People practice yoga for different reasons. For some it is the asanas, others pranayama, relaxation, meditation, spirituality or the philosophy. Initially, I came to yoga because I was interested in what it had to offer me physically. To quote one my favourite teachers, Donna Farhi, practising yoga postures ‘is simply one of the most direct and expedient ways to meet yourself. It is a good place to begin. ’ I have found through practising and teaching yoga that it facilitates being more in touch, and in tune, with your inner self. Being in tune with our instincts, intuitions, feelings and insights comes about through being in our bodies, rather than living in our heads, disassociated from our bodies. With developed awareness, old, unhelpful patterns of thinking can change, altering how we see ourselves, others, and the world; this heightened awareness can enhance our relationships with ourselves and others.
Yang Yoga
Jane’s believes that dynamic flowing sequences and held postures, that help us develop strength and flexibility, also enable us to build our energy, the Yang aspect of ourselves. She emphasises safety of the joints, through sufficient warming up and mobilisation of them, as well as ensuring correct alignment when practising dynamically in flowing sequences ( vinyasa) and statically held postures.She encourages students to find the balance that exists, between the Yang and the Yin within these practices.
Yin Yoga
Yin yoga is a practice whereby we can counterbalance the Yang of our lives. Overstimulated Yang may arouse the sympathetic nervous system, ( the flight/fight/freeze response) whereas Yin influences the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation response. It helps to disperse rising cortisol and adrenaline levels, stress responses, which happen so often throughout our day.
During a Yin practice, the body is physically supported with props, including the floor and walls and encouraged to release to gravity aided by breathing practices.
Postures are sustained for sufficient time to enable a deep state of relaxation. Focus on the breath support entry into this, sustain it, whilst also bringing calm to the mind.
Postures, (asana), involve mild and prolonged stretching of supported muscles and body. This can help to restore/improve natural function of our joints and throughout our fascial system. It is a delicious, restful practice that is different from sleep. There is no movement in the body and the brain/mind is encouraged to quieten. Thus it has a very deep, restorative affect both on the body and mind, leaving a feeling of being refreshed and revitalised.
I believe yoga is there to support you in your daily life, helping you be more fulfilled, happy and relaxed.What is Yoga? Who is it for?
Yoga is for everyone. It can stimulate a process of transformation, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Yoga supports us to live healthy, fulfilled and peaceful lives. Through postures, breath work and meditation, the natural state of balance of yang and yin, within our bodies and minds, is restored. This harmonising refreshes and revitalises us.
Practising yoga can help with many conditions. It is a way to redress imbalances brought about by work, rest and play!It can help to restore the body to its natural state of balance, alignment and vitality. A balance of strength and flexibility is the body's natural state. The joints and the spine can be compromised if there is too much flexibility without the strength to sustain it, equally if the muscles are overdeveloped, they can limit the optimum range of movement of the joints and spine.
Uneven wear and tear of the body can result in joint problems as we grow older. Yoga can help you to appreciate how your unique structure affects your function and how to replace inappropriate and unhelpful patterns with ones which serve you better.
Scientific evidence supports findings that incorrect breathing impacts negatively on our being. Unhelpful patterns can be replaced, quietening the sympathetic nervous system, (the one where the body and brain are on constant alert), allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to take over, bringing about a quiet, relaxed, peaceful mind and body with a healthy immune system.
This journey, to improved posture, functionality, enhanced health and well-being, increased self-awareness and confidence, whilst not always smooth, is worthwhile. Encouraging the mind, body and breath to work together leads to physical and mental relaxation, the benefits of which extend far beyond the mat, into our daily lives. Practising yoga can enable us to develop greater inner strength and equanimity.
What`s yoga about?
It is a process of transformation on many levels.
It's not about trying to tie yourself into impossible knots, ( I don't, nor do I wish to!) or stand on your head for hours on end, it's about finding a pathway that will help support you to live your life. You don't have to be super bendy to be able to practice, quite the opposite, practising reduces stiffness.
Through a series of dynamic and static asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing exercises) and relaxation, increased mobility, strength and flexibility and a deep sense of well-being and relaxation can be developed. Yoga can help bring balance back into the body that has been lost along the way. Physical, and mental knots are untied leaving you revitalised and in a state of calm.
For me, the joy of yoga, is that it has much to offer to suit individual needs. People practice yoga for different reasons. For some it is the asanas, others pranayama, relaxation, meditation, spirituality or the philosophy. Initially, I came to yoga because I was interested in what it had to offer me physically. To quote one my favourite teachers, Donna Farhi, practising yoga postures ‘is simply one of the most direct and expedient ways to meet yourself. It is a good place to begin. ’ I have found through practising and teaching yoga that it facilitates being more in touch, and in tune, with your inner self. Being in tune with our instincts, intuitions, feelings and insights comes about through being in our bodies, rather than living in our heads, disassociated from our bodies. With developed awareness, old, unhelpful patterns of thinking can change, altering how we see ourselves, others, and the world; this heightened awareness can enhance our relationships with ourselves and others.
Yang Yoga
Jane’s believes that dynamic flowing sequences and held postures, that help us develop strength and flexibility, also enable us to build our energy, the Yang aspect of ourselves. She emphasises safety of the joints, through sufficient warming up and mobilisation of them, as well as ensuring correct alignment when practising dynamically in flowing sequences ( vinyasa) and statically held postures.She encourages students to find the balance that exists, between the Yang and the Yin within these practices.
Yin Yoga
Yin yoga is a practice whereby we can counterbalance the Yang of our lives. Overstimulated Yang may arouse the sympathetic nervous system, ( the flight/fight/freeze response) whereas Yin influences the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation response. It helps to disperse rising cortisol and adrenaline levels, stress responses, which happen so often throughout our day.
During a Yin practice, the body is physically supported with props, including the floor and walls and encouraged to release to gravity aided by breathing practices.
Postures are sustained for sufficient time to enable a deep state of relaxation. Focus on the breath support entry into this, sustain it, whilst also bringing calm to the mind.
Postures, (asana), involve mild and prolonged stretching of supported muscles and body. This can help to restore/improve natural function of our joints and throughout our fascial system. It is a delicious, restful practice that is different from sleep. There is no movement in the body and the brain/mind is encouraged to quieten. Thus it has a very deep, restorative affect both on the body and mind, leaving a feeling of being refreshed and revitalised.