Yoga is more than exercise...it's your health!

"YOUR HEALTH is not a commodity to be bargained for, nor can it be swallowed in the form of drugs and pills, it has to be earned through SWEAT."

       ~ B.K.S. Iyengar *

Yoga is much more than simply a form of exercise. Yoga, in various forms, has the ability to heal the body, mind, and spirit. The practice of yoga serves to increase energy levels, heighten inner peace, and release stress. Yoga can be combined with relaxation and meditation, with laughter and playfulness, and with other complementary healing methods to restore balance and health. 

Everyone can practice yoga!  Whether sitting in a chair laughing out loud or standing up twisted like a pretzel - there is happiness and healing to be discovered in each exercise and every posture. 

Discover for yourself...

 BENEFITS OF YOGA

There are so many, where to begin...

It makes you feel better.  Your daily struggles, large and small, melt away during the time you spend doing yoga.

Physical Benefits

Flexibility: Stretching your body becoming more flexible, creating greater range of motion in muscles, freeing the joints. Yoga helps keep you mobile.

Strength: Moving in and out of poses slowly, supporting your own body, buidling strength in your core, as well as strengthening your extremities. Yoga keeps you internally and externally fit. 

Muscle tone: Increasing muscle tone as you gain strenghth and flexibility. Yoga helps shape the body.

Better Breathing: Increasing lung capacity, focusing attention on the breath (Pranayama) and teaching us how to inhale and exhale more deeply and fully.  The breath also has the ability to calm the central nervous system and clear the mind. Yoga oxygenates the body.

Pain Prevention: Increasing flexibility and strength helps prevent the causes of back and other pain, improving alighment and posture helps avoid future injuries .

Mental Benefits

Mental Calmness: Concentrating intently on the body in the postures brings a sense of presence to the mind. Introducing meditation techniques relaxes, balances, and integrates the body and the mind. Yoga helps a person to feel new clarity.

Stress Management: Relieving stress through physical activity is well documented, restoring a sense of balance helps bring new perspectives into one's life, being in the moment helps you learn not to dwell in past and not to become anxious about the future.

Body Awareness: Increasing awareness of the body will increase your level of comfort in your own skin improving posture and self-confidence.

Read the National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine's Introduction to Yoga by clicking on the link herein.

KIDS NEED YOGA TOO!

Children who do yoga have an advantage.  Yoga helps children become more self-confident and self-aware, as well as more physically fit. Just for starters! Yoga also help with many medical conditions, such as asthma, insomnia, digestive problems, ADD/ADHD and learning disabilities, to name a few.

A good children's yoga class:

• engages the child at their age level
• is fun, and
• promotes a state of well-being on all levels (body/mind/spirit)

WHAT IS

LAUGHTER YOGA?

Laughter Yoga is a unique exercise routine comprised of "unconditional laughter" and yogic breathing (Pranayama) - a blend of deep breathing, stretching, and laughter exercises that cultivates child-like playfulness.

Have you ever heard “laughter is the best medicine”?

Research has shown that laughter has both preventive and therapeutic values.  Research also shows that laughter is a great natural way to:

          Lower stress and tension

          Alleviate pain

          Undo blocks and barriers

          Gain Vitality

          Helps boost immunity

          Tone up (Internal jogging!)

          Encourage creativity

          Restore and Relax

We combine breathing exercises from Yoga (Pranayama) with laughter exercises.

It is a fun new exercise system sweeping the world.

It increases the supply of oxygen to the body and brain. Anyone can laugh without jokes, humor or comedy.

We laugh as exercise, but real laughter quickly develops.

Laughter has a way of connecting people.

Laughing for no reason makes you feel young at heart!

"We have to get older, but we don't have to grow old."      George Burns