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Tips for yoga newbies

164 Yoga_AYou can see it now. You’re in a graceful one-handed tree pose as your now lean body glistens with sweat. No one in the class is saying it, but they’re all mesmerized by your form. And the few men in the class have even started to take notice, exchanging smiles with you between poses. Then suddenly, you snap out of your fantasy. As you lie on your back in shavasana panting, you begin to wonder how anyone ever sticks with yoga. If you’re new and frustrated that you can’t nail a scorpion pose like the top student, not to worry. Here are a few things to keep in mind as a beginner.

Don’t overexert yourself

Just because yoga is a low impact exercise doesn’t mean you can’t injure yourself. If you push your body too hard attempting a pose that’s beyond your skill and stretch level, you’re likely to get hurt.

Yoga teachers give variations of different poses for a reason. They recognize that there are different levels in each class, and not everyone can do a full scorpion pose. So stick with the beginner version until your body is ready to take it up a notch. You’ll likely enjoy it more and gain more of a sense of accomplishment.

Remember, you’re not here to impress anyone

Go to a yoga class suitable for you, for the health benefits and the increased mental and emotional balance it can bring to your life. Many students, especially new ones, will fall into the trap of constantly comparing themselves to their peers. If you start doing this, ask yourself what the point of it is. Again, if you push yourself too hard too soon, you’re more likely to hurt yourself and give up on an amazing yoga practice that can benefit your health in the long run.

Yoga workouts don’t have to be intense

From Bikram to Vinyasa to Gentle Flow, the intensity of a yoga workout can vary widely. While some classes will leave you dripping with sweat, others will be more of a light workout that’ll loosen up your body. The point is that if you’re not after an intense workout, you needn’t go for an intense yoga class. Instead, find something gentle or light that you’ll really enjoy. You’ll still gain the benefits of increased flexibility and some calorie burn, and you’ll be more likely to stick with the practice for the long haul.

You don’t have to be a new age hippy to enjoy yoga

Yes, you can drink coffee and wine or enjoy a steak outside of class. Not all yoga students are vegan meditators who shop at Whole Foods. Most are normal people like you, who just happen to like yoga as their exercise of choice. When it comes down to it, that’s what yoga is – an exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that if you don’t want it to be. And saying ‘namaste’ at the end of class is optional.

Remember, you’re a beginner

You’re new. No one expects you to be doing a wounded peacock pose the first week, or even the first couple months. If there’s one tip you should take away from this article, this is the most important one. With any new sport or skill, there’s always going to be a learning curve, and you’re likely to struggle at first. The students who end up doing the advanced poses and have lean physiques are the ones that stuck around when they struggled as a beginner.

Want to learn more about yoga and its health benefits? Contact us today.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Avoiding common yoga injuries

Yoga_Mar16_AWhile the benefits of exercise far outweigh doing nothing physical, there is still the risk of injury for anyone who exercises regularly. One wrong move during a workout can result in muscle strains or tendon tears, and the same is true for even more gentle seeming practices such as yoga. While yoga has many health benefits, it can actually harm you if performed incorrectly. Although most yoga injuries aren’t severe, they can accumulate over months of posing misalignment and over-stretching. So what can you do to avoid yoga injuries? As with any physical activities, you can prevent injury by practicing the poses correctly and not pushing yourself too hard.

Common yoga injuries

The first step in avoiding injury in yoga sessions is to understand the common types of injuries that occur and how misalignment in the positions you take can put you at risk of hurting yourself.

  • Wrists – To perform certain yoga moves, you need to press your hands on the floor. As a result your whole body weight is placing pressure in the wrists, which can be a painful experience if you stay in that pose for too long. You can distribute your body weight by spreading your hands to the sides so your full weight is not completely over them.
  • Shoulders – Yogis often injure their shoulders by going into a shoulder stand pose, lifting their feet high in the air and letting their shoulders carry all the weight. Make sure your shoulders are strong enough to support your weight, and if you feel any pain when doing shoulder stand poses, switch to another pose until you’re ready.
  • Hamstrings – Yoga poses like folds and the downward dog can injure your hamstrings through over-stretching. Bending your back forward to touch your feet while keeping your legs straight causes your hamstrings to stretch a lot. To avoid pain, try bending your knees slightly.
  • Knees – A common cause of knee pain is the lotus pose which requires you to sit in a cross-legged position for a long period of time. If your hips aren’t flexible enough, your knees will feel under tension and can even be quite painful. Try placing a cushion under your knees for extra support until your body is more used to sustaining this pose.

Avoiding yoga injuries

Incorporating these pieces of equipment and techniques into your yoga practices will help you to gain all the benefits of your poses while preventing injury.

  • Supporting equipment – If you can’t hold your poses without feeling pain, you should use props to support your moves. These include blankets or mats to prevent your body from touching the floor, blocks to help you get into poses more easily, and straps to increase your flexibility.
  • Warm up – Warming up before doing yoga prepares your body for more challenging poses later. Do a few basic stretches for your arms and legs. Take a few controlled breaths to relax and refresh your mind.
  • Communicate – Talk to the yoga instructor beforehand, and make sure you inform him or her about certain poses that you’re not capable of doing. When a pose is not working during the session, you shouldn’t be embarrassed to stop. It would be more foolish to hurt yourself. In the meantime, work on another pose that suits you better instead.
  • Listen to your body – If you feel any sign of real pain during a yoga practice, do your body a favor and take a break. Knowing when to stop can help you avoid injury.

Yoga injuries can happen anytime if you’re not careful. If you want to learn more about a safe approach to practicing yoga, give us a call today.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Introducing AcroYoga, the yoga for two

Yoga_Mar9_AAs a health-conscious person who is interested in yoga, perhaps you’ve seen pictures in magazines or on websites of two yogis balancing on each other’s hands and feet. You might even have come across people lifting one another into mid-air yoga poses in the local park. The idea of practicing yoga not on solid ground may sound strange, and yet it is made possible with AcroYoga. This creative and playful activity is another way for yogis to diversify their yoga practice. And they’re not doing it just because it’s fun – it also comes with many health benefits.

What is AcroYoga?

AcroYoga combines the wisdom of yoga, the dynamic power of acrobatics, and a touch of the art of healing. The practice involves a person acting as a base, who keeps the body in contact with the ground to support the flyer, who is lifted into various yoga poses to focus the mind and strengthen the body. While AcroYoga is usually performed in pairs, there is often also a ‘spotter’ nearby, who makes sure ‘the base’ has good balance and that the flyer doesn’t fall. The base usually lies flat on his or her back and uses the legs to support the flyer’s weight, as he or she performs several aerial postures.

Why should you try it?

AcroYoga helps you improve your physical and mental fitness, as well as relieving tension. The fun nature of AcroYoga’s practices are also a great mood lifter. Here are some reasons to give AcroYoga a try.

  • It’s satisfying – You can simultaneously enjoy yourself and get physical benefits from practicing AcroYoga. If you’re a base person, you’ll strengthen your muscles by lifting the flyer into the air using your legs and hands. If you’re a flyer, you can develop your balance and flexibility by performing yoga poses while aloft.
  • Improved concentration – AcroYoga is a practice that requires concentration. Whether taking part as a base or a flyer, you must focus on your movements and maintain balance – and trust – while working with your partner.
  • Building relationships – Practicing yoga can be a lonely experience if you do it alone. Even when attending yoga classes, inter-class engagement can be limited since you have your own personal space and work alone on your mat. AcroYoga, on the other hand, encourages you to communicate and interact with others.
  • No experience needed – Just as with regular yoga, you don’t have to be an expert to participate in a class. AcroYoga is still a niche practice, and many people will most likely be at a beginner’s level. While it’s great to have a partner to take with you, AcroYoga classes usually arrange pairs based on a similarity in size, so that you don’t have to worry about lifting a partner who’s twice your size.

Some starter tips

  • Hygiene – If you’re a base, you should have clean hands and feet, as you’ll be using them to balance and touch your partner.
  • Signal word – Establish a signal word with your partner. For instance, flyers can simply say ‘down’ if they want to get their feet back on solid ground.
  • Clothing – Wear fitting clothes so garments don’t get in the way when you’re practicing – especially important for a flyer.
  • Different partners – The best way of practicing AcroYoga is to train with different partners. You will learn from mixing it up, and will gain new experience and tips from your various partners.

Whether you’re an experienced yogi or a beginner, you can practice AcroYoga to boost your physical and mental fitness. If you’re interested in AcroYoga, get in touch with us today and see how we can help you prepare.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Here’s why to practise yoga at a studio

Yoga_Mar2_AYou might want to keep up a regular yoga class at your local studio, but you just don’t have the time. And with all the will in the world, you can’t put extra hours into the day. The next best thing seems to be to practise at home, in front of your laptop with the help of an online tutorial or perhaps a DVD. You can squeeze in your yoga between finishing the dishes and getting ready for bed, or first thing in the morning before you start your day. And while yoga anywhere is better than none, we’re still fans of yoga practised in a studio. Here are a few reasons to make the effort to get down and take a class once in a while.

Caring, sharing

One of the best parts of attending a studio-based yoga practise is getting to meet and interact with your community of yogis, each of them on a learning journey themselves. What better way to develop your yoga ability – and make new friends – than to spend time with others who are making similar endeavors to your own? Despite your best intentions, practising at home in front of your laptop is unlikely to give you the same sense of connection and support that you do at a studio. Just as the Buddhist sangha is a source of advice and guidance, so your yoga studio – and all those you know there – is a mechanism to keep you on track and motivated, even when you’re struggling.

Focus!

We all know how full of distractions the home is. Whether it’s your email, the kids waking up, or the clothes that need to be hung out to dry, there is always going to be something to pull you away from your practise. That’s bad enough in most situations, but yoga is meant to help you escape from the distractions of everyday life. It should be an opportunity for you to free yourself from your thoughts, and enjoy a moment of reflection. That is far more easily achievable if you take yourself out of your usual surroundings, and into the relative sanctity of a yoga studio. It will make it easier to reach and hold your poses, and to separate your non-stop day-to-day routine from something that ought to be pure and undisturbed.

Getting right

Yoga is rarely easy – and it’s not meant to be. Getting that pose right should be a challenge, something to aim for and something to be proud of when you do achieve it. But managing that alone, with only a laptop for company, can be more difficult or even downright impossible. Without a teacher on hand to point out where you’re going wrong, show you how to correct it and also make sure you are not putting yourself at risk of injury, you could end up at best demotivated, or worse still badly hurt. Your yoga teacher uses their experience to monitor each of their students’ progress during the class, and to adapt their instructions and the direction of the session accordingly. That means you get a learning experience that is customized to what you and your fellow yogis need most – and that’s more than an online tutorial can ever give you.

Want to get the right balance of personal practise at home and studio yoga sessions? Talk to us today about our classes.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Tips to choose the right yoga mat

Yoga_Feb23_AYoga is one of a number of fitness activities that don’t require much equipment. In fact, for most general yoga classes, all you really need is a towel to wipe your sweat and a mat to cushion parts of your body. A yoga mat is the core piece of equipment every yoga enthusiast needs so, if you plan on taking up yoga, why not invest in the best yoga mat for you? After all, it’s your choice of exercise equipment that can make the difference between a healthy result and injury.

Yoga can be performed barefoot on many different surfaces, including hardwood floors, carpet, tiles, or even grass. But for some people, pressing their knees, elbows and palms on hard ground to practise yoga moves can be painful. A good yoga mat provides a cushion to let you perform the poses more comfortably. Finding the right mat can be challenging because of the vast selection out there. So you should consider these tips before buying a yoga mat.

Thickness

Selecting a yoga mat with suitable thickness can be quite tricky. You’ll want a mat thick enough to cushion your body, but at the same time not so foamy that you sink or feel unstable. A standard yoga mat is about an eighth of an inch thick, while the bulkier ones are up to a quarter inch. How do you know which is best for you? The things you need to consider are portability and the level of comfort you prefer while doing yoga. If you don’t mind carrying a little more weight for the sake of more cushioning, consider getting a yoga mat that’s about a quarter inch thick. But if you need to put the mat in a bag or suitcase, then go for a thinner foldable mat.

Texture

Most mats are made of PVC, which provides a smooth surface and has the highest sticky factor. So if you’re not very good at balancing or need extra help staying put in your poses, PVC mats might be your best bet. However, PVC is considered a toxic plastic that’s difficult to recycle. Environment-friendly textures like natural and recycled rubber, natural cotton or jute are more suitable if sustainability is important to you. Eco mats often have raised, tactile patterns to provide similar traction to that offered by PVC too.

Stickiness

The traction of yoga mats depends largely on the texture and material. You don’t want to slip off the mat when practising yoga, and that’s why stickiness matters. A ‘sticky’ mat keeps you from slipping, helps you maintain your balance and makes it easier for you to move from one pose to another. With a sticky mat, you can perform any style of yoga that requires holding a pose for longer periods of time.

Price

You’ll find many yoga mats that are cheap, colorful and have a short life span. It pays to do some research and know your goals before making hasty decisions. You’ll want to determine your budget and purpose of practising yoga. As far as pricing goes, yoga mats start from about $10 and go up to $100 or more. If you want to make a commitment to yoga, and prioritize safety and comfort, then investing in a premium yoga mat can benefit you in the long run.

When it comes to buying a yoga mat, so much depends on personal preference and the style of yoga you’re practising. If you’re interested in taking up yoga classes, contact us to get started!

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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How to yoga yourself to a younger you

Yoga_Feb16_AMost of us wish we could stop, reverse or simply slow down the body’s natural aging process. And while the first two options might be difficult or even downright impossible, reducing the speed at which those wrinkles begin to appear is within our reach – and one way to achieve it is through regular yoga practice. Those stretches, combined with meditation and breathing exercises, can do wonders for both your physical and mental health. Read on to find out how to put yoga to use in maintaining your youthful glow.

Turn things upside down

One of the best ways to turn aging on its head is to do just that – literally turning yourself upside down. Poses like headstands and shoulder stands bring you into a position where your head is lower than your heart. This in turn reverses the flow of blood around the body and the pull of gravity against you. There can be positive effects for your cardiovascular and nervous systems, but the impact goes beyond physical health – your mental wellbeing can benefit from yoga inversions too, including helping to combat stress and anxiety.

Think yourself younger

As well as the positive effects of yoga on your physical health, practicing meditation can help you keep your mind young and active, enhancing your mental wellbeing. Whether you choose to go all out with a full-on meditation practice each day, or only have the time for a few moments of quiet, eyes-closed contemplation at your desk, it can increase blood flow to the brain, help improve your memory and attention span and even beat stress.

Deep breaths

Even if you don’t have the time or discipline to get into regular yoga or meditation practice, a few deep breaths can go a long way to keeping you young and healthy. Of course, the beauty of breathing is that you can do it anywhere – in fact, you don’t have a lot of choice about whether you do it or not, so you might as well put it to some added use. Oxygenation of your body’s cells, regulation of the heart rate and calming of the nervous system are all beneficial side effects of some slow, focused breaths. Breathing exercises can be even more effective when combined with yoga and meditation; deepening and enhancing your practice while giving you a sense of calmness and serenity.

It’s easy to build yoga, meditation and breathing practice into your efforts to keep your body and mind looking and feeling young and energetic – get in touch with us if you’d like to find out more.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Exercise mindfully

200254941-001There are many daily tasks we do on automatic pilot, such as a daily commute to work. We don’t consciously focus on each mini-task but follow a learnt train of thought and behavioral patterns. This is really useful, although many people could benefit from being more mindful in their everyday lives. However, with fitness it can be beneficial to exercise mindfully and yoga really helps you focus in this way.

Mindfulness is meditative in many respects but it is not meditation. It is actually about bringing your attention, or your awareness, to the present moment. In other words, not fixating on the future or holding onto the past. Both of these are let go in pursuit of what is happening right this minute, right NOW!

Mindfulness is an intrinsic part of any yoga practice, with breathing exercises and poses aimed at creating this in-the-moment focus. Just as yoga can be a great complement to cardio workouts, mindfulness can also add a real plus point to your yoga practice, other sports and activities, and your life!

The benefits of mindful exercise include:

Transformative – The clarity and ‘head-space’ that mindfulness creates can give you the room you need to really change aspects of your life, whether fitness related or not. Focusing on the present can change your future!

Great stress-reliever – When you work out and take a yoga session, you come with thoughts and feelings from the day which even if not negative can be anxiety-ridden. The focus on the present moment dissolves worries, concerns and over-thinking issues surrounding your world, which really helps to reduce stress levels!

Allows you to reach further – The focus of mindfulness acts as a sharpening tool in many respects and this can help push you as you are not overly-focusing on how far you have to go but whether you are going to go further right now.

Keeps motivation levels buoyant – When you are not weighed down by doubts about past behavior or worries about the future, you feel lighter about life and this has a knock-on effect of boosting your enthusiasm for what you are doing right this second. Not held back by past failures and tough future challenges, you may find you go further.

Inspires greater inner-connectedness – Yoga and mindless are about overall wellbeing, for the body and the mind, working together. This stability and balance promotes a feeling of being in-touch with yourself where you can listen to your body. When you exercise, being able to take this holistic approach can help immensely in achieving your goals.

Enhances focus on proper form – As you move, mindfulness brings a really in-focus attention to how your body is moving and whether this is correct. In yoga, as with other styles of exercise, proper form is not only essential for effective goal-reaching but also to guard against potential injury.

Enables more immediate feedback and monitoring – Greater awareness means better internal communication. This is really useful with yoga and all other types of exercise, as you are then able to understand how you are progressing and whether you need any help or to change direction.

Energizes you – Being mindful has a liberating effect. Even a yoga session or exercising mindfully can leave you feeling lighter and less weighed down by other influences. Basically you can get into the fitness zone! This really lets the energy flow and enables you to get into a rhythm you feel comfortable with.

Bring your attention to your present situation. Focus on your fitness levels and then get in touch to enhance your mindful approach to exercise and life!

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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5 yoga trends to look out for in 2015

Yoga_Jan30_AA new year is the perfect opportunity to try new things – including in the exercise sphere. Whether you already practise yoga but are looking for something new and different to spice it up, or you need a change to your routine and fancy something a bit different from running and lifting weights, trying out yoga with a twist could be just what your health and fitness regime needs. Take a look at these five yoga trends that are on the up as we enter 2015.

Live music yoga

Exercise should be fun, right? Though the appeal of peaceful stretches and meditative breathing exercises may have been what attracted you to yoga in the first place, there’s no harm in mixing things up. That’s just what live music yoga does – think your usual practice with a burst of hip hop, or even just a modern twist on traditional Sanskrit mantras. By changing things around and treating your yoga session almost as though it were a fun night out with your friends, rather than ‘just’ yoga or merely another fitness session, you’ll keep yourself interested and looking forward to each class even more than you already do.

Leading the pack with this trend in 2014 was Wanderlust 108, a ‘mindful triathlon’ in New York. The race itself was followed by yoga and meditation, both accompanied by live music – and this year we can expect live music yoga to crop up in even more studios. It is recognized as helping set the mood for your stretches and keep the pace during your workout while ensuring you achieve a deeper spiritual experience.

Yoga for kids

Who said yoga was only for adults? Children can make great junior yogis, and derive real benefit from regular practice, it is even said to boost academic performance. The basic principle that yoga is for everyone, and that not one of us isn’t good enough to give it a try, is as important for children as it is for their parents. Yoga can be a real confidence booster for kids, helping them to gain self-acceptance and preventing them from suffering with esteem issues. It can also keep them grounded and offer some calm when the pressures of childhood and adolescence make it feel like they are being pulled in a hundred different directions. Most of all, yoga is fun and offers the perfect opportunity for kids to be kids and have some good old-fashioned play time.

Meditation apps

Mobile apps are there to make our lives easier and, while from time to time it can feel like they are more of a distraction than anything else, they can be beneficial in the yoga and meditation arena. In much the same way as the long-standing relaxation web site donothingfor2minutes.com can help us to remember to take a break from our busy lifestyles, so apps on your phone can help you maintain a healthy life balance.

Apps like Headspace serve as a daily reminder to take out time for a daily meditation practice, while others such as Moves can also keep track of your daily movements and encourage you to get up and about rather than sitting down the whole time. Both these apps and others complement your yoga practice and allow you to make everyday technology a force for positive change in your life in 2015.

Yoga in the office

All of us who work in an office spend far too much of our time sitting around – for as much as 13 hours every day in some cases. Add to that the portion of your life that you spend sleeping, and you’re left with a sedentary lifestyle that could exacerbate existing medical conditions and which daily exercise can’t counteract alone. One solution is office yoga, and it’s a concept that a growing number of companies are buying into.

Studies have shown that bringing yoga and meditation into the workplace is a great way to encourage a healthier and more productive workforce. As well as the physical benefits, yoga offers greater focus and clarity, and helps to beat stress and anxiety. But even if your company doesn’t yet have an active program of yoga or other fitness activities, you can make 2015 the year you become more active at work, by taking regular walks, checking your posture and doing exercises and stretches at your desk.

Restorative yoga

Yoga can have a bit of a reputation for being little more than laying around doing nothing. In reality we know there’s more to it than that, and some practice can be rigorous and physically challenging. But the rise of self-care in fact means more focus on a therapeutic approach to yoga, with more time spent in restful poses and with the help of eye pillows, blankets and blocks. It’s the perfect opportunity for mental and physical repair – which we all need in this day and age of constant connectivity.

If you’re determined to make yoga a part of your lifestyle this year, contact us to try a class.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Don’t be afraid of yoga!

yoga_Jan27_APerhaps because of the images of pretzel-shaped poses or the connection with more mindful inner workings, yoga, despite its massive popularity, can intimidate many would-be beneficiaries. If you are afraid of yoga then it is probably because you don’t understand what it is about and just how fantastic it is!

What do you think of yoga?

Despite attracting legions of avid fitness fans, yoga is often seen as being for a certain type of person only: a woman who doesn’t really want to keep fit but likes a more leisurely approach to exercise. It is also often seen as being ‘hippy’ or even ‘far-out’ because of some of the meditative breathing exercises and the fact that yoga is about making mind-body connections. Yoga is often viewed as being too difficult to enjoy or benefit from and an exercise for the super-bendy! The fact is that none of these ideas are true!

So what’s the truth about yoga in a nutshell?

Yoga attracts all types of people, of all ages and fitness levels. It is as popular with the corporate crowd looking for after-work fitness as it is with those looking for a more integrated mind-body workout. Yoga is challenging yet accessible and while it often lacks the cardio-power of such training as high intensity interval training (HIIT) it can be a perfect complement.

Yoga is in fact a perfect way to strengthen your core and to improve flexibility and inspire stability. This can help guard against injuries in other activities, explaining why yoga is so popular amongst top athletes.

With an ever growing focus on the negative impact on health of stress, there is nothing ‘hippy’ about addressing a very real threat to our wellbeing. Exercise can reduce stress levels and yoga is one of the best ways to clear the mind and inspire greater clarity. This cleansing effect is felt physically too, as yoga helps with the process of eliminating toxins from the body and the release of feel-good hormones.

Don’t shy away from yoga because you are:

  • Frightened of making a fool out of yourself – Yoga is focused on being non-judgemental which means it is perfect for those looking to get back into fitness.
  • Not flexible – Being flexible is not a sign that you are unfit. In many respects we all have a certain level of flexibility to begin with and yoga helps you improve that. Haven’t you ever met someone who is really bendy and yet does no exercise at all?
  • Worried about exposing your inner vulnerabilities – It is true that yoga can be incredibly transformative but this is about your own inner development and does not have to leave you feeling exposed. Yes, yoga may change some of your ideas and attitudes, as well as how you live your life, but yoga is about positive change and development is a natural process. Yoga is inspirational and you are likely to feel elated from the way that yoga helps relieve any mental tension.

The best way to face your fear of yoga is to try a class. Contact us if you are not already benefitting from the joy of yoga.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.

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Mindful of New Year changes!

yoga_Jan22_AHow are you doing on your New Year resolutions to get fit and live a healthy life? If you are yet to really get going or have faltered before the month’s end then no fear, help is here! While you might want to look at how realistic and practical your plans are, you also need to make sure that your approach and intention is giving you the best chance of success too. In other words, you need to be mindful of New Year changes and yoga can definitely help!

While not all yoga classes are centered on breathing techniques and meditation, and instead offer a more physically challenging workout, mindfulness is still a core value of this ancient, holistic exercise system. Mindful living and mindful exercise can transform your life way beyond your resolutions and fitness goals.

What is mindfulness?
In essence, mindfulness is really about bringing a greater awareness to the present moment. When we listen to others we are often focused on what we want to say next or in quiet moments we are going over past events and analyzing them in our minds. Mindfulness is about letting go of what has been and also what is to come. It is about acceptance and being fully present in the here and now.

What are the benefits of mindfulness?
There are huge benefits to mindfulness and that is why it is such an intrinsic part of yoga practice. Awareness in the present moment can lead to clarity of thought, help release stress and allow you some mental space to just ‘be’. In turn, this can pave the way for personal development and for making positive change in your life. If the idea of this present moment being makes you feel in any way anxious then that could be a strong sign that you need greater mindfulness in your life.

How can mindfulness help me stick to my resolutions?
Yoga can bring about a state of mindfulness but you can also adopt this approach in your everyday life. You may feel this is somehow avoiding dealing with real issues in life, but actually mindful living and mindful exercise can help you achieve your resolutions, through:

Greater focus – By steadying the mind and not becoming bogged down with thoughts from all directions, you are able to clearly concentrate on what you are doing and really get into the zone.

True intention – Mindfulness frees-up the mind and inspires an internal honesty mechanism where your true feelings can come to the surface. Have you made resolutions you truly want or because you feel you should be making them?

Takes away the pressure – Mindfulness practice is not about preventing thoughts but about letting ideas and emotions flow in and out of your mind, with no active holding on or analytical process. As a result you can feel less burdened by what you have not achieved and less focused on negative emotions such as feeling as if you have failed. It is amazing how much lighter and brighter the world feels as a result and how much more achievable change can be.

Yoga can help you achieve your resolutions as it not only keeps you fit and strengthens and stretches your whole body, but it also calms the mind. On top of this, yoga practice influences other aspects of your life, such as your lifestyle and your diet, as well as how you spend your time and with whom. To change your life and to reach your resolutions get in touch with some yoga sessions with us.

Published with permission from FitnessAdvisory. Source.