Yoga Nidra:


Why Yoga?

According to a study by Yoga Journal, nearly 20 million Americans practice yoga. If you are among these 20 million, you know that yoga makes you feel better. And if you haven’t yet joined the yoga revolution, read on to discover just how beneficial this simple age-old practice can be. When practiced regularly, yoga reliably increases our sense of physical health, emotional well-being, mental clarity, and spiritual connection.

Specifically, research shows that yoga helps manage or control anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, headaches, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, stress and other conditions and diseases. Yoga also:

  • Improves muscle tone, flexibility, strength and stamina
  • Reduces stress and tension
  • Boosts self esteem
  • Improves concentration and creativity
  • Improves circulation
  • Stimulates the immune system
  • Creates sense of well being and calm.
  • Helps Weight loss
  • Detoxifies all tissues and organs
  • Improves cardiovascular functioning
  • Helps to reduce back pain
  • Alleviates digestive and glandular disorders
  • Normalizes blood pressure
  • Creates mental clarity

The muscular stretching and rhythmic pressure caused by the breath have a profound impact on the detoxifying mechanisms of the body, including the lymph system, kidneys, lungs, skin, and elimination components of the digestive system. This explains the feeling of freshness after yoga and the light or clarity you see in people’s faces following a class. Yoga specifically tones the endocrine system, when we practice regularly we experience mood enhancement and an overall feeling of well-being. Each time you take a yogic breath while in a posture, you do two things: you increase blood flow and pressure on one part of the body and you decrease it on another. Think of how you would go about cleaning a dirty sponge. Don’t you hold it under the water and then repetitively squeeze it in and out? This is precisely what happens to all tissues in the body during yoga, especially the endocrine glands. This massaging, flushing, and cleansing action stimulates endocrine functions to more optimal levels. Whenever your head is lower than your heart—in postures like standing forward bend, Downward Dog, and headstands and shoulder stands—your whole circulatory system gets a rest. The walls of every fluid-containing tube in your body gain a reprieve from the constant fight against gravity. Inversion postures also specifically target the thyroid and pituitary glands, sometimes referred to as the "master glands" because of their role in regulating metabolism and health. Read More

The focus on the breath, coordinated movement, and deep relaxation of yoga practice specifically pulls strongly toward integrated functioning. This also helps explain why yoga is so effective with weight loss, even when the actual calories expended in the yoga practice do not account for it. Moments of integrated functioning bring you back to your natural self. Repeated familiarity with your natural self works against those stresses and habits of feeling and thinking that underpin control of diet and lifestyle choices. Though it may seem counterintuitive that a set of physical movements and breathing techniques can have an emotional effect, the regular practice of yoga postures will bring you more happiness, confidence, and mental sharpness, and these traits will continue to increase as you continue to practice.

Yoga is also a great stress buster. It reduces cortisol and adrenalin levels in the body by returning it to a physically stress-free state, making it less susceptible to illness and more prone to resiliency and vitality. On a final note, Yoga greatly improves your focus and concentration. Flowing from one posture to the next with attention increases coordination of the musculoskeletal system as a whole.

YogaCaps, a non-profit yoga organization in Boston, recently collected reports from yoga practitioners asking everyone to describe the effects of yoga in one word. Here are some of the words that people used to describe the way yoga makes them feel:

Inspiring, Rewarding, Encouraging, Guiding, Calming, Accomplishing, Empowering, Transforming, Balancing, Healing, Refreshing, bringing Stillness, Youth, Freedom, Openness, Increased Patience and a better relationship with self.

There is no reason not to try Yoga and see whether you get the same benefits from it as many other people do. Worst case scenario you get a good workout, meet a few nice people, and move on to other things :).

Good Luck on your path to a better and healthier You!

Secret to the Most Restful Sleep of Your Life

Have you met people that sleep 5 hours and then run around like an energizer the entire day? And did you ever feel tired even after 8-9 hours of sleep? There is a reason for both phenomena. Most people stay tense even when they go to sleep and this tension gets in a way of getting a good night sleep. Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep is a scientifically researched and proven technique used by many yoga teachers and therapists to release tension and stress. It helps to prepare brain for relaxation and re-energizes the entire body and mind in short periods of time. You can start by listening a recording of Yoga Nidra every time you feel tired and have 20 minutes to rest or right before going to sleep. Perfection comes with practice, so make an intention to try this technique every day for 2 weeks. Since it is not something that your brain or your body are used to doing, it might take a few days for you to relax completely and get the most benefits of Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra:

Testimonial: Fred Wilhelm

"Having turned to yoga for recovery after a bad knee surgery I was very skeptical but hopeful. Nadya appeared to be an attentive instructor with an innate ability to read her students’ minds and bodies. Her classes were challenging and wisely planned considering my limited range of motion but at the same time playful and fun. She was always took time to explain variations that worked better for my body and encouraged me to be kind to my body by using necessary props. Taking yoga classes speeded up my recovery and my everyday life by helping me increase my body awareness. Now, with my knee almost back to normal, I am planning to keep yoga as a part of my health routine."
... Fred Wilhelm, Personal Trainer, NY Health & Racquet Club