yoga4healthyliving

Laughter yoga

I often tell my students that 'laughter is the best therapy and it doesn't have to cost you a penny'!  Why does laughter made us feel better?  Well, firstly if you are laughing you are smiling and the action of smiling increases the production of those wonderful feel good chemicals - endorphins.  The very same chemicals that make you feel good after vigorous exercise. So being flooded with endorphins will naturally make you feel good.  Secondly your muscles begin to relax, the tension just melts away. 

To find out more about laughter and how it heal you take a look here http://www.yogajournal.com/health/2533

Dunstable yoga class

'If you don't use it you lose it' is one of my favourite sayings in my Dunstable yoga class. Last week I had to eat my words.

The class begun with some standing Qi Gong warm ups to create heat and energy in the system.  Then a little floor work to explore various spinal twists and forward folds.  It was then time for some back bending.  Bridge is a great pose as there are many variants to it and the benefits include increasing flexibility in the spine, stimulating the thyroid and thymus along with increasing emotional balance by opening the solar plexus.

On this occasion one of my newer students quite surprised me!  This lady has been practicing yoga for many years and performs her sun salutations daily.  Still, I was quite surprised when she took her body into a full bridge.  And, she did it with such ease!  I remarked that I didn't know she could do it and she said neither did she!  As a child she had found it easy and thought she would have a go...and with what success!

This confirms to me a couple of things.  A)  Humans enjoy and need challenges.  B) The nervous system holds memory and can access even childhood memories.  Granted this lady had kept her body flexible with years of yoga, but still, it is pretty amazing that this Grandmother could achieve such a strong pose again after decades!

Yoga Class Dunstable

One of my favourite sayings in my Dunstable yoga class is, 'if you don't use it you lose it!'  Well last week I had to eat my words. 

The class had begun with a little Qi Gong warm up which was a little different but great at generating heat and energy in the body.   We moved on to some floor movements, exploring different spinal twists and directing the breath into different parts of the lungs.  It was time for a back bend and we moved into bridge.  For those of you familiar with bridge you will know that it is marvellous for increasing the flexibity of the spine, balancing the emotional centre in the solar plexus, stimulating the thyroid and much more!

One of  newer my students, who has been practicing yoga for many years and performs her sun salutations everyday thrilled us all by moving into the full bridge posture!  I remarked that I didn't know she could do that and she said neither did she!  As a girl, she found it easy and thought she'd have another go and lo and behold  held  this beautiful full bridge.  Now it would be  indiscreet of me to  take a guess at her  age, but I do know that she has grand children. 

What this story demonstrates is that your nervous system holds memory.  Her body could remember how to perform this bridge and because she had kept her body supple with many years of yoga she could easily achieve it again.