Canada’s Yoga Studios Cater to Everyone
More and more health-conscious individuals today are turning to yoga to enhance their fitness. Not only does yoga tone your muscles and improves the proportion of your body, it also promotes peace of mind and spirit. And given the hectic and toxic lifestyles that most of us are leading today, all of us can benefit from a little harmony of the spirit.
If you are living in Canada, and you have recently taken an interest in yoga, try Canada 411 to find the best yoga studios in the country. Some good ones you’ll find are as follows:
Moksha Yoga North York, located in Ontario, believes that yoga is not just about developing the physical body but it is also about learning to live a life that is compassionate, moral and conscious of the environment. Moksha Yoga is practiced not just in Canada but in many countries around the world such as Singapore, Hong Kong and England. The studio also offers massage and is a great venue for bachelor or bachelorette parties.
If you enjoy a more a personalized yoga instruction, then Manna Yoga studio may be more appropriate for you. Also located in Toronto, the studio is headed by a certified and experienced yoga instructor who offers in-home training lessons.
In Montreal, Ananda-Nritya Yoga studio offers a more upbeat form of yoga. This is because the yoga practiced here is inspired by the traditions of India. Here, in this studio, yoga and dance go hand in hand. Needless to say, the positions in this type of yoga are accompanied by traditional Indian music to inspire dance movements.
Another yoga studio that can be found in Montreal is the Equilibrium Yoga Studio. Aside from yoga classes, Equilibrium also offers classes in Pilates, personal growth and meditation. The studio also has training sessions for aspiring yoga instructors.
Family Passages Mind Body Studio in Vancouver is more family-oriented. Whether you are planning to conceive or you have difficulty getting pregnant, the studio offers Fertility Yoga classes. Prenatal classes are also offered to couples who are expecting. If you do not have time to visit the studio regularly, you can also sign up for online classes and audio courses.
Who says yoga is only for adults? If you are looking to get your children interested in yoga, Yoga4Kidz—also located in Vancouver—seeks to promote physical, social and mental fitness in children. The studio also seeks to educate children about universal values and regularly holds outreach and charity events.
Psychological Benefits of Yoga
On the physical level, yoga has been proven to have great benefits. Practitioners of yoga have reported better flexibility, toned muscles, stable heart rate, increased stamina, and so on. In yoga classes and sessions, yoga students are instructed to stretch, flex, and relax their muscles to achieve flexibility and agility. To the casual observer, yoga seems to have only physical benefits. Only faithful practitioners of yoga know that it offers benefits to the spirit and mind too, not just the body.
Basic Principle of Yoga
In the case of yoga, the physical benefits are associated with the psychological benefits. In fact, a sound mind and a sound body go together; this is a basic principle of yoga. Physical actions such as stabilizing the nervous system, steadying the heart rate, increasing joint flexibility, and so on, not only transform us physically, but also psychologically. When a person’s physical health improves, thanks to healthy diet and physical activity, his or her mental health also improves.
According to studies conducted on yoga, practitioners of yoga have reported an increased level of optimism, alertness of mind, awareness, and a deep appreciation of life. Yoga clearly shows how the body and the mind are related.
Stress Management
Yoga teaches you to effectively manage stress. All of us suffer from stress at home and at work. Modern life is so fast that we keep worrying about something or another. Yoga teaches you to slow down and relax. In fact, slow, deep, and relaxed breathing is part and parcel of yoga.
Slow and deep breathing encourages better relaxation. When you relax, you naturally discard stressful thinking and start dwelling on peaceful and pleasant thoughts. Often a person under stress has tense muscles as well. Yoga’s flexing activities help people in stress to let go and relax tense muscles.
Anxiety
Yoga can help you deal with anxiety too. Often anxious people are full of concerns and fears. Yoga helps students to concentrate, and this moves the mind away from anxiety. Yoga actually encourages you to focus on peaceful thoughts and images.
For example, Anuloma Viloma, a yoga breathing technique, incorporates single-nostril breathing in order to calm down the nerves and the mind. Studies have been conducted on this particular breathing exercise, and it has been proved that since this exercise includes breathing through each nostril in turns, it helps the practitioner connect to both sides of the brain, thus permitting the free flow of neurons. This particular exercise is believed to balance our left brain with the right brain, thereby enhancing our power to think clearly.
To put sum it up, yoga has many benefits to offer both physically and psychologically. In 2000, certain studies were conducted in Finland. These studies revealed that recreation and exercise were somehow linked to mood. Those who exercised twice a week enjoyed positive changes in mood. They were hardly depressed or angry. The ones who exercised more often were sociable and at ease. Stress was alien to their nature. Yoga, being a variant of exercise, has the same effects on it’s practitioners.
Yoga Postures for Beginners – Great Benefits of Yoga
One of the biggest advantages of yoga is that beginners can easily learn it. If you have never experienced yoga in your life, you don’t have to worry. You can rest assured that your first yoga experience will be worth having. If you have never heard of yoga, you must be wondering what yoga postures look like and how they are performed. You might also want to know which yoga postures are the best for a beginner.
The practitioners of yoga talk about the unity of mind, spirit, and body, which they claim can be achieved by practicing yoga asanas and techniques. Yoga teaches that the body and the mind are one. This yoga principle has withstood the test of time. Yoga has successfully helped practitioners achieve harmony and balance. You can successfully practice yoga if you create the right environment around yourself.
Benefits of Yoga
Before beginning your practice, you must firmly believe in the effectiveness of yoga and that you will benefit from it. A number of studies have been conducted on the subject of yoga, and these studies have proven beyond doubt that yoga is a great healer.
Yoga has enhanced the health and well being of its practitioners so much so that medical doctors now firmly believe in its therapeutic properties. Many medical doctors also advise their patients to perform yoga asanas.
Here is a short list of the benefits of yoga.
• If you are suffering from some medical disorder, you can safely practice yoga asanas for beginners and reap rich rewards related to health and inner peace.
• Yoga keeps ones internal organs and glands supple and healthy.
• Yoga even touches those parts of the body that are rarely stimulated.
• Beyond a doubt, yoga asanas for beginners are highly useful and effective in the case of maintaining flexibility of joints and muscles.
Yoga for Beginners
Yoga postures for beginners are basic and simple. You can achieve a healthy life and great inner peace and balance of mind and body when you practice them regularly.
Yoga postures for beginners are exciting, simple, and interesting to practice. Beginners can easily achieve and maintain these postures because they are so easy. You can easily learn basic yoga postures either at yoga classes or at home.
Some of the basic asanas for beginners are as follows: seated postures, standing poses, backward and forward bends, twisting and balancing. Once beginners get these asanas right and continue practicing them regularly, they can even learn the advanced asanas.
At first, beginners won’t be able to practice yoga for long durations. If you are just starting with yoga, you will need a lot of rest so that you won’t be too exhausted to perform the other asanas in that particular session.
Self-discipline is of great importance for beginners. Yoga does not mean postures alone. First, beginners have to master the basic principles of yoga. Only then will they be able to master the complex postures.
Practicing Yoga – How to Find the Best Yoga Class
Have you wanted to try yoga for sometime to improve your health? You might have practiced it in the past, only to give it up because you were too busy. If you have decided to practice yoga, you must first find a suitable yoga class. Here are some tips to help you.
1. Local Gym
Most gyms offer a wide range of fitness classes, apart from their usual cardio equipment and weight rooms. Study the brochures of various gyms, and you will get an idea of what they have to offer. A community sometimes comprises a large number of gyms, and you will find that many of them offer yoga classes.
The best way to find out whether your local gym offers yoga classes or not is to give them a call. Don’t forget to find out about the prices.
The next step is to call a number of gyms and compare prices and details of classes offered. Now, you are in the best position to choose the best yoga class for yourself.
2. Craigslist
Log in to Craigslist dot com, where you can view and post as many advertisements as you like absolutely free of charge. Here, you can post an ad describing your need for yoga instructions. You can also find yoga partners with this method, but you must exercise immense caution about meeting anybody online. What’s more, you can remain anonymous while posting an advertisement on craigslist.
3. Yoga Studios
These focus on yoga practice alone. Just as martial arts studios are devoted to the martial arts, a yoga studio is devoted to yoga. You might find yoga studios in your locality. But these studios may not satisfy your personal requirements and suit your budget.
4. Ask Friends
Do you have friends who practice yoga? They will be the best people to guide you. You can ask your friends to recommend a few good places. Your yoga-practicing friends can tell you about the best places that teach yoga. Through your friends, you can also get authentic information about these classes.
Your friends who do not perform yoga also might be able to help you. They might know a few local places where yoga classes are offered.
Before joining any yoga class, you must ask yourself the following questions.
• What do you want to gain by attending a yoga class?
• How much can you spend?
• What type of yoga class do you want to attend—one that concentrates on spiritual aspects or one that focuses only on the exercise postures?
Gyms and yoga studios might expect you to pay upfront for long-term yoga classes. If you have never practiced yoga before, don’t pay upfront unless you have first tried a few classes. Paying hundreds of dollars in fees only to discover that yoga is not your cup of tea is not a pleasant prospect.
Before attending any yoga class, purchase a yoga video and try practicing yoga in the comfort of your home. This will help you to determine if you really enjoy practicing yoga and if you really need to attend a class.
How to Choose the Perfect Yoga Mat
It doesn’t matter if you are a Yoga beginner who is just starting out, or an experienced practitioner, sooner or later you will feel the need to buy a Yoga mat to add to your collection of Yoga equipment. A lot of people believe they should purchase the first mat that catches their eye. It’s just not true. It’s sad that there are a few manufacturers out there who produce yoga mats on a massive scale and still show no care or concern towards the life of the product. They instead compromise on the quality to make sure you become a repeat customer and buy from them over and over again. This often leads to a bigger expense on your part. Spend a bit of extra time & money to look for a high quality Yoga mat. As a result, you’ll have to do your own homework before going for that one purchase, which will last you for a long time. Doing a bit of preparation beforehand will not only save you time in the future, but will make certain you have a high quality experience.
Even if you make a decision to buy a chemical laced mat for your Yoga exercise, there isn’t any real proof to show that it will lead to any kind of health problems. However, it’s advisable that you don’t keep them in the heat for long, as someone who is allergic and prone to frequent headaches will face problems because of it.
There are many different Yoga mat types available. Some of them are jute or cork mats, which are pretty cheap and affordable, and are also known to be an earth-friendly alternative to the non-organic mats. However, you might discover that they have a few drawbacks of their own. They happen to be high degree porous mats, which means they will soak up any level of sweat while you practice. Even though they don’t last too long, they would come handy and be suitable for people who practice once a month.
Coming to the popular rubber mat for yoga, which almost every practitioner thinks is the best. These mats are highly durable, don’t cost much and are created out of sustainable rubber. However, when going through rubber yoga mats, you might bump into mats that are synthetically produced. So if you are one of those people who want to keep the earth in mind when buying, you can look around and shop for rubber mats that are naturally made. Another drawback is for people who are allergic to latex; they should avoid such mats at all costs. You can instead buy a phthalate free mat, which generally helps in bringing down the possibilities of having an allergic reaction.
As you can see, different people will go for different kinds of mats. Almost all of the mats have their advantages as well as disadvantages. It’s up to you how much time and money you choose to spend to get the perfect Yoga mat for a Yoga experience to remember.
2 Excellent Stress Reduction Techniques Using Yoga
Yoga, an ancient practice focusing on enhancing health and well being, has a number of stress relief techniques. Teachers of yoga have incorporated into their lives and teachings stress reduction techniques that are age old, tested, and proven.
Here are few stress reduction techniques that yoga offers.
1. Observe Your Thoughts
Thinking, for most of us, is incessant. Most of our thoughts are mental chatter that has no direction or purpose. For this reason, many people have no idea about the future and regret the events of the past.
Life is not aimless and purposeless. Most people do nothing but worry about the present, past, and future. Yoga encourages us to live in the present moment. Yoga makes the practitioner realize that the past is finished and the future has not yet arrived. The only time that matters is the present.
In fact, your present-moment activities shape your future. So, any time we spend worrying about the future is an absolute waste. We ought to focus our attention on the present moment. If you cannot find solutions to problems bothering you at present, seek external help and find solutions for it.
Watch your thoughts carefully. Sort them out and eliminate unnecessary thoughts. You must also learn to identify and eliminate negative thought patterns. Unwanted thoughts such as these create stress, anxiety, and panic. If you learn to identify, sort out, and eliminate thoughts, you will reduce a considerable portion of the stress in your life.
2. Be Practical
Many people are of the belief that they are ruled by an all-powerful fate, which isn’t true. Thus they are sure that they can control nothing that happens in their life. Things just happen to such people, and they live on passively. Luckily, not all of us harbor such beliefs. If we did, we would have been easy prey to lions and crocodiles when we lived in the Stone Age, and not many of us would have been left by now.
Of course, we cannot control everything. For instance, we can’t touch the stars or move the earth. We cannot stop natural disasters from occurring. But we might learn to do all this in the future. In other words, we have our limitations right now.
At the same time, we can control so many things too. For example, we can choose our friends, life partners, jobs, colleagues, and so on. We can choose whether we want to attend Yoga classes or not. We can choose to focus on the negative things in our life or we can choose to dwell on the positive aspects. We can also eliminate the negative influences from our lives.
To remain healthy, we must choose our relationships with care. Stress spreads rapidly from one person to another. If we spend all our time with people who create stress or spread anxiety and panic, we are not going to be exactly peaceful ourselves.
All variants of yoga focus on eliminating stress from our lives. Yoga actually prevents future health disorders by bringing about mental and physical balance, health, and well being. Only our thoughts limit us from doing anything. Yoga helps us train the mind and achieve deep internal peace.
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Krisnamacharya Yoga Film 1938
