By Rachel Holmes and Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, YACEP
Everyone needs Yoga for a moment of calm. Yogic proficiency benefits the mind, body and spirit. As students advance, their lifestyles change. Asana practice captures the mind in a relaxed, disciplined set of physical exercises that refresh and revitalize the human spirit. Yoga is a path to training and empowering the spirit to greater levels of awareness. In the hustle and bustle of the everyday world, many individuals ignore or overlook the fact that their spirits require nourishment. Asana, meditation, pranayama, and mantra, establish a realm of peace, serenity, and tranquility, that achieves physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual goals, for happier living.
How Yogic Methods Heal
Students and practitioners have the ability to travel to a peaceful dimension in the performance of their daily asanas. This is first step in Yogic healing. Yoga training methods create space for a moment of calm and remove mental baggage that burdens the spirit, mind, and body with unnecessary worry and unresolved issues. In the Yogic state of mind, the practitioner develops a unique ability to view thoughts, which were formerly blocked or restricted by immediate issues. Yoga for a moment of calm is likely to become a habit.
Dimension of Yogic Bliss
In this blissful dimension, Yogic practices help to relieve the mind of stress. With the release of mental stress, the body reacts in kind by relaxing tense muscles. This helps prepare the entire body for the various exercises that coordinate with breathing patterns of inhaling and exhaling for maximum benefit. Asana, meditation, pranayama, and mantra, become simplified practices of revival and refreshment. Yogic methodology requires emphasis on concentration of the mind to accomplish the best results. Concentration based on the simple act of relaxing the mental state, without stress, provides the moment of calm sorely needed by many people.
What about students who can’t just relax during a Restorative or Yin Yoga class? They can’t sit still for meditation or Yoga Nidra! What is a Yoga teacher or a student to do? One of the many positive features of Yoga is that when you look at the big picture, it can be made accessible to all. There is nothing wrong with students who are charged up by stimulants and technology. One suggestion is a Vinyasa class, before meditation.
Options for Students and Teachers
Students can choose between a slow flow or vigorous Vinyasa flow and move on to a calming session of meditation or Yoga Nidra. Pranayama alone will give a student more than a moment of calm. However, experienced teachers are less prone to try convincing a skeptic. On the other hand, a good receptionist may have enough enthusiasm to fill a room. As the years go by, seasoned teachers want students who know what they want from life.
The years of internal enthusiasm tend to mellow a teacher’s mindset as serious students remain, while walk-ins come and go. If you are relatively new to Yoga, or meditation, it’s wise to research classes before entering. Some classes may start with mantra practice, while others don’t practice mantras at all. Mantra practice is one more method that exists within the techniques of Yoga for a moment of calm.
The Benefits of Training
Yoga is more than a means of attaining a brief moment of calm. It’s also a way of life. Often, students new to asana, meditation, pranayama, and mantra techniques, are drawn to this type of training for the benefit of healing the mind and body. As interns and students, they adapt effortlessly into full holistic lifestyles. Medical professionals encourage patients suffering from debilitating illnesses, or pain, to consider yoga for its healthful effects. Yogic exercises (Yoga Poses) help keep the body supple and limber for longer periods of time.
Yoga practice also increases mental clarity by expanding thought processes. Another important benefit is the lightening of the spirit. After a yoga training session, the mind is free to receive daily challenges with less fear and stress. The changes to an individual’s spirit through the practice of yoga, alters feelings of prevailing negativity and converts them into a positive energy wave. With so much worry going on worldwide, yoga is the answer to giving the masses a moment of calm for very little cost. Today, anyone with a smartphone can watch streaming yoga videos. Access to an ancient system of combined healing modalities is as easy as the touch of a button.
Peace, Serenity and Tranquility – The Benefits of Yogic Practices
It’s worth noting that students visit our classes with different purposes and intentions. Some students are at different stages in life due to family circumstances, age, occupation, health profile, and many more reasons that draw students to a Yoga class. Many students come to class for the social aspect. They just want to be part of a group filled with like-minded people. The longer one practices Yoga, the more one’s mind becomes trained. We learn to recognize situations before they happen due to expanded awareness. This is more about enhanced observation skills and improved senses than anything else. There are many benefits, but prevention, inner peace, and improved health are qualities that keep us practicing for life.
© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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