Integrating a personalized yoga practice into your life can benefit you in many ways. It can help prevent injury, relax muscles, and keep you flexible and reduce stress. Reduced stress and increased oxygen levels can give you an overall sense of wellbeing and flexibility that can enhance your overall health.
Many of us are shy to join a group yoga class because yoga can feel intimidating in a large group. Group yoga classes can be challenging and more fitness oriented, which can make a beginner avoid trying yoga at all. The good news if that taking a few private yoga sessions can be a great investment and give you the confidence to articipate in a group yoga class.
In yoga classes you may hear the statement “know your own body” as a way to alert students to be careful. The reality is that most of us know our own body sitting in a chair 8 hours a day or maybe walking/running a bit. That is very different from knowing your body in yoga poses that may be foreign to your experiences or perhaps you never received correct instructions. Private lessons can “introduce” you to how your unique body responds to the poses and modifications that you may want to make and
Yoga works well to help the body keep balanced and healthy from chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, injury or simply the stress of day to day life. A key feature is that in yoga your bones are being twisted in unusual ways. Yoga poses put stress on the bones, causing the body to deposit more calcium and strengthening them. Relaxed and flexible muscles move more fluidly, balance is better and posture improves.
Group yoga class, often with students at different levels, can foster yoga poses without proper alignment. If it’s difficult to see the instructor you may simply follow what others are doing. If the person next to you is doing the pose incorrectly, you might also have improper form and leave yourself open to injury. In private lessons alignment and cueing poses for your body can familiarize you with these new movements to optimize health and avoid injuries.
A private instructors can take the time to show you how to get into and out of every pose properly and to offer yoga props to assist you in the beginning until your body gets used to the poses.
A private yoga session can l give you tools you can always use outside of a class or as we say in the yoga world, “off the mat.” We can all use cues on how to stand taller, sit upright, and stretch properly before exercise.
Breathing techniques can guide you through life’s challenges. A private yoga instruction gives you is the opportunity to help you see yourself at a different level, to go deeper to understanding your body, mind and spirit to be your best self.
After a phone consultation I will design an initial session to focus on your needs. All sessions will offer breathing techniques and essential oils (if desired).
Basic Yoga Poses for either an “at home” practice or to take into a group yoga class:
We will explore basic yoga poses learning them from the “feet up” to insure the pose is correctly aligned and identifying any props that that may support you in a particular pose. Depending on your goals, past experiences with yoga or current state of health we can focus on giving you an optimal session to meet those goals. You can take what you learned in these sessions into a group yoga class, or at home, to continue your enjoyment of yoga.
Restorative yoga is a practice that is all about slowing down and opening your body through passive stretching. Prepare yourself for deep relaxation when you attend a private restorative session. All the necessary props will be available for you. The lights may be dimmed and soft music played.
During the long holds of restorative yoga, however, your muscles are allowed to relax deeply. Yoga props such as bolsters, blocks blankets and straps, rather than your muscles, are used to support your body. Restorative sessions are very mellow, making them a good complement to more active practices and an excellent antidote to stress.
Yin yoga is a passive, transformative style of Hatha yoga that asks you to hold postures for up to 8-minutes each. This longer hold of poses is done to strengthen, lengthen, and provide therapeutic release to joints, muscles, ligaments, fascia, and other connective tissues.
Less active than other types of yoga, yin is mainly done lying down on a mat. The main purpose of yin yoga is to provide grounding. As you learn to tune out the daily grind and focus on slowing down and listening to your body, you will learn to relax on release tight muscles and joints in a safe gradual manner.