What is yoga and meditation
Yoga is:
• A way to begin to accept yourself and the changes
that are happening in your body
• FUN for any level or age!
• A different way of looking at things that we do every
day, like moving and breathing
Yoga is not:
• A religion or devotion to a person or god
• Placing your body in pretzel shapes
• Only for Indian people
Yoga means union. Gentle and strengthening movements of
the body combined with deep breathing that help us to find
some calm and focus in the midst of our lives as students,
teenagers, girl/boy friends
A typical class begins with a asking ourselves where we
are and why we are here– what motivated us to come
to class today? This is called intention.
We then move into warm-ups, followed by standing postures,
balances, back and chest openers, seated stretching, and
a relaxation, where we do absolutely nothing but focus on
the lightness in our bodies, as we rest. These relaxations
allow our bodies to exist as they were when we were born,
free from worry and desire.
We close each class by asking what parts of this lightness
can we bring to our lives in order to be less negatively
affected by our environment and the people in it. How can
we unite this lightness our community, our ethnicity, our
problems, our friends?
Meditation is:
A way to watch your emotions, particularly that of anger
A way to relax and find out how your mind works
A way t strengthen one of the most powerful tools you have—your
mind
Meditation is not:
Required sitting in uncomfortable positions
Chanting
Zoning out or doing nothing
Connected with a religion
People have been meditating for thousands of years. Sitting
in comfortable positions with the eyes closed and focusing
on the breath, a sound, an image, a specific feeling, or
the inside rhythms of the body. Each of these focuses can
give us a powerful new way of thinking about ourselves or
a situation, as we notice what happens in our minds during
each exercise.
When we close our eyes, we change our view on the world,
if only for a few minutes. And it is the build-up of these
little changes that can influence the direction of our life.
If you are feeling hopeless or overwhelmed by life, have
you ever noticed that when things become quiet, you can
actually think about and find creative solutions to these
issues? Meditation creates quiet space.
