Our practitioners are often looking into making personal changes, particularly when it comes to modifying a lifestyle to accommodate illness. The regimen can help soothe the aches and pains of some serious conditions, including fibromyalgia, arthritis and even the lingering effects of cancer. As WRBL News 3 recently reported, yoga is becoming an increasingly popular complementary therapy for cancer survivors.

Yoga instructor Judy Barnett teaches classes to survivors in Columbus, Georgia. She told the news source that the benefits of holistic healing are in the head and the body.

"Mentally, we do a lot of breathing exercises, we do meditation practices and all those things are wonderful, a stress relief," Barnett explained. "[When] you find out you have cancer, you're usually very anxious, and most people don't use their breathing to control their anxiety."

The news channel noted that more and more Georgia yoga classes are offering instruction to patients who have overcome carcinomas.

Such interventions certainly have the research to back them up. Study after study has shown that yoga and meditation can help survivors reduce their anxiety, increase their range of motion, improve quality of life and soothe aches and pains.

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You've just joined a Georgia yoga studio. You're new, and you don't know anyone. Maybe you've never done yoga before at all. Are you nervous? Maybe you're worried about embarrassing yourself in front of total strangers. Well, never fear! This is a common anxiety, and one that will pass.

Here are some things to remember during your first few beginners' Atlanta yoga classes.

1. Your classmates won't be strangers for long. It can be intimidating, joining a group of yoga enthusiasts who've already formed a tight-knit group around the practice of mind-body healing. It can feel like they won't want a stranger to intrude in their circle. Au contraire! Dahn Yoga communities are warm and welcoming. They thrive on meeting new people and bonding over yoga.

2. Occasionally, you'll be late to class. It happens. Everyone's had to slink in the door with all eyes watching. It's practically a rite of passage in yoga. Don't let it bother you.

3. You're going to embarrass yourself a little at first. Just plan on it. As FitSugar has noted, your stomach will gurgle, or you'll sweat too much, or your phone will ring. Roll with it, and remember to laugh. It's all part of the fun.

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Doing yoga is all about pursuing peace, fitness, physical well-being, community solidarity and healthy living in general. None of these things requires you to sweat, yet for whatever reason hot yoga is the trend du jour.

For instance, a recent New York Times article reported on the "blistering temperatures" of certain yoga systems, which are intended to make practitioners perspire in buckets during an hour-long session.

The news source pinned the room temps in such studios at up to 114 degrees Fahrenheit, the equivalent of a scorching hot summer day in Qatar. Such roasting environments are not necessary for a good yoga and meditation session.

Medical experts told the newspaper that a good rule of thumb is to max out at 100 degrees F. "Above that, you're just jeopardizing safety," kinesiologist Douglas Casa of the University of Connecticut told the Times.

At Dahn Yoga Georgia, we don't need to turn off the A/C in order to make you feel like you're getting your money's worth. After all, Georgia's summers are hot enough as it is.

Rather than giving you heat-based gimmicks, our community centers specialize in interpersonal warmth.

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It's no secret that yoga can help you relax, reflect and recuperate after a long day at work. That's why millions of Americans use the system as part of their healthy living regimen. Moreover, some yoga poses may also strengthen certain parts of the body, including the legs, torso, core muscles, neck, back and even arms.

That's right. By taking Atlanta yoga classes, you may find yourself with stronger, fitter, more toned arms – all without lifting a single dumbbell!

It all has to do with yoga poses, many of which gently engage the muscles in your shoulders, upper arms, forearms, wrists and fingers. For the most part, these stretches are designed primarily to improve the flexibility of your upper extremities. However, they also tend to naturally increase muscle tone.

Leigh Crews, a yoga teacher in Rome, Georgia, told the Yoga Journal that women don't have to worry about getting excessively bulky or ropy, either. Of the physique that comes from yoga exercises, she said "it's not bulky. Rather, it's sculpted."

With toned and fit arms, it can be easier to perform everyday tasks without straining a ligament or spraining a muscle.

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How can veterans of the Armed Forces cultivate a sense of peace and calm, especially if they are suffering from lingering emotional damage caused by battlefield traumas? According to the Miami Herald, one of the most effective methods for pushing through such problems and attaining healthy living is yoga.

Former Marine sergeant Hugo Patrocinio is living proof of that. He recently recovered his sense of inner equilibrium, after a brush with death sent him spinning.

It all started in July of 2006, when Patrocinio was serving a second tour of duty in Afghanistan. While patrolling near Fallujah, the sergeant, who was 23 at the time, witnessed a horrific explosion, which occurred when suicide bombers set off 1,000 pounds of explosives in a dump truck.

Patrocinio was 20 feet from the truck when it detonated.

However, while he miraculously survived the shrapnel and the severe concussion, he had a much harder time overcoming the events' emotional aftershocks – that is, until he took up yoga for managing personal change.

"I didn't understand yoga but I knew it was helping somehow," he explained to the news source. "Now I am not afraid to go to sleep."

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Making personal changes isn't always easy, especially when your life seems too hectic to allow you a moment to yourself. That's what Canadian writer and businessman Richard King told the Montreal Gazette. And he should know: Just four years ago, he was obese, overworked and slogging through a painful divorce.

Today, he is the paragon of healthy living. King has lost 60 pounds, stabilized his emotions, increased his flexibility and retained his legs to run long distance. What accounts for such a dramatic change? Yoga!

In 2009, with his life as rocky as ever, he saw something that changed his whole world. While walking downtown, King stepped into a yoga studio.

"From the reception area, I could see people behind the glass window stretching and posing, and I wanted to give it a shot," he told the news source. Now 67, fitter and more flexible than ever, King said that he is firmly hooked.

"If my life was any better, it would be illegal," he explained, quoted by the newspaper.

That's the healing power of yoga at work!

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So you've noticed a Dahn Yoga Georgia community center in your area, and you're interested in taking a class or two. What will you need to bring? Here's a list of yoga accessories you might find helpful in Georgia yoga classes, as well as a few you can skip.

- Wear loose-fitting clothes. Believe it or not, all those tight, clingy yoga outfits you see on TV aren't necessary. If anything, they get in the way of a good yoga experience. Instead of buying uncomfortable, synthetic or expensive tops and tights, try using a simple, billowy long-sleeved shirt and pants. Those woven from natural fibers are best!

- Try yoga socks. It's customary to take off your shoes at the door of your yoga studio. Since the floors may be slippery or polished, wear socks that have grippy pads affixed to their soles.

- Ditch the mat. A yoga mat is an unnecessary and costly addition to any yoga routine. As long as you're comfortable in your bare feet or in yoga socks, then mats can fall by the wayside.

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The enthusiasts in our Georgia yoga classes sometimes ask us if we've tried other personal change models and, if we did, what we thought of them. They're often curious because they've delved into other personal improvement regimens themselves. And usually they agree with our answers: Yes, and yoga takes the cake!

You see, our mind-body system entails all the benefits of deep breathing, stretching, meditation, tai chi, qigong, acupressure and brain wave vibration without any of the pesky aches and pains that are associated with other regimens.

Even other types of yoga can't measure up to Dahn Yoga itself. Consider a book recently published by New York Times senior reporter William J. Broad. Called The Science of Yoga, the text describes some of the injuries that practitioners have suffered while doing vigorous, excessively gymnastic forms of holistic exercise.

At Dahn Yoga, that's not what we're about. Our community centers don't push heavy exercise or back-breaking stretches on students. Instead, our holistic routine centers around activities that relax the body and open up the mind.

That way, you can improve your mental, physical and spiritual well-being all at once.

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For people who take Dahn Yoga, personal change, physical health and mental well-being are top priorities. This is why some people have become a bit concerned following the publication of a new book, which has pointed to rare but serious injuries experienced by yoga practitioners.

The volume, titled The Science of Yoga, was written by William J. Broad, a senior writer at the New York Times. This news organ also ran a long article by Broad summarizing the injuries in question, which included compressed vertebral discs, burst blood vessels and dislocated ribs.

Does this mean that yoga and healthy living are incompatible? Hardly!

As Broad himself admitted, many of the injuries he chronicled were caused by lackluster instruction, practitioners' inexperience or an enthusiast's impatience to get to the more advanced yoga poses.

At Dahn Yoga, our regimen isn't nearly this rigorous. We promote only the gentlest, most refreshing stretches and meditation exercises around. Our teachers always take things slow, and they never encourage painful or contorted poses. That way, you can stop worrying about injury and start focusing on reconnecting your body and mind.

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At Dahn Yoga, we've noticed that our Atlanta yoga classes are more popular than ever, with new practitioners signing up almost every day. It's not all that surprising, really, given the amount of good press lately about the regimen's positive effects for people who are simplifying their daily lives and making personal changes.

Take, for instance, a new article written for the Worcester Telegram by health expert Jane Brody. In it, the newspaper correspondent talked about the latest book by William J. Broad, called The Science of Yoga.

Even though the new volume has caused some controversy for its depictions of ultra-rare yoga-related injuries, Brody explained that it made her decide to finally try the holistic healing routine.

"If the science recounted in this book is correct (knowing Broad, I have every reason to think it is), my creaky joints and muscles may reap some important rewards from an individualized yoga prescription," Brody wrote for the news source. "I'm especially concerned about my back, which is riddled with narrowed vertebral spaces and prone to spasms and sciatica."

Many alternative health experts agree that the mind-body regimen may be just the thing for people like Brody who are looking to make physical and mental changes all at once.

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