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Atlanta Yoga — No comments
23
Sep 11

Atlanta yoga classes bring members closer to nature

Even though it's a relatively underplayed facet of the holistic healing regimen, reconnecting to the natural world is exceedingly important, which may be why one local Atlanta yoga class is donating a percentage of its fees to nonprofits that benefit the area's tree life.

Even though it's a relatively underplayed facet of the holistic healing regimen, reconnecting to the natural world is exceedingly important, which may be why one local Atlanta yoga class is donating a percentage of its fees to nonprofits that benefit the area's tree life.

If you've ever gone to yoga class with the idea of making personal changes, you probably didn't leave disappointed. After all, 15.8 million yoga fans can't be wrong. That number comes from the 2007 Yoga in America Study, which found that 7 percent of Americans use yoga to connect to one another, to the community at large and even to nature itself.

That's right: even though it's a relatively underplayed facet of the holistic healing regimen, reconnecting to the natural world is exceedingly important, which may be why one local Atlanta yoga class is donating a percentage of its fees to nonprofits that benefit the area's tree life.

Homemade Yoga, a studio operated by founder Maria Cadena, gives $5 from each private session to Trees Atlanta, One Love Generation or Barking Hound Village Rescue Foundation, according to the East Atlanta Patch.

As she told the news source, Cadena has been inspired by trees ever since she was a child.

"One of my favorite stories as a little girl (and as a semi-grownup) is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Actually, every new person that joins us gets a thank you bag and inside is a little notebook – made of 100 percent recycled material – with the cover of the book," she said, quoted by the news source.

Cadena is not the only person to value yoga for its effect on nature and the environment. Several studies have shown that holistic health regimens often help practitioners reconnect with the green world outside their door.

In fact, getting outdoors may be healthy for people of all ages. A report published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being found that children with ADHD who play outdoors experience a dip in the severity of their symptoms.

No wonder Cadena (and Shel Silverstein) were so smitten with trees!

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Healthy Living — No comments
16
Sep 11

In Atlanta, yoga may contribute to healthy living among teens

Atlanta yoga classes

Studies have shown that yoga may assist such teens in making personal changes and improving physical health.

Atlanta urban youth are a seriously underserved population, one that can use all the help it can get. That said, studies have shown that yoga may assist such teens in making personal changes and improving physical health.

How hard is it to grow up in a blighted urban environment? Scoop Daily recently released a report posted by ABC News that rated Atlanta as the third worst city in the U.S. for urban youth.

The study pointed to poverty, crime and unemployment as the primary drivers of decline in the quality of life among Atlanta's urban teens. The news source quoted the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, which stated that African-American youth account for more than 90 percent of all prisoners serving time in juvenile detention centers in Fulton County.

Likewise, unemployment in the state of Georgia currently stands at 10.1 percent, according to the state's Department of Labor.

Such problems can take a terrible toll on both the mental and physical health of urban teens. In some case, fitness- and yoga-based programs may be able to contribute to healthy living.

For instance, a study published in the journal The Science of Health Promotion found that urban teens who had access to open spaces in Atlanta tended to walk more often, potentially improving their health.

Another investigation conducted at the University of Cincinnati determined that urban teens with asthma who used alternative or complementary therapies – like yoga, meditation, prayer or relaxation techniques – were more likely to experience positive respiratory outcomes.

What does all this mean? Well, besides being a good indication that urban populations need help, such research suggests that Atlanta's underprivileged teens might benefit from yoga programs that cater to their age group.

Whether engaging in stretching, deep breathing, mindfulness meditation or tai chi, individuals who try yoga-based exercises often report feeling healthier and more content.

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Healthy Living — No comments
13
Sep 11

Hotels are getting more requests for yoga mats, healthy living supplies

healthy living supplies

A director of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company told the news service that guests are increasingly calling room service for yoga mats, treadmills, exercise bikes and other fitness-related accoutrements.

Do you travel much outside of Atlanta? If you do, and you've tried to do healthy living exercises on the hard floor of your hotel room, you know that its stiff, uncushioned carpets can wreak havoc on your knees, back and elbows during yoga. It's little wonder that more and more hotel patrons are ordering yoga supplies than ever before.

Anyway, that is the thrust of a recent article published by Reuters. A director of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company told the news service that guests are increasingly calling room service for yoga mats, treadmills, exercise bikes and other fitness-related accoutrements.

"Probably fitness equipment is the biggest request we get from guests. It's the biggest preoccupation of business travelers besides getting their work done, so we try to make fitness available on any basis they ask for," said " said Vivian Deuschl, the company's corporate vice president.

She noted that, in addition to yoga mats and DVDs, many hotels are going the extra mile to offer patrons almost any fitness-based amenity that one can dream up.

The Ritz-Carlton's hotels offer personal trainers on demand, for example. Others, like the Kimpton Hotel chain, offer an all-day yoga channel and a basket of gratis yoga apparel, as the Kimpton's chief operating officer Niki Leondakis told the news organization.

In the end, it all comes down to providing what guests want – which, lately at least, means all things yoga.

Why are patrons shifting their desires from the mini-bar to the mat? Leondakis offered Reuters a theory based on the large number of baby boomers hitting retirement age.

"Twenty years ago it was wine, dine and work, not about maintaining a healthy lifestyle on the road. People today are looking at work/life balance in a more integrated way," she concluded, quoted by the news source.

Hence the popularity of Georgia yoga classes. Americans of all ages are flocking to yoga – nearly 16 million, according to a survey conducted by the Yoga Journal.

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Healthy Living — No comments
08
Sep 11

Yoga facilitates healthy living on every level

Scientists and laypersons alike are coming around to the fact that yoga is ideal for making personal changes, physical adjustments or mental improvements.

Scientists and laypersons alike are coming around to the fact that yoga is ideal for making personal changes, physical adjustments or mental improvements.

Pursuing healthy living can be frustrating, not least because there are so many different facets of existence – the mental, the physical, the spiritual, the emotional – each of which requires targeted care all on its own. This can be problematic. After all, what kind of life system can address all these aspects of one's being at once?

Yoga, that's what. Scientists and laypersons alike are coming around to the fact that yoga is ideal for making personal changes, physical adjustments or mental improvements.

Consider all of the studies coming out about the benefits of doing yoga long term:

- It's good for your head. According to a literature review published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, yoga may help reduce the symptoms of depression. The authors, a team of UK mental health experts, found five previous investigations that indicated the benefits of using yoga during a bout of depression. The group cautioned that each study used different metrics, but that overall, the psychic benefits of holistic health regimens remain clear.

- It's good for your back, too. A report in the journal Alternative Therapies announced that doing regular yoga-based exercises may help relieve tension and aches in the lower back. In particular, scientists determined that participants who took yoga classes experienced varying improvements in their flexibility, balance and pain-related disability.

- Your wrists may benefit, believe it or not. A scientific investigation published in the Journal of the American Medical Association addressed the ways that special yoga-based hand exercises can soothe the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome. Researchers found that individuals who took yoga tended to see improvements in grip strength and tendon-centered pain.

- You might even sleep better. A report appearing in the journal Cancer found that even patients with lymphoma were able to sleep better and reduce their psychological distress after three months of daily yoga sessions.

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Healthy Living — No comments
02
Sep 11

CDC says yoga can contribute to healthy living

Healthy Living

There's one Atlanta-based organization that has been a proponent of yoga-based exercise for years - namely, a little agency called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For many people who live in Georgia's capital, Atlanta yoga classes are an integral part of their weekly workout routine. After all, stretching, posing, meditating and breathing deeply are good for you no matter what part of the Peach State you live in.

In fact, there's one Atlanta-based organization that has been a proponent of yoga-based exercise for years – namely, a little agency called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Why is yoga so healthy?

Scientists, public health authorities and healthy living experts often agree that doing yoga can do the body a world of good. One reason for this general consensus is that yoga strengthens so many different muscle groups, opens up multiple energy channels, refreshes multiple organs and contributes to good mental and physical health.

People have known this for centuries. In an article published by the CDC, the U.S. Surgeon General reports that yoga has been practiced as a health regimen since at least 600 BC.

"Yoga philosophies…asserted that physical suppleness, proper breathing and diet were essential to control the mind and emotions, and were prerequisites for religious experience," the source states, noting that an offshoot of the yoga developed in Asia has evolved into the sports medicine-related practice many Americans are familiar with today.

Adopting yoga into your routine

Low-impact exercises are beneficial for nearly everyone. This is one reason why the CDC recommends yoga for people of so many divergent health statuses.

For example, the agency states that yoga is a great way for people over the age of 65 to stay fit and strengthen their muscles and bones, all while running a low risk of injury.

Likewise, the CDC has suggested that people with certain debilitating conditions, like chronic fatigue syndrome, try yoga as a way to improve well-being and reduce anxiety.

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Personal Change — No comments
26
Aug 11

Making personal changes through meditation is a time-honored tradition

These questions are just one facet of the inner dialogue one might pursue during yoga meditation, a practice that has persisted in the U.S. for more than 150 years.

These questions are just one facet of the inner dialogue one might pursue during yoga meditation, a practice that has persisted in the U.S. for more than 150 years.

"Where does self-discovery begin? Does it occur within, or can a person begin making personal changes unknowingly, spurred from without?" These questions are just one facet of the inner dialogue one might pursue during yoga meditation, a practice that has persisted in the U.S. for more than 150 years.

You may think of meditation as a trendy topic, something that only recently became popular in American yoga community centers or among practitioners of Zen. However, the history of inner contemplation in the Western world dates back to the Civil War at least.

In the middle of the 1800s, American thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and a group of open-minded individualists collectively called the Transcendentalists were using meditation and yoga-based personal change models to go on inner voyages.

The Transcendentalists believed in the primacy of nature. They felt that contemplating it could open doorways inside one's mind, leading to growth, satisfaction and peace.

In his history volume Meditation and the Evolution of Cosmic Consciousness, author Don Ayre says this group was instrumental in popularizing meditation and dialectics in the U.S.

"[They] looked to meditation as a means of bridging the gap between their ongoing self-discovery and the social action needed to create a community of mutual openness and support," Ayre states.

Since the 1800s, meditation has appeared in all sorts of Western texts. It makes a cameo of sorts in W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor Edge, a seminal novel about the effects of Eastern thought on a disillusioned Western man.

"'How could you stand it for tow years?' cried Isabel.
"'They passed like a flash. I've spent days that seemed to be unconscionably longer.'
"'What did you do with yourself all the time?'
"'I read. I took long walks. I went out in a boat on the lagoon. I meditated. Meditation is very hard work; after two or three hours of it you're…exhausted.'"

This passage points to the discipline required for yoga meditation, but also to its ability to sharpen focus and lead to personal change.

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Personal Change — No comments
16
Aug 11

Yoga, commitment, honesty aid in making personal changes

making personal changes

Being honest is a start, and joining a yoga community is a good first step toward real candor.

Making personal changes is rarely easy, particularly when modern life seems to throw so many obstacles in the way of our individual, personal change models. How can you change your life? Being honest is a start, and joining a yoga community is a good first step toward real candor.

You might be thinking, "I thought yoga was more of a physical fitness regimen." This may be true for some of the most tiring or high-intensity yoga systems, but those that promote peace and reflection often address the brain at least as much as they do the body.

In essence, the best, most effective yoga styles deal with the delicate connection between the mind and body. Becoming a better person, learning to accept oneself, achieving a state of equilibrium and inner peace – these are all goals that involve plenty of mental work.

Fortunately, yoga attends to the mental needs of practitioners. Holistic health contains all facets of a person – their inner self, the outer persona, their connection to the community, their affinity for nature, their commitment to mankind and their ability to be honest with and open to the world.

The inability to be honest and committed is one of the reasons that so many people enter yoga programs looking for a big personal change, not to mention the countless Americans pursuing ongoing therapy or counselling.

In fact, a whole therapeutic movement, called Radical Honesty, has sprung up around the perception that candor is supremely important. Its founder, Brad Blanton, maintains that "if you go out and tell each other the truth, you'll be happier. You're better nurtured in a world in which you're telling the truth than you are in a world in which you're cowering, hiding and lying."

Like many yoga instructors, Blanton – who called Esquire Magazine "pretentious" in an article published in, what else, Esquire Magazine – maintains that honesty and openness are the gateways to happiness and wholeness.

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Personal Change — No comments
12
Aug 11

Atlanta-based studies say yoga helps people improving health, managing personal change

managing personal change

There's great news for people taking Atlanta yoga classes!

There's great news for people taking Atlanta yoga classes! Given that yoga instruction is good for the mind, body and soul, researchers have performed a number of scientific investigations in Georgia's capital, establishing that yoga can contribute to heart health and a positive body image.

One such study, published in the journal Circulation, found that practicing yoga for as few as eight weeks may help reduce the symptoms associated with heart failure.

Researchers from Georgia State University (GSU) and the Emory University School of Medicine – both of which are based in Atlanta – came to this conclusion after giving either yoga-based treatments or traditional medical therapy to patients with heart failure.

This condition has a number of causes, including weakened cardiac muscles, poor vascular health, coronary artery disease, hypertension and diabetes.

In essence, heart failure consists primarily of the gradual inability of the heart to pump blood through the body, as the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) defines it.

The Georgia group found that people who engaged in yoga and meditation for eight weeks reduced their heart failure-related inflammation, increased their exercise tolerance and improve their overall quality of life.

This news may cheer up the more than 5.7 million Americans believed by the NHLBI to have cardiac failure.

Of course, yoga is also good for the mind, in that it aids in reducing stress and managing personal change. Consider a study conducted by scientists at GSU to determine whether yoga helps children improve their self-image.

The results appeared in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. Researchers asked a dozen third-graders to engage in several weeks of mindfulness exercises as a way to cope with poor physical coordination and negative body image.

The team found that children who engaged in yoga displayed improved self-image after the awareness-training sessions.

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Personal Change — No comments
10
Aug 11

How to get started making personal changes with yoga

If so, here is a list of a few simple things to do or think about as you try yoga for the first time.

If so, here is a list of a few simple things to do or think about as you try yoga for the first time.

Are you looking to make personal changes in your life, to get into shape, to escape from spiraling stress or to simply discover who you really are? Perhaps someone you know has suggested you try yoga. (There are plenty of beginner's Atlanta yoga classes to go around, that's for sure.) If so, here is a list of a few simple things to do or think about as you try yoga for the first time.

1. First of all, you need to think about what areas of your life you hope to change, improve or emphasize. After all, various styles of yoga address different aspects of your being, from your strength and flexibility to your peace of mind and sense of community, the Charlestown Patch recently noted. Only a few truly optimal yoga regimens polish every facet of an individual.

2. Prepare a bit, both logistically and practically. Are there any yoga programs or community centers in your areas? Are you realistically physically prepared to do a little stretching and posing? Do you own a loose, two-piece, natural-fiber outfit, something long-sleeved and appropriate for yoga classes of all venues? Do you want to practice alone or with others? According to PsychCentral, these are questions you should address before getting into the swing of yoga.

3. Choose a yoga program that looks right for you. There is no need to commit to an extended period of classes. Most community centers allow you a trial period, during which you can see if the locale, classes, instructors and fellow students all suit you.

4. Finally, be open-minded. The Patch story emphasizes this, as does an article on Men's Health. If yoga feels a little funny at first, it is probably because you are unaccustomed to such a simple, novel routine. Riding a bicycle feels awkward at first, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep at it. After all, all the fun is yet to come!

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Healthy Living — No comments
03
Aug 11

College and pro athletes take healthy living tips from yoga instructors

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A recent New York Times article, which has been republished on one of ESPN's healthy living blogs, featured five former NCAA basketball players, four of whom played for Cornell University in the 2010 National Tournament.

Georgia athletes from Atlanta to Zebulon – yes, it's a real town – have been flocking to yoga classes as a way to glean healthy living tips from seasoned instructors. They are not alone, either. College athletes and sports professionals across the U.S. are getting into yoga as a way of managing their mental acumen while staying physically fit.

If you don't believe it, check out the New York Times. A recent article, which has been republished on one of ESPN's healthy living blogs, featured five former NCAA basketball players, four of whom played for Cornell University in the 2010 National Tournament.

Today, these gentlemen – some of whom stand more than seven feet tall, mind you – regularly attend one-and-a-half hour yoga sessions at the 92nd Street YMCA.

They're not the only ones using yoga to stay healthy and limber, either. Tim Thomas, a pro hockey goalie and member of the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning Bruins, recently told NHL.com that he has been taking yoga ever since a hip injury took him out of the game a few years back.

Even retired athletes are diving into the holistic system to stay active. Greg Louganis, former Olympic diver and multiple gold medal winner, practices yoga and stretching exercises as part of a targeted physical fitness regimen, the New York Times reported.

Louganis, who at 51 teaches diving to up-and-coming athletes, retired from diving in 1988, the same year he announced that he is HIV-positive. Today, he takes prescription medications to keep the disease in remission and uses yoga to stay flexible and physically healthy, the newspaper noted.

Why do so many athletes take yoga? It may be because the regimen is so versatile. While some workout systems leave certain muscles strong and largely ignore others, yoga classes can hit all the major muscle groups. Furthermore, stretching exercises can cool the body off and keep muscles and tendons from tightening.

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