Get Started Moving
""Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person's physical, emotional, and mental states."
- Carol Welch
Yoga helps to improve circulation, improve breathing, and relieve stress or anxiety.
Practicing the physical postures used in yoga has many benefits, such as increasing strength and flexibility in the body.
Why Practice Yoga?
⟡ Helps to relieve stress
⟡ Relieves some aches and pains
⟡ Promotes our breathing
⟡ Gives us a focus on the present moment
⟡ Increases our Flexibility
⟡ Creates more strength in our body
⟡ Improves the circulation in our body
⟡ Helps in having good weight management
⟡ Gives us a sense of inner peace and contentment
"Movement is the song of the body."
-Vanda Scaravelli
Online Yoga Classes
There are plenty of other options out there aside from attending a class at a physical location. Online yoga classes are an inexpensive way to practice on your own time with a smart phone, iPad, or computer.
You can save up to $100 each month and can have easy access to finding the right class that suits your needs. You can still practice social distancing, feel comfortable in whatever outfit you are wearing, save time, and not worry about what anyone else in class is doing (or not doing).
Online classes are great for fitting a yoga practice into your schedule and can practiced in the comfort of your own home (or just about anywhere - including the outdoors!).
In-Person Classes
In a typical yoga class, students place their mats facing the front of the room (often identifiable by a small altar or teacher's mat) in a loose grid. You will need some space in certain poses so it's best if you place your mat a few inches away from your neighbor.
Students often perform gentle stretching or sit in meditation while waiting to begin. Depending on the teacher, there may be breathing exercises or a short meditation at the start of class. This will be followed by warm-up poses, more vigorous poses, then stretches and final relaxation called Savasana.
At any time during a class, you can take Child's Pose if you need to rest. If it’s your first class, we suggest a Yoga Basics class to become familiar with the poses.
Self Guided Practice
We often hear about taking a class guided by an instructor, but at some point along our journey we attempt to complete a yoga or meditation practice on our own.
This encourages us to rely on our intuition, the training and lessons taught by instructors, and the connection to our body in order to feel what we are needing - what feels good, and what doesn’t.
Some like to set up altars at home for spirituality purposes and to incorporate alternative healing modalities including aromatherapy, journaling, crystals, etc.
As with any fitness regime, please consult your doctor beforehand and to know/understand any precautions as well as alignments before attempting.
Styles of Yoga
There are various styles of yoga that range from gentle, slow-paced to strong, faster-paced depending on your needs.
Select a style below to learn more.
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A slow-paced introduction to yoga poses with focus on breathing and meditation
Purpose: To introduce beginners to yoga with basic poses and relaxation techniques.
Benefits: Relieves stress, provide physical exercise, improves breathing.
Good for: Beginners and those who seeking to learn the basics of yoga.
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A yoga practice for mental, physical, and emotional relaxation. A gentle practice that will hold poses for a certain amount of time, similar to Yin Yoga.
Purpose: Relaxation of the mind and body.
Benefits: Balances the nervous system, healthy immune function, physiological health.
Good for: Beginners or those looking to relax and de-stress.
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Breath synchronized movement with an emphasis on Sun Salutations.
Purpose: Link the breath with movement while strengthening and toning the body.
Benefits: Improves strength & flexibility, tones abdominals, reduces risk of heart disease.
Good for: Beginners and experienced yogis seeking to strengthen their bodies
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Performing yoga exercises under heated and humid conditions to increase an individual’s flexibility in the poses. Similar to Bikram Yoga.
Purpose: Flush out toxins and deeply stretch the muscles.
Benefits: Enhances flexibility, cleanses the body, weight loss.
Good for: Experienced yogis looking for a challenge to push themselves.
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Focuses on bodily alignment with different props such as straps, blocks, bolsters to assist in strengthening the body.
Purpose: Strengthen and bring the body into alignment.
Benefits: Improves balance, speeds up recovery from injury, builds bodily strength.
Good for: Beginners & those with injuries seeking to learn correct alignments in poses
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Classes include meditation, breathing techniques, and chanting as well as yoga postures. A more spiritual and philosophical approach in yoga than other styles.
Purpose: Gain understanding of the mind/body connection.
Benefits: Inner guidance, emotional balance and neutral mind, deep relaxation.
Good for: Beginners and those seeking to enhance their meditation experience
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An athletic and physical style of yoga that follows specific sequences of the same poses. Ashtanga also aims to match the breath with movement.
Purpose: Increase strength and improve one’s spiritual self.
Benefits: Relieves stress, improves coordination, helps with weight loss.
Good for: Experienced yogis looking to maintain strength and stamina
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Yin Yoga, Anusara Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Acroyoga, Jnana Yoga, Viniyoga, Power Yoga.