| Pictures, Carolyn Ruszala says, can be intimidating. Especially when it comes to the photographs that grace the covers of books and magazines about yoga.“Even if you’re not flexible, you can still do yoga,” said Ruszala, a yoga practitioner at the Abundant Wellness Center in Chicopee. “People pick up books in the library and see someone twisted like a pretzel, and they say, ‘I can’t do that.’ But I always say, be where you are with your own body. Just be yourself and don’t compare yourself to others.”
After all, she noted, any practice that has been around for more than a millennium is certainly suited to more than one style.
“I feel like people come to yoga to relieve stress and to feel better about themselves,” Ruszala said. “By the end of class, people are smiling and saying, ‘thank you.’ They’re less stressed and able to breathe.
“When you go to the gym, you’re just stretching and flexing, but you’re not getting your mind into the practice,” she added. “Yoga is about slowing down a bit and being present in the moment. I always say, ‘whatever happened before is past, and whatever happens in the future hasn’t happened yet, so focus on the present.’”
That comes by incorporating a sense of ‘mindfulness’ to every action, even breathing, she explained. “You often don’t think about breathing, but yoga is really being aware of what your body is doing.”
It’s a concept that has increasingly taken hold in the mainstream. The local practitioners who spoke with The Healthcare News all talked about the wide range of ages they’ve seen walk through their doors, from college age to folks in their 80s. Clearly, they say, yoga offers something for everyone.
“People not only want to stay healthy or be flexible, but to want to feel good about themselves when they walk away from class,” Ruszala said. “If you’re able to get off the floor unassisted and it’s OK with your doctor, then you can do yoga.”
Get It Together
“One of the translations of ‘yoga’ is ‘union’ — the bringing together of all the scattered pieces of ourselves,” said Kate Forest, owner of Bliss Yoga in Wilbraham. “We talk about the physical, mental, spiritual — the whole person.”
That definition especially suits Forest, who combines her yoga practice with her training as a life coach. In her practice, she teaches an awareness of breaths and body movements as a path to examining one’s thoughts and feelings and looking inward.
“This goes a long way toward decreasing stress and increasing focus,” she said, and it’s not just individuals discovering the benefits of such an activity. She works with corporate clients as well that wish to get their employees involved in yoga. “Employers are realizing that, when employees are calmer and more focused, they’re more productive,” she said. “So, for me, self-care equals productivity.”
True to that word ‘union,’ she said, it can also promote physical healing, not just emotional wellness.
“I have a lot of clients with back discomfort, hip and shoulder tightness, breathing disorders, and mental and emotional issues like depression and anxiety,” Forest said. “If you have sleep issues, so many people tell me how yoga helps them to sleep.”
The difference between treating yoga like a once-in-a-while pleasure and allowing it to reap benefits far away from the studio, she explained, is internalizing the lessons of mindfulness and practicing them all the time. Forest herself exemplifies this, speaking softly and deliberately and listening intently throughout her interview with The Healthcare News; it’s a trait, she said, that she has purposefully worked to develop.
“Yoga can enhance your relationships; it teaches you to be patient and be more aware of your actions, to be more attentive to how you act and react — and overreact,” she said. “Yoga helps you pause for that half-second, take a break, and think about what to say before you fly off the handle.”
That’s why people who bring the lessons home report better-quality sleep. “A lot of people lie down at night and obsessively worry; their minds are going a thousand miles an hour, and it’s hard to go to sleep,” Forest said. “But by incorporating mindful breathing, bringing more oxygen into the body, you can decrease your muscle tension and rest.”
Diana Ricci Gunther, owner of Flamingo Yoga in Enfield, Conn., agreed.
“Life is so stressful that most people show up for emotional reasons, to de-stress, or to deal with a grieving process,” she said. “A lot of people say, ‘I just need some time for myself,’ away from television, computers, family, all the demands that fragment them. They need to go somewhere to help them gear down and collect themselves, while at the same time participating in an activity that enhances their health.”
Gunther has witnessed a trend, particularly among Baby Boomers, away from high-impact exercises and toward something gentler, yet conducive to general wellness.
“I’ve seen a huge shift,” Gunther said. “When I started to teach 10 years ago, people wanted a more vigorous class, to tone and strengthen the way only yoga can. Now, as the population is aging, they want something different.
“There are a lot of different levels, even in the same class,” she added. “We work from where you’re at, and you can derive a lot of benefits from working at your own level, gaining flexibility and strength at your own pace.”
Forest agreed. “I wouldn’t recommend that someone with a lot of pain go with an aggressive style,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for someone to be in a yoga position and another person sitting in a chair. I focus on stress reduction and flexibility, but as we age the body gets tighter and less flexible, so I do a very slow-moving, healing style of yoga.”
Daily Grind
For many people, Gunther said, yoga is essentially “one-stop shopping” to deal with stress, physical ailments, and muscle tone in one relaxing session.
“You’ve got benefits for every system in your body: skeletal, respiratory, circulatory — even the reproductive system and the digestive system,” she said. “The postures can rejuvenate and massage your inner organs, so that everything is positively affected by yoga — not to mention the breathing and all that good oxygen that calms you down.”
Forest has seen first-hand the calmness that yoga brings to busy people who are otherwise juggling careers, families, and other competing needs in their lives. However they characterize the effects, she said, is up to them.
“Some people are put off by the spiritual aspect of yoga,” she said. “For me, yoga is not a religion, but it can help you in whatever type of spirituality you practice, and to find inner peace.
“That’s super-important,” she suggested. “I think that, in our American culture, people are searching for what’s missing. They buy a new car, a new house, look for a new job. But what’s missing is the connection with themselves. Yoga helps them reconnect with self and helps them see the big picture.”
Gunther ends every class with a session of deep relaxation, to allow the body to further absorb the benefits of the session before participants head back out into the chaos of their daily routines.
“A lot of what we do on the yoga mat becomes an encapsulated form of what we deal with in normal life,” Gunther said, but by incorporating concepts like mindful breathing into one’s everyday routine, “you’ll maintain a calm outlook and find that those tools are readily available to you throughout your busy day.”
As they have been for more than 1,000 years. |
