Mind Over Matter

While you will get stronger as you practice yoga, the aim of the 5,000-year-old practice is to calm the mind, open the heart and help you learn to discover your true nature. (Photo provided)

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The world today is fast-paced and hectic, but there are many things you can do to remain calm, healthy and strong during life’s stressful times. 

Yoga in particular has numerous stress-relieving benefits that can help you feel calm and relaxed, especially at home. 

Heidi Peters, owner and director of OM Stretch Yoga in Cary, says while you will get stronger as you practice yoga, the aim of the 5,000-year-old practice is to calm the mind, open the heart and help you learn to discover your true nature. 

“The aim is to cultivate contentment, or santosha, in our lives,” says Peters, who is certified through the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago and is registered through the Yoga Alliance.

According to OM Stretch Yoga’s Web site, www.omstretchyoga.com, yoga is designed to end the fluctuations of the mind. 

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) says yoga relaxes the mind gradually as your body increases its amount of muscular work. Recent studies have shown that when large muscle groups repeatedly contract and relax, the brain receives a signal to release specific neurotransmitters, which in turn make you feel relaxed and more alert.

Peters says yoga is a wonderful focus for wellness, and incorporating yoga into your daily life will help you live a healthy and calm existence. 

“If you are a volatile person, yoga quiets you down and enables you to live a more objective life,” Peters says.

Not only does yoga help you deal with everyday stress, it also has numerous health benefits. Peters says yoga boosts your immune system, helps you sleep better and increases your metabolism.
 

“Yoga helps you get strong again,” Peters says. 

According to the Yoga Alliance, additional benefits of yoga include better breathing, improved flexibility and mobility and improved circulation.   

The primary focus of yoga is on asana, or a pose or posture used in the practice of yoga. A typical yoga session involves doing a sequence of asanas and holding them for varying lengths of time. Asanas range from easy, relaxing poses that can be held by people at all levels of ability to difficult postures that push the limits of the yoga practitioner’s body.

A major focus at OM Stretch Yoga is on breath work. Peters said breathing provides your body with oxygen and energy and, therefore, you’re able to function with a clear head. 

“Breath work is very important, especially when a stressful situation has manifested into tension in your own body,” she says. “When muscles are tense, your joints are overworked. Yoga releases tension by lengthening and strengthening the muscles.”

Peters says yoga is the perfect complement to your current physical fitness routine. 

“Any activity or sport you enjoy doing, your yoga practice is going to increase your endurance for that,” she says.  

But what if you’ve never done yoga before? Peters says if you’re new to the practice, you will be surprised at the sense of groundedness and well-being you walk away with. Peters says people who do yoga feel the effects of their practice the very first time on the mat. 

Yoga is for people of all ages. Peters’ yoga studio offers yoga for kids, men’s yoga, all-level classes and Kundalini and Vinyasa/core flow yoga. OM Stretch Yoga also hosts workshops on meditation, for example. Peters said she sticks to the fundamentals at her yoga practice, but she brings in new styles of yoga to keep her classes fresh.

Peters has done yoga for 20 years, first practicing it in college. She became a certified yoga instructor in 2005 and opened OM Stretch Yoga three years ago. She said it was her path to bring yoga to the community and watch as the transformation toward wellness on all levels — including physical, emotional and, for some, spiritual — takes place in her students. 

“Yoga helps erase unhealthy patterns and replaces them with healthy ones,” Peters says. 

OM Stretch Yoga
Owner/Director: Heidi Peters, RYT – 200
Address: 271 Country Commons, Suite 1, in Cary
Phone: 847-656-6960
Web site: www.omstretchyoga.com
Prices: Drop-ins cost $15 a class; six-class punch card costs $72 and is valid for eight weeks. In-studio private sessions for up to two students are available by appointment at $45 an hour. Corporate rates and one-hour classes in your home (off-site) cost $65 for one to 10 students, and $75 for 10 to 20 students. 

TOP 10 REASONS TO TRY YOGA
Stress Relief. Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system, as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.

Pain Relief. Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension, as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.

Better breathing. Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.

Flexibility. Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the correct muscles. Throughout time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity and making more poses possible. Yoga also helps improve body alignment, resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.

Increased Strength. Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.

Weight Management. Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight-control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels, as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well-being and self-esteem.

Improved Circulation. Yoga helps improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

Cardiovascular Conditioning. Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

Focus on the Present. Yoga helps you focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind-body health. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

Inner Peace. The meditative aspects of yoga help many reach a deeper, more spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.

Source: Yoga Alliance, www.yogaalliance.org