Yoga for Health and Wellbeing

The purpose of all yoga practices is to create a feeling of ease and harmony with our selves and our environment.  Unfortunately, in these modern, fast paced times our natural rythms are frequently and persistently knocked out of sync creating a sensation of anxiety, discord and discomfort eventually, as far as the yogic modality of health care is concerned, leading to dis-ease.

We all encounter difficulties within our lives at some time or another the key is to have the correct tools at hand to help us regain our state of equilibrium as quickly as possible.  Yoga is supported by a very ancient philosophy dating back around 10,000 years called Samkhya, which describes in great detail the natural principles of the universe and the creation of our material world.  From this wisdom (and modern physicists are beginning to agree with it) the practices of yoga and its medical sister ayurveda developed as the first forms of social care or healing.  They are not separate but wholly integrated parts of each other.  A huge science of healing developed in order to counteract suffering and disease and especially the largest disease of all - our disassociation from our source or ignorance of that which is real and true and that which is unreal and untrue.

This isn't just about addressing symptoms but looking at the underlying energetic disharmony causing those symptoms and we have, in yoga, a very specific framework of subtle anatomy and energetic principles to work with that have been safely and successfully applied and used for thousands of years.

The Yoga Room, Holywood was opened to create a safe environment to allow the magic of yoga to unfold.  It is not about standing on our heads (unless of course energetically that is what is required) nor forcing ourselves into contortions for the sake of posturing (much easier to put you head on someone else's knee than your own!) - yoga is "about maximum benefit for the minimum effort using appropriate, gentle and considered interventions to enable the body's own natural healing mechanisms (the natural laws) to bring each of us back to our natural state of health and wellbeing.

Hari Om Tat Sat

The Yoga Room offers many packages and types of yoga related interventions with each session tailored to what is required in order to help you fullfill your full potential of health and wellness. 

This article appears in The Loop Magazine Holywood Edition in Nov 16

Local Yoga Teacher Alison Roberts, after 12 years of teaching in the Community, has just fulfilled her dream of having a dedicated space for yoga tuition in her home town of Holywood.  The Yoga Room Holywood is an oasis of calm high above Holywood High Street suitable for 1-2-1 and Small Group Tuition

When I ask someone first attending a yoga session what their expectations are it is frequently increased flexibility and fitness and then after a short hesitant pause an almost wistful hope of increased “wellbeing” - a vague term perhaps but something that they seem to instinctively feel yoga can deliver and yet are unsure how.  We are all familiar with the images of young, slim yoga practitioners in weird contortions.  The media love those pictures, and it’s what people have come to associate with Yoga however Yoga practice has very little to do with physical “posturing” which is superficial and impermanent (we all get old) and more to do with our internal health and wellbeing which is much more important and enduring.

An holistic practice (the term yoga, means to “yoke” or join), from the very first session mind and body are of equal importance, given equal emphasis and the entire personality is taken into account.  All Yoga practices lead to meditation, which is a state of being, if the mind wanders or is not engaged in the practice then we are no longer practising yoga but exercising and therefore we lose the holistic benefits. We will still notice benefits - exercise is good for us, but it is not Yoga.

General yoga classes are geared for the majority of people but cannot deliver the optimal practice for each individual attendee.  The beauty of 1-2-1 or very small group tuition with an experienced yoga teacher is that in a short number of sessions a personalized practice is developed and progressed to suit the individual personality and their life circumstances. We all know that life is full of ups and downs and our nervous system, sympathetic (arousal, stress) and parasympathetic (rest, recovery) adjust to allow us to deal effectively with these highs and lows and then bring us back to a state of equilibrium.  However the pace of modern life means that our nervous system is over stimulated, we are on too high an alert and then we plummet towards exhaustion and depression.  The state of equilibrium and recovery is missed having huge repercussions on our general health and wellbeing leading to chronic illnesses and syndromes.  Regular, appropriate yoga practice has been proven to help bring the nervous system back to a more balanced and harmonised state.