Say Yes to Yoga

Written By:Stacy SimonSenior Editor, News

The ancient Indian practice of yoga combines meditation, breathing, and precise postures and poses to make a connection with thoughts, body, and spirit. People who practice yoga say it leads to a state of physical health, relaxation, happiness, peace, and tranquility.

Some evidence shows that yoga can lower stress, increase strength, and reduce lower back pain, while providing exercise. According to a report from the National Institutes of Health, there is also some evidence that when it's used alongside conventional medical treatment, yoga may help relieve some of the symptoms linked to cancer, asthma, diabetes, drug addiction, high blood pressure, heart disease, and migraine headaches. Yoga cannot cure cancer or other chronic illnesses, nor should it ever be used by itself to treat any medical condition or delay treatment.

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Ignatian Yoga Lenten Series Episode 4

Prior Posts in the Series

Ignation Yoga Lenten Series = Episode 4

Prior Posts -Ignatian Yoga Lenten Series

7 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Yoga

by Kevin Gray.  

February 5, 2018

I’ve played competitive sports since I was barely old enough to see over a soccer ball. In recent years, I’ve opted for cycling, the occasional 10K and lots of group-based high-intensity interval training — all things that let me channel my competitive edge. In short: I like to win.

I first tried yoga several years back with the goal of improving my flexibility. At the time, I considered it a chore, a functional activity to be endured for health reasons. I had no idea it was such a rich, multifaceted workout. Or that it could be so challenging. Or that I’d learn to love it.

Turns out, I didn’t know much of anything. So below: seven things I wish I knew before starting yoga. May they help you on your path to yogic enlightenment … or your first class.

Read More:

Get to know: Alan Haras ’16, combining religious traditions into something new

In January, Jesuitical, a podcast presented by America Media, which publishes America, The Jesuit Review, posed the following question “Is it possible to blend yoga and Catholicism?”

On that podcast, Bobby Karle, S.J., answered questions about Ignatian Yoga, a new movement gaining attention and which he co-founded with Alan Haras, a 2016 graduate of University of Detroit Mercy.

Haras, who came to Detroit Mercy to earn a master’s degree in Religious Studies, said Ignatian Yoga draws upon the dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises and, specifically, the Jesuit philosophy of cura personalis, or care of the whole person. It’s about finding God in all things, including yourself, and giving thanks for the gift of life.

Read More:

More on Ignatian Yoga

Related posts about  yoga: https://movingbeyondcancerinnola.blogspot.com/search?q=yoga 

Ignatian Yoga Moving into Lent

Ignatian spirituality and yoga can complement each other, writes Bobby Karle, SJ. Combining the two offers a distinctive way of connecting with God and one’s self.

Check out the first in a series of Lenten Ignatian Yoga videos.

Related Posts about Yoga: https://movingbeyondcancerinnola.blogspot.com/search?q=yoga 

Yoga in the Gardens - January 21st from 10 - 11 am

In collaboration with  The Pilates and Yoga Loft, visit Longue Vue House and Gardens for an all-level yoga session held in one of our tranquil garden spaces. Please arrive at 9:45 a.m. Class begins promptly at 10:00 a.m. Guests may tour of the gardens afterwards.

$10 suggested donation. Guests are encouraged to bring their own mat.

For more information, contact Matt Reyna at (504) 293-4721 or mreyna@longuevue.com

Check out 3 week yoga series at Celebration in the Oaks

What is Yoga? New Post from Touro Infirmary

New post on Living Well What is Yoga? by touroinfirmary Kelley Howard Gill, Wild Lotus Yoga Instructor Yoga is a mind-body practice with historical origins in ancient Indian philosophy. Hatha yoga is the branch of yoga that includes physical poses, also called asanas, and is the most widely practiced branch of yoga in the West. Most Hatha yoga classes are a combination of physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation or relaxation. And then within the physical practice of yoga, there are different styles of Hatha yoga - some are intense and vigorous, while others are relaxing and meditative. The practice of yoga is one that can be tailored or modified to suit each individual's needs, regardless of age or fitness level. No matter which type you choose, yoga is a wonderful way to stretch and strengthen your body while simultaneously calming the mind. Yoga Benefits Yoga can make you stronger, flexible, more focused and alert. It can help you to stay limber and energetic as well. Yoga can also help improve these conditions: Poor blood circulation High blood pressure Arthritis Osteoporosis Limited mobility Lower back pain Difficulty breathing Headaches Tension or stress Depression Yoga is good for people who haven't been active in a while. It’s also good for people who have certain health conditions like arthritis or osteoporosis. A benefit of yoga is that you can change your exercises to fit your needs. As you become stronger and more flexible with yoga, it becomes easier to do other kinds of exercise like dancing, walking, or swimming. Yoga can help you: Reduce your risk for injury. Each yoga pose targets specific muscles. This helps you increase your flexibility and reduce your risk for injury. Reduce stress. Yoga can help soothe the mind and lower stress levels. It does this by focusing the mind on the moment and the movements. In scientific studies, people practicing yoga had a greater ability to relieve high cortisol and reduce other parameters of stress. Increase your concentration. A main part of yoga is rhythmic, focused breathing. This can help you focus. Understand the mind and body connection. Yoga requires you to focus all your energy on each movement or pose exactly. This can help you feel the mind and body work together. Gain strength and stamina. More vigorous styles of yoga promote strength and stamina. Improve balance and stability. Balancing poses require you to use your core muscles. This can help you improve your overall stability. Improve posture. Yoga poses strengthen and open tight areas of the body like the shoulders and muscles of the upper back. This can help you keep good posture. Develop body awareness. Yoga requires you to contract or relax specific muscles as you stretch into each pose. This can help you become more aware of your body’s strengths and weaknesses. Join Touro for Yoga and Stress-Relief: Living Well Seminar. Holidays can be a very stressful time. Join Wild Lotus Yoga Instructor Kelley Howard Gill to learn yoga moves that can relieve your holiday stress. Thursday, December 7 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Presidents Room, 2nd Floor Registration is required. >> CLICK HERE to register online, or call 504-897-8500. touroinfirmary | December 5, 2017 at 9:40 pm | Categories: Exercise | URL: https://wp.me/p3U9Kg-rc Comment    See all comments    Like Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Living Well. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://livingwellblog.co/2017/12/05/what-is-yoga/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

Yoga Poses for Cancer Survivors

By Louanne Cho, 500 E-RYT, AWC


A cancer diagnosis and treatment can put stress on a person's mind and body. Yoga may benefit survivors and help them heal and learn to cope. Here is a list of a few poses and stretches and how they may benefit patients

Shoulder and Chest Stretch
Shoulder stretches are great for restoring lost movement to the whole upper body.  They are also good for breaking up scar tissue that may have developed due to injury or surgery.
Steps: 

1. Sit in a cross-legged position, or in any comfortably erect position.
2. With the hands sufficiently far apart hold onto a yoga strap.
3. With the torso upright try to make as large a circle as possible with your hands as they go up and over. 

Keep the torso upright and try not to lean forward or back when lifting and lowering the arms. If you have any shoulder issues, then only raise the strap as high as you can until you feel a good stretch.

1.  Inhale and lift the arms up above the head.
2. Exhale and reach back and down while keeping the arms straight.  You may have to make your hands wider apart to lower the arms without bending them.
3. Inhale and bring the arms overhead.
4. Exhale lower down in front to start position.

Repeat above five times. Then hold the stretch when the arms are reaching back behind you or when the arms are above the head.  Keep tension in the strap.

Learn More:

Top Online Resources and Inspirational Teachers -Celebrating National Yoga Month

Editors note:  This is part IV of a 4-part weekly series in New Focus Daily on yoga providing you with information on the benefits of yoga and provide you with practices that you can start in your home.

Now we know that not everyone can get to a yoga class or finds a yoga studio that they are automatically in love with.  We also know that yoga, or fitness in general, requires a financial investment that may not always be in everyone’s budget.  With that said, we have compiled a list of our favorite online resources and yoga classes, as well as a list of inspirational teachers.

Yoga with Adriene- http://yogawithadriene.com/

Adriene is oftentimes playful and humorous, inspiring people of all shapes, sizes, and personalities to connect with their bodies on a daily basis with free yoga videos.  Her videos are well made and easy to follow, and she oftentimes incorporates the inspiration behind each yoga video. 

Gaia- https://www.gaia.com/yoga/

With Gaia online, you can practice yoga anywhere and anytime.  These videos stream, so you can select the style, teacher, level, length, and focus of the practice- and go!  Some of our favorite teachers are on here from Matt Giordano, Tara Lee, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Rod Stryker, Leslie Kaminoff, Kathryn Budig, and Amy Ippoliti.

Yoga International- https://yogainternational.com/

Yoga International is an amazing resource, with online resources, articles, and vidoes.  They aim to nurture the mind, body, and spirit with their content.  For those wanting to deepen their practice, they also have workshops and teachings that will leave you not only inspired, but feeling connected to a deep inner wisdom, from teachers like Pandit Rajmani Tigunait and Swami Rama.

Yoga Glo- https://www.yogaglo.com/

Yoga Glo is a fantastic resource for those wanting to start a practice at home, for the cost of one studio class in person per month.  They also offer classes from some of our favorite teachers, such as, Amy Ippoliti, Elena Brower, Jason Crandell, Kathryn Budig, Rod Stryker, Seane Corn, Taylor Harkness, and Tiffany Cruikshank.

Why do we recommend the teachers that we do?  They offer a range of expertise, different styles of practices, different ages, different genders, and offer, in our opinion, a beautiful example of what yoga looks like when it is taken off the mat and lived in the world- both inspiring others and being responsible and accountable to the values of yoga.   That said, here are some people that we are inspired by and links to find out more about them:

Taylor Harkness- http://taylorharkness.com/

Tiffany Cruikshank- https://www.facebook.com/tiffanycruikshankyoga

Seane Corn- http://seanecorn.com/

Rod Stryker- https://www.parayoga.com/

Kathryn Budig- http://www.kathrynbudig.com/

Jason Crandell- https://www.jasonyoga.com/

Elena Brower- https://elenabrower.com/

Ami Ippoliti- http://www.amyippoliti.com/

Matt Giordano- https://www.theyogimatt.com/

Leslie Kaminoff- https://www.yogaanatomy.org/

AMY GREEN

Amy Green, LMSW, is a counselor and the Chief Operating Officer of Ready Nest Counseling. She specializes in trauma informed care and maternal mental health, focusing on perinatal mood disorders and grief surrounding traumatic childbirth or infant loss. Amy provides comprehensive care through a combination of mind-body modalities and is passionate about sharing practices of self-care to increase wellness in the lives of others. Amy has her Masters in Social Work and is also trained as a breath coach hosting sessions and workshops at Lakshmi Ayurveda Nashville, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher presently teaching prenatal yoga at Blooma Nashville. She has been a Guest Lecturer at the University of Tennessee Masters in Social Work program teaching on trauma informed care and child and adolescent treatment. Amy will soon be featured on New Focus Network with A Breath of Fresh Awe, a new program that features stories, practices, and movements for your soul.

September is National Yoga Month

 Amy Green

 

 September 13, 2017

 

 A Better You, Health + Beauty

 

Editors note:  This is part II of a 4-part weekly series on yoga providing you with information on the benefits of yoga and provide you with practices that you can start in your home.

Yoga is a commonly used practice to invite strength and flexibility, and there are many healing benefits of a regular yoga practice.  The Department of Health and Human Services designated September as National Yoga Month as a way to build awareness to the many health benefits of yoga.  Here are just some of the benefits:

1. Stress Relief

Research has found that yoga reduces the stress hormones that are found in our bodies, such as cortisol.  Yoga is a practice that can invite presence and relaxation, therefore reducing the stress found within our bodies.  In many yoga practices, breathing practices or meditation practices are utilized as additional means to invite greater self awareness.

2. Pain Relief

Yoga has been prescribed to many as a means to stay active and reduce aches and pains.  Through frequent stretching and strengthening, many people have reported a decrease in overall pain when yoga has been practiced regularly.

3. Flexibility

While it is commonly thought that you need to be flexible to practice yoga, this is not true.  Just like strength, flexibility is something that can be built.  Yoga can support people to build a greater range of motion through stretching all of the muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the body.  Practices such as yin yoga allow for deep stretching to occur of fascia, releasing tension and tightness throughout the body.

4. Breathing

Throughout life it is common to forget to breathe, or how to breathe properly.  Yoga practice encourages movement with breath, encouraging people to breathe deeply.  This type of breathing, when practiced regularly, invites in greater lung functioning and triggers the body’s relaxation response.

5. Cardiovascular Conditioning

Yoga is known to increase the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream.  Oftentimes we have developed breathing patterns where we take shallow breaths, leading to high levels of anxiety and lower levels of oxygen.  A gentle yoga practice can help to lower your resting heart rate and increase your overall endurance.

A great resource to find out more information on how yoga practices can improve health is the book, Yoga As Medicine by Dr.McCall.  http://www.drmccall.com/books.html

AMY GREEN

Amy Green, LMSW, is a counselor and the Chief Operating Officer of Ready Nest Counseling. She specializes in trauma informed care and maternal mental health, focusing on perinatal mood disorders and grief surrounding traumatic childbirth or infant loss. Amy provides comprehensive care through a combination of mind-body modalities and is passionate about sharing practices of self-care to increase wellness in the lives of others. Amy has her Masters in Social Work and is also trained as a breath coach hosting sessions and workshops at Lakshmi Ayurveda Nashville, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher presently teaching prenatal yoga at Blooma Nashville. She has been a Guest Lecturer at the University of Tennessee Masters in Social Work program teaching on trauma informed care and child and adolescent treatment. Amy will soon be featured on New Focus Network with A Breath of Fresh Awe, a new program that features stories, practices, and movements for your soul.

September is National Yoga Month. The basics.

 Amy Green

 September 4, 2017

 

 New Focus Daily

Editors note:  Over the next four weeks, we will have a weekly series on yoga providing you with information on the benefits of yoga and provide you with practices that you can start in your home.

Yoga is a commonly used term that covers the physical practice and poses, and also has a much richer and deeper meaning beyond just the physical practice.  Yoga does more than just burn calories, increase strength and flexibility.  The practice of yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years, so this is not a fad that will fade away anytime soon.

Did you know that there are more than 100 different types of yoga?  Some are fast paced, some are in hot studios, some are more intense, and others are restorative and relaxing.  Here are just a few examples of the types of yoga practices you may find at a studio near you:

• Hatha- This is the most common form, and is associated with a series of basic movements with breathing.
• Vinyasa- Series of poses that flow smoothly into one another.
• Power- A faster, higher-intensity practice that builds muscle.
• Ashtanga- A series of poses, combined with a special breathing technique.
• Bikram- Also known as “hot yoga,” it is a series of 26 challenging poses performed in a room at a high temperature.
• Iyengar- A type of yoga that utilizes props to help you move your body into proper alignment.

The best way to learn what style you like is by going to multiple studios and trying out different classes with different teachers, and then reflecting on what class and movements feel best in your body and leave you feeling refueled and relaxed.  To find studios near you, visit www.yelp.com to read different reviews, reach out to friends on Facebook or Instagram to find out their favorites, or visit www.yogafinder.com to search different yoga studios and find events near you.  If it is your first time, ask the studio for a tour and overview of the yoga practices and what to expect.

AMY GREEN

Amy Green, LMSW, is a counselor and the Chief Operating Officer of Ready Nest Counseling. She specializes in trauma informed care and maternal mental health, focusing on perinatal mood disorders and grief surrounding traumatic childbirth or infant loss. Amy provides comprehensive care through a combination of mind-body modalities and is passionate about sharing practices of self-care to increase wellness in the lives of others. Amy has her Masters in Social Work and is also trained as a breath coach hosting sessions and workshops at Lakshmi Ayurveda Nashville, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher presently teaching prenatal yoga at Blooma Nashville. She has been a Guest Lecturer at the University of Tennessee Masters in Social Work program teaching on trauma informed care and child and adolescent treatment. Amy will soon be featured on New Focus Network with A Breath of Fresh Awe, a new program that features stories, practices, and movements for your soul.

Prior Related Posts

How yoga could ease cancer patients' pain and fatigue

Researchers in one study find patients who do yoga sleep less but are less tired, while another study sees mood benefits among those who add yoga to exercise

Yoga may help ease the pain and fatigue of cancer treatment, according to new research.

One study conducted at the University of Rochester used two surveys to interrogate why a group of about 300 mostly female cancer patients felt less fatigued following a program of yoga.

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Related Posts:

Cancer Support Group May Meeting Information

Touro's Cancer Survivors support group will meet on Monday, May 8th in the Coliseum Room (2nd floor). We will have Tamarin Hennebury from Touro's  Therapuetic Wellness  Department as our main speaker, She will lead us in a stress busting restorative yoga class. No pretzel positions or standing on our heads  We will be seated and safe in our friendly environment.

Additional Resources:

• Restorative Yoga Videos - Gaia.com‎ 

• Learn About Restorative Yoga: Poses, Asanas & Sequences - Yoga ...
• How Yoga Helps Cancer Patients and Cancer Survivors | YogaUOnline

• 4 Ways Cancer Patients Can Benefit From Yoga | HuffPost
• Effect of yoga on patients with cancer 
• Toward a More Perfect Union: The United States of Yoga'
• Yoga and Pilates classes in the Sculpture Garden at  the New Orleans Museum of Art
• Oschner offers Healing Yoga and Meditation Classes to Cancer Patients
• Do You Know the Benefits of Yoga?