Yoga Is A Balancing Act

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

In last week’s classes, we focused on balance. Yoga is a great tool to increase your balance and restore your balance it if it’s gotten away from you.

When I first started taking yoga classes, my balance was way off. I had always had really good balance. Anytime I’d go through a parking lot, I’d turn the sidewalk edges and cement parking stop thingies into my personal “balance beams” and boogie on across them with a big grin and no problem. However, it got to where I could not balance! Ugh! How frustrating! After taking yoga classes for a while, I noticed that my balance was back and I could have fun on my parking lot “balance beams” again! Whoohoo!

One of the cool things about yoga is that what you do in class translates to your life. So, as I was learning balancing poses in class, it was building balance back into my body, mind and life!! Yeeeehaaaaw y’all!!

I now use balancing poses as a barometer for my life. If I’m all wobbly, it tells me my life is a bit (or a lot) out of balance, so I need to practice my yoga more to bring all of me back into balance. And you know what? It works every time!

Yoga builds balance in so many ways – here are just a few:

The standing poses create balance between the grounding you get through your feet, legs and hips… and the lengthening upward of the spine, head and arms.
The one-legged balancing poses create stability and strength to keep you stable and aware as you walk, stand, run, etc.
Doing poses on both sides of your body brings balance to the right and left sides of your body, since one side tends to be more dominant and sometimes one side is tighter than the other.
Yoga also helps balance the two hemispheres of your brain – yeah, this is your brain on yoga!
Your nervous system is balanced between the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight mode) and parasympathetic nervous system (relax response) which is great since in our stressed out lives, we can easily get stuck in the fight-or-flight mode.

I could go on and on about the balancing benefits of yoga, but for now, just begin or continue your practice of poses, breathing and meditation and increase or restore balance in your body, mind and spirit – your whole life!!

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya!

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

When you were growing up, do you remember that commercial for Brylcreem – the hair styling product for men – that said “a little dab’ll do ya!“? The point being that you didn’t need a whole big glob of the product to make a big difference – just a little bit would do the trick.

I feel the same way about yoga! Even just a little bit of yoga makes a huge positive difference! Let’s face it – some yoga demonstrations and classes can be quite intimidating. But, just starting with very easy do-able stuff like learning to breathe better, learning better posture, learning even a few poses, and giving yourself permission to relax will bring about changes you cannot even imagine right now!

It’s so cool when people come to my class saying, “I really don’t think I can do yoga.” and when class is over, they say, “That wasn’t hard and I feel SO much better!” Yep, a little dab’ll do ya!

Of course, once you taste the goodness of yoga and start feeling it’s benefits, you will want to do more and you will know that you can.

Here are a few tips as you begin exploring yoga:

Start simply and honor your limits. Don’t dive into the deep end and over-do by trying hard stuff you aren’t ready for! Listen to your body – and find the right class and teacher that will honor where you are.
Focus on what you can do. Don’t worry about what you can’t do. You’ll get so many benefits from practicing what you can do, that the rest won’t really matter.
Be patient and keep practicing. Don’t expect all your problems to go away after a couple of classes. You didn’t get this way overnight and yoga won’t correct everything overnight, but keep practicing and the benefits keep coming!
Build up gradually. To grow, we must challenge ourselves. In yoga, we want a gentle challenge and to stretch our limits – but never pain, strain or ignoring limits. Take your time – there’s no clock you are racing against.

There’s so much to be gained from a good yoga practice, but you’ve gotta start! So, give yoga a try! Even a little dab’ll do ya!

Safe Forward Bends To Stretch Your Hamstrings And Save Your Lower Back

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

Ever notice that if your hamstrings (thigh muscles at the back of your legs) are tight that your lower back also gives you fits? In today’s class, we focused on stretching the backs of the legs and strengthening the lower back – a great partnership!

One cause of tight hamstring muscles is that we spend SO much time sitting. When we sit, the hamstring muscles are not stretched. Over time, muscles that don’t get stretched much can get tight. If your hamstrings are tight, your lower back may attempt to compensate and you get back strain. Not good.

So, how do you stretch your hamstrings without causing more strain or pain in your lower back? Slowly. Gradually. Gently. Your hamstrings did not get tight over night, so they won’t get all stretched out and comfy overnight. But with time, patience and practice, good results come.

Poses that tend to give people with tight hamstrings the most trouble are forward bends. Forward bends are wonderful to stretch your hamstrings, but if your hamstrings are really tight, they may not be comfortable and you could end up straining your back if you try to go to far. We do not want that!

So, here are five tips for doing forward bends to keep you safe and aligned as you move forward (ha! – pun not intended, but I like it!).

Engage your bandhas (lift up the pelvic floor muscles and draw the navel back toward the spine) to engage a band of muscles that goes all around your waist (above and below) that support your core and lower back.
Bend from your “hip hinges” (right where your legs join onto the rest of your body) – not from your waist – and keep your spine lengthened. This protects your lower back, allows a deeper stretch and keeps your chest open so you can breathe freely.
Don’t go down so far. Focus on proper alignment instead of trying to touch your toes or get your nose to your knee. Focus just on getting the lowest part of your pelvis/belly connected with the top-most part of your thigh. That’s enough to start with.
Never force the stretch. Allow your muscles to stretch, but do not force. Only go as far as feels right today – there is tomorrow and the next days to continue on.
Breathe! To me, breathing is just as important as the pose. If you get the pose “right” but end up holding your breath, your muscles are not getting what they need and will not stretch their best. Take long, slow, deep breaths and allow your body to relax further and deeper (when it’s ready) on the exhales.

I hope these tips help you! Here’s to healthy hamstrings and a healthy back!

Fresh New Start With Yoga

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

I’m making a fresh new start on this web site. Just getting the main stuff up right now, but will be expanding soon. Come back and visit often!

We all make fresh new starts from time to time. It’s needed. Otherwise, we get stagnant – in our health, thoughts, and lives.

Yoga is an excellent way to make a fresh new start!

Yoga is a mind-body-spirit practice that:

Disciplines the body
Quiets the mind
Enhances spiritual awareness

Some Benefits Of Yoga you may enjoy include:

Physical Benefits

Deeper relaxation
Increases blood flow; slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure
Decreases respiratory rate; healthier breathing
Increases vitality and energy
Slows aging process
Boosts brain functioning and nervous system

Mental Benefits

Increases awareness, focus, clarity and concentration
Helps control mind-chatter, thoughts
Reduces anxiety; increases emotional stability
Boosts creativity, memory, learning
Helps problem solving and increases intuition
Improves and maintains brain health
Deeper sleep; reduces insomnia

Spiritual Benefits

Sense of peace and joy
Acceptance of self and others; cultivates feelings of one-ness
Helps still the mind to find the divine; closeness to God
Harmonizes mind, body and spirit
Deepens capacity for love, compassion and forgiveness
Provides sense of knowing

Yoga for real…

It's Yoga… for real People… for real Life… for real Results

Author Archives: Cheri Harvey

Yoga Is A Balancing Act

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya!

Safe Forward Bends To Stretch Your Hamstrings And Save Your Lower Back

Fresh New Start With Yoga