I’m facilitating a new class, Monday Yoga /Wellness Class, that starts Monday June 20 at 7pm (space is limited so contact me if you are interested.)
This class is aimed at developing an individual wellness/meditation practice. We will do yoga postures to let go of any tension and to open the body up for relaxation for the first part of the class. The rest of the class is focused on progressive relaxation, breathing, and a variety of meditative techniques. (Props, chairs, and mats are available).
I have many people who come to see me that want a meditation or a yoga practice at home. I created this class to help with that. We will be exploring not only how and why to prepare before meditation but also will practice different meditative techniques for students to “try out”.
We will also discuss how meditation affects the brain.
The research is suggesting that a regular meditation practice (15-30 minutes a day) can increase gray matter in the brain, build new connections, clean out plaque that causes dementia, reduce the size of the amygdala which causes the fight or flight response, and increase our resiliency to cortisol (stress hormone).
There are many reasons to work on a meditation practice, especially if you are trying to be healthy and/or reduce stress and its effects. Of course this should be easy enough, right? Why is sitting 15-30 minutes every day so difficult to maintain (and for some even start)? One is that sitting in general can be painful and uncomfortable. Two, establishing any new habit or change is difficult. Consistency, consistency, consistency. The mantra for true success ……Oh if developing consistency itself was easy.
Even if you practice now and then, it is better than none at all. I would encourage everyone to try for 5 minutes and go from there. You may surprise yourself that you can actually develop your own practice if you keep coming back to it when you think of it, no matter how long the in-between.
One also does not have to just “sit”. I’m also hoping this new class will educate students on what is meditation by research standards vs other definitions.