Good morning to everyone who is already up after Friday night :P
If you like Yoga, or you would like to try it with me, you should definitely come to Farley Hill Community Centre today at 11 and vote for my project.
It is the Decision Day today and who wins doesn´t depend on people like me, who prepared the presentation, but it all depends on how many people will vote for them. Well, it is not the fairest thing, because everyone is going to bring their own people, that´s why I need as many friends as possible to get the most votes...
Are you gonna come? I hope the answer is Yes! :)
Classes in Farley Hill Community Centre
for:
- 1. children
-
2. pregnant women
- 3.
older people
(3 classes per week for a
duration of 6 months)
YOGA FOR CHILDREN
Help your kids de-stress and get
healthy with Yoga. Yoga for Children
will encourage your child to learn about yoga. I will guide you and your child
through more than 200 yoga poses, meditations, and activities that are suitable
for children. Yoga for Children is holistic:
encouraging the skills of focus, mindful reflection, and mind/body awareness,
inspiring confidence and self-regulation, while teaching gratitude and
optimism. Yoga postures also act to lengthen the muscles. This will
practically assist a child in sitting comfortably for long periods of time,
which is of particular importance when at school. Yoga’s aim is to develop
a balance between physical strength and muscular flexibility. This will
ensure that a child’s physical manoeuvrability isn’t compromised by muscular
imbalances. Yoga postures will assist in enhancing a child’s spatial awareness
and their physical self in the environment around them. Many sports
taught to children at school are of a competitive nature, where a child can win
or lose. These are important life skills for a child to experience, as is
the non-competitive spirit of yoga.
YOGA FOR HEALTHY PREGNANCY
Yoga can help
women get through their pregnancy with minimal discomfort. It also helps the
birth and post-delivery stages. Yoga plays a very important role in pregnancy.
Generally, pregnant mums who do yoga exercises appear healthier, both in mind
and body. Their bodies are more flexible, which enables them to adapt to
various positions when in labour and the ligaments are more elastic, which in
turn can help to reduce labour pain. Yoga classes help
to boost circulation and also help with fluid retention. The stretching
exercises relieve aches and pains. Posture is also
improved by yoga and this can help ease back problems, which are common in
pregnant women. Yoga helps to prepare for the birth - it encourages breath and
body awareness, reduces worry and teaches women to adapt to new situations.
YOGA FOR OLDER PEOPLE
Our senior population is growing rapidly as is their interest in
leading active, fit lives. On the whole, we live longer than we used to, and we
all want high-quality living and good health to be a part of our older years.
As we grow older, however, we typically become more vulnerable to illnesses
that are linked to aging, and, as a result, we tend to move less. The
less we move, the more exposed we become to a variety of diseases, and so it
becomes a truly vicious cycle. Extended periods of sitting lead to muscular
shortening, tightening and weakening. Lack of weight-bearing activity
contributes to osteoporosis. Lack of movement and stretching leads to joint
deterioration and loss of flexibility. Yoga has been shown to help alleviate
or reduce many of these health challenges, making it an increasingly
popular exercise choice for our older adult population. Most of you are aware
of the well-researched and documented strengthening and flexibility gains
brought on by the practice of Yoga. Many health concerns have been linked to
the sedentary lifestyle which is typical of many older people, including, but
not limited to, the following: reduced joint flexibility, arthritis/bursitis, high
blood pressure, increased body fat and decreased lean body tissue, osteoporosis,
low back pain, breathing difficulties, poor blood circulation, vision problems,
chronic pain, stress-related symptoms and inability to sleep peacefully.
Priorities of my Project:
Overall priorities:
•
Reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour by encouraging the
neighbourhood to come together.
•
More diversionary activities for young people.
Health and Well Being
priorities:
•
Promoting healthy lifestyle through existing children and people's
activities.
Children and Young Children
priorities:
•
Consistent youth led activities for all young
people.
Environment and Economy
priorities:
•
Need for local evening classes.
Fees for Yoga Classes
•
I charge Ł7
for a class in Farley Hill Community Centre (yes, I already started
teaching one class a week), Luton Central Library and Raynham Way Community
Centre.
•
Ł1440 would cover the cost of 3 classes per week
for a period of 6 months (Ł20
for each class - hall
hire)
•
people will pay only Ł2 per class (only 30percent of my normal class charge)
After the end of my project I can
continue to hold the classes
and have special offers of the
fees for classes.
Physiological Benefits of Yoga
•
Flexibility
, joint range of
motion, strength, endurance, energy level, immunity, breath-holding time increases
•
Weight normalizes
•
Sleep, steadiness, balance and posture improves
Psychological Benefits of Yoga
•
Mood, memory, concentration, learning efficiency, attention improves
•
Self-acceptance, social adjustment, social skills, well-being increases
•
Anxiety
and depression decreases
Biochemical Benefits of Yoga
•
glucose, sodium, total
cholesterol and total
white blood cell count decreases
•
Hemoglobin, Lymphocyte count and Vitamin C increases
INTERESTING YOGA FACTS
- The word “yoga” is derived from the Sanskrit
root yuj meaning to yoke or join together. It most often refers
to the yoking of a conscious subject (jiva-atman) with a Supreme
Spirit (parama ta man) in order to reach an ecstatic condition (Samadhi,
a “placing or putting together”). It is derived from the Proto-Indo-European
base *yeug-, meaning “to join” as in jugular.
- “Doga”
is a type of yoga in which people use yoga to achieve harmony with their
pets. Dogs can either be used as props for their owners or they can do the
stretches themselves. It reportedly started in New York in 2002 when
Suzi Teitelman started “Yoga for Dogs.”
- The swastika is a yoga symbol that comes from the
Sanskrit term Svastik, meaning “that which is associated with
well-being.”
- The yoga symbol “Om” is found in Hindu and
Tibetan philosophy. It is said to be the primordial sound of the
universe and is connected to the Ajna Chakra (the conscience) or “third
eye” region.
- Hatha yoga is the type of yoga most frequently
practiced in Western culture. Ha means “sun” and tha means
“moon,” representing hatha yoga’s attempt to combine both complementary
forces.
- Yoga has been called one of the first and most
successful products of globalization.
- Several scholars have noted that yoga had been
packaged so well as a defense against illness and aging that it is “easy
to lose sight of its real purpose—spiritual liberation.”
- The lotus pose is a sitting pose meant to
resemble the perfect symmetry and beauty of a lotus flower. Siddhartha
Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, and Shiva, a major god in Hinduism,
are typically shown in this pose.
- Patanjali (150 B.C.) was an Indian sage who
recorded a series aphorism on how to practice yoga in the text Yoga
Sutras. While Patanjali is typically considered the father of yoga,
yoga was around long before Patanjali, who only made it more accessible.
- Hindu leader Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) is
considered a key figure in introducing yoga into Western culture, and
his address to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 is said to
have initiated yoga’s evolution in the West. The Beatles, especially
George Harrison, also helped introduce yoga into the West. Additionally,
the Beatles were the first to bring the sitar into rock and roll and the
first to introduce Hindu melodies into modern music.
- Scholars believe that yoga incorporated elements
of Stone Age shamanism, which dates back to at least 25,000 B.C. Yoga
assimilated such elements as shamanic poses, transcendence, asceticism,
and illumination.d
- Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was one of the
first Westerners to study yoga in depth. His comments on developing
higher consciousness in the East helped introduce the West to yoga
concepts and practices.
- Yoga is defined as having eight branches or
limbs. (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyhara, Dharana, Dhyana,
Samadhi). The third limb, “Asana,” refers to postures and poses that
most people think of when they hear the word “yoga.”
- Scholars
believe that the Rig-Veda (“praise of knowledge”) is one of the
oldest known texts in the world. Containing elements of yoga, its
earliest hymns are believed to be over 4,000 years old.c
- A male practitioner of yoga is called a yogi,
and a female practitioner is called a yogini.
- Yoga teachers debate whether women should avoid
inverted poses during their menstrual cycle. Some teachers say that
inverted poses raise the risk of endometriosis and vascular congestion,
or that inversions disturb energetic flow. Others say that yoga can
alleviate menstrual cramps. Still others say the decision is up to the
individual woman.
Yoga is considered to be more
spiritual than religious
- Most scholars agree that even though yoga and
Hinduism are closely related, and that yoga is within religion, it is
not itself a religion. Yoga is more often considered a type of
spirituality.l
- Studies show that yoga reduces the risk of
heart disease by improving arterial flow. Similarly, studies show that
yoga also helps treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.
- Scholars note that just as the computer
scientists who built ARPANET (the early Internet) created the conditions
for Google, so American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882) created the conditions for American yoga.l
- There are over 100 different schools of yoga,
including Hatha yoga, Raja yoga (“royal yoga”), Jnana yoga (“path of
knowledge”), Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, (“discipline of action”), and
Bikram yoga. While each school of yoga has different practices, they
have a unified goal: the state of pure bliss and oneness with the
universe.j
- In 2008, a council of muftis in Malaysia banned
yoga for Muslims. The believed that the Hindu elements of a standard
60-minute yoga class could “destroy the faith of Muslims.”
- The Guinness World Records currently lists
85-year-old Bette Calman from Australia as the world’s oldest yoga
teacher. However, 90-year-old yoga teacher Gladys Morris from Royton,
Oldham, is petitioning the Guinness World Records to be recognized as
the oldest.
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