ANDREA - a full time Yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi instructor.

I fell in love with yoga over seven years ago, when I got a Nintendo DS and bought a game called Let's Yoga. From then, I began 'playing' yoga everyday, sometimes twice a day. At first, the practice was more physical for me, but after few months I started to really count on yoga to bring me a sense of calm during especially chaotic days. Soon after, I began recognizing the benefits of a regular asana and meditation practice and continued to incorporate yoga daily - not just during times of chaos. I found myself feeling more energized, more compassionate, happier, and with more awareness. Now, I teach full-time and couldn't be happier to do what I love. What began as a physical practice for strength and flexibility quickly became a lifestyle. I teach my students to take their yoga off the mat and apply the principles learned in the class to their lives outside of the studio. I do not only teach my philosophy, I live it.

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Updates of my Project




 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

  1. 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.
  2. “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.”
  3. The swastika is a yoga symbol that comes from the Sanskrit term Svastik, meaning “that which is associated with well-being.”
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Yoga has been called one of the first and most successful products of globalization.
  7. 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.”
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. 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.”
  14. 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
  15. A male practitioner of yoga is called a yogi, and a female practitioner is called a yogini.
  16. 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
  1. 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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.”
  6. 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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