yogasmiths Archives - Page 6 of 7

Posted on November 18, 2017October 14, 2020 by Yogasmiths — Leave a comment

Gentle Years Yoga classes – Hoylake – Chair based yoga

We are very pleased to announce that we are starting our British Wheel of Yoga Gentle Years Yoga classes in Hoylake starting on Friday 12th January at 10:30am at Hoylake Community Parade Centre, 31 Hoyle Road, Hoylake, Wirral, CH47 3AG.

Gentle Years Yoga is a chair based yoga suitable for anyone who wishes to or needs to take their yoga practice a little more gently. This can include people with age related health conditions or health conditions that require a yoga practice that is modified.

Gentle Years Yoga is an authentic traditional Hatha yoga practice that has been modified to be chair based. A 75 minute class will include breathing exercises, a pulse raising activity, concentration activities, co-ordination activities, resistance work, yoga postures, relaxation and an important element of fun. It is suitable for all and can be adapted for all.

Please find a link below to the British Wheel of Yoga Gentle Years Yoga research results. As can be seen in the research document, the people in the pilot had conditions such as osteoarthritis, hypertension, depression/anxiety, hypercholesterolemia, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, dementia, cancer and cerebrovascular disease.

Results-of-the-BWY-Gentle-Years-Yoga-Research

The pilot group demonstrated the following benefits from Gentle Years Yoga;

Better mental well-being
Better quality of life
Improved leg strength
Improved lower body flexibility
Improved resting heart rate
Improved physical function – chair raising and walking
Improved flexibility
Reduced pain
Stress relief / calming effect
Improved mood
Reduced frequency of panic attacks
Enjoyable social interaction and making new friends

After the 75 minute class at the Hoylake Parade Community Centre all attendees are encouraged to go to the cafe on the ground floor for tea, cake and a chat.

If you have any queries about Gentle Years Yoga either for yourself or a friend / relative please do not hesitate to get in touch either by using the contact form on the website or emailing us at enquiries@yogasmiths.org or alternatively you can call us on 07834268052.

We have gift vouchers available that can be used to purchase a block of 6 gentle Years Yoga classes for a relative. A great birthday or Xmas present.

Here is a link to the Facebook event for our first Gentle Years yoga class;

Gentle Years Yoga class – Facebook event

We look forward to welcoming you to our new friendly Gentle Years Yoga class

Namaste

Paul & Steve

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Posted on November 17, 2017November 16, 2017 by Yogasmiths — Leave a comment

Yogasmiths Gift Vouchers – Ideal Xmas or birthday present

We are pleased to announce that we have Gift Vouchers available for purchase.

These are an ideal gift for our regular class attendees and also for anyone who may be interested in coming to one of our classes.

The gift vouchers can be made out for any amount that you want, we would suggest maybe one of the following;

One public class Â£6
A block of 6 public classes Â£33
A block of 6 Gentle Years Yoga classes Â£33 (starting in Hoylake on Friday 12th January @ 10:30am @ Hoylake Parade Community Centre )
A one hour private one to one yoga session Â£35 (in West Kirby)
A one hour private one to one yoga session Â£40 (in West Wirral) (Enquire for costs for elsewhere)
A block of ten private one to one yoga sessions Â£300
or any other amount to suit your budget

The gift vouchers come with an envelope to place them in.

The vouchers can be purchased and collected from one of our classes or alternatively we can send them out in the post at cost price.

Namaste

Paul & Steve

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Posted on October 10, 2017 by Yogasmiths — Leave a comment

World Mental Health Day 10th October 2017

It is World Mental Health day today, Tuesday 10th October 2017. Most people suffer at some point during their life with a mental health problem.

This can range from a period of work related stress and anxiety to a more complex mental health condition. Sometimes these challenges can come right out of the blue and hit us.

Yoga is an excellent way of helping to build our resilience to mental health challenges and is also a wonderful recuperative practice.

Both Steve and I have used yoga to help us at various times in our lives. We first ventured to a yoga class when Steve was living with depression and we thought we would see if it would help. Steve found that the yoga really helped him and was a step towards recovery. I also found that the yoga helped me in many ways and I hadn’t realised that I needed it! That was the start of our regular yoga practice that has lead us to becoming yoga teachers!

I have also used yoga and breathing techniques to deal with periods of work related anxiety when I was working in middle management. Yoga techniques can provide you with the space that is all so important when the mind feels so busy and full.

There is an excellent article written by Dr Mercola titled Yoga Benefits Your Brain Function and Mental Health.

The following is an extract from it and there is a link to the full article below;

Why Yoga Is so Beneficial for Your Brain

Over the years, a number of studies have honed in on the brain benefits of yoga. For example, studies have found that:

â€¢ Twenty minutes of Hatha yoga improves your brain function (speed and accuracy of mental processing) to a greater degree than 20 minutes of aerobic exercise (jogging).^5,⁶ Potential mechanisms include enhanced self-awareness and reduced stress.

â€¢ Yoga helps improve mental health, including psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia.^7,^8,^9,¹⁰

Some of the studies suggest yoga can have a similar effect to antidepressants and psychotherapy.

â€¢ Yoga helps improve teenagers’ emotional resilience and ability to manage anger. As noted by yoga educator and writer Iona Smith:¹¹

“During adolescence, the frontal lobes of the brain (the seat of language and reason) are still being formed, leaving teens to overly rely on their amygdala (the seat of emotions) …

The brain’s malleability during adolescence marks a crucial stage in both cognitive and emotional development.

Luckily, researchers are now able to paint a clearer picture of some of the factors that allow students to thrive throughout high school and into adulthood, such as self-awareness, managing distressing emotions, empathy, and navigating relationships smoothly.

When students hone these skills, they are not only happier and healthier emotionally, but are also better able to focus on academics.”

â€¢ By improving stress-related imbalances in your nervous system, yoga can help relieve a range of symptoms found in common mental health disorders.

Researchers also believe yoga can be helpful for conditions like epilepsy, chronic pain, depression, anxiety and PTSD by increasing brain chemicals like gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA).¹²

Here is a link to the full article;

Yoga and the Brain – Dr Mercola article

We always ensure in our Traditional Hatha Yoga classes that we teach our students a range of different breathing exercises and different guided relaxation so that everyone can find one to suit themselves that they can use in their day to day lives.

Namaste

Paul

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Posted on August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 by Yogasmiths — Leave a comment

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course (MBSR) completed!

Hello!

I thought I would share with you that I have just completed a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course with Rita Bennet and Pauline Johnson at Hoylake Parade Community Centre. I love learning and am always looking at ways to continue our professional development as Yoga Teachers.

The MBSR course was very enjoyable and gave me some useful personal insights. The way Rita and Pauline teach the course and the structure of the course ensure that mindfulness is looked at from many different angles. This empowers you to realise how mindfulness can be woven into every aspect of life.

Prior to attending the course I had a good knowledge of mindfulness and regularly practice mindfulness both as a meditation practice and also in activities in life. However, this course really helped me to make progress on my mindfulness journey and I would highly recommend it.

Rita and Pauline also provide a weekly handout to take home with you to assist your practice along with CD’s of guided mindfulness meditations / relaxations. The course includes a silent day of mindfulness which at first sounded rather daunting but was great and actually I wanted to remain silent when we were told that we could begin talking again!

Mindfulness meditation has been proven to create new neural pathways in the brain, in essence hard wiring us to access relaxation more easily. At the same time we create new brain cells thus increasing the size of our brains!

We enjoy teaching a mindful approach in our yoga classes and we have woven many of the things I learnt on the MBSR course into our classes so that our students can benefit from mindfulness.

Rita and Pauline have a website where they list their courses, here is the link to it, check it out!

B Mindful website

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Posted on June 18, 2017August 14, 2017 by Yogasmiths — 1 Comment

West Kirby Pop-up Beach Yoga – Thank you!

We want to say a big thank you to all of the lovely people who came this morning to our Yogasmiths pop-up beach yoga session!

We had a great group and it was a pleasure to be able to lead them through a yoga practice overlooking the beautiful Dee Estuary on a perfect sunny summers day.

We had a fun nautical theme to the class and the postures that we practiced.

A small forest of perfect palm trees;