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Hatha yoga is the most commonly practiced style of yoga in the United States today. The word hatha is derived from the Indian words for sun (ha) and moon (tha), which is why this style is often referred to as the yoga of “opposite pairs.” Hatha yoga is a low-impact exercise for the body and mind. It combines different asanas, or postures, with a deep breathing technique called pranayama to promote flexibility, balance and relaxation. With its easy-to-learn techniques and numerous health benefits, this philosophy-turned-fitness craze offers something for everyone.
Why do yoga?
The short answer is that yoga makes you feel better. Practicing the postures, breathing exercises and meditation makes you healthier in body, mind and spirit. Yoga lets you tune in, chill out, shape up all at the same time.
For many people, that’s enough of an answer. But there’s more if you’re interested.
For starters, yoga is good for what ails you. Specifically, research shows that yoga helps manage or control anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, headaches, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, stress and other conditions and diseases. What’s more, yoga:
• Improves muscle tone, flexibility, strength and stamina
• Reduces stress and tension
• Boosts self esteem
• Improves concentration and creativity
• Lowers fat
• Improves circulation
• Stimulates the immune system
• Creates sense of well being and calm.
And that’s just the surface stuff. In fact, most of the benefits mentioned above are secondary to yoga’s original purpose.
What is Qigong?
Qigong (also spelled Ch’i Kung) is a powerful system of healing and energy medicine from China. It is the art and science of using breathing techniques, gentle movement, and meditation to cleanse, strengthen, and circulate the life energy (qi). Qigong practice leads to better health and vitality and a tranquil state of mind. In the past, qigong was also called nei gong (inner work) and dao yin (guiding energy).
Why study Qigong?
Qigong has four major areas of application:
1. Healing Qigong (Yi Gong). Healing Qigong (sometimes translated “Medical Qigong”) is the preventive and self-healing aspect of Chinese medicine. We are all exposed to stress. Qigong teaches us how to control our reactions to stress so that life events do not cause such symptoms as high blood pressure, frustration, or anxiety. Healthy people practice qigong to become super-healthy. Healers use qigong to prevent “healer burn-out” and to maintain a positive presence.
2. External Qi Healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao). Qigong includes a sophisticated system of health assessment and non-contact treatment called External Qi Healing (EQH). The healer learns to tap into a well of healing energy in nature and “funnel” it through his or her body. Unlike some purely intuitive systems, EQH includes exercises that increase sensitivity to energy fields and efficacy of treatment. The more you practice External Qi Healing exercises and meditations, the more effective your healing treatment. External Qi Healing techniques may be used as a stand alone form of wellness treatment or may be combined with massage, acupuncture, Therapeutic Touch, osteopathy, or any other form of body-work. Because treatment is generally performed at a distance from the body, EQH does not violate psychotherapists’ professional ethics (which do not allow touching the patient) and is thus an ideal adjunct to body-centered psychotherapy.
3. Sports Qigong (Wu Gong). In sports and martial arts, qigong is the key to strength, stamina, coordination, speed, flexibility, balance, and resistance to injury. Qigong exercises can improve performance in any sport, improving the golf drive, tackling ability in football, accuracy in tennis, and stamina in swimming.
4. Spiritual Qigong (Fo Gong, Tao Gong). As a spiritual discipline, qigong leads to self-awareness, tranquillity, and harmony with nature. The spiritual aspect of qigong evolved from Taoism and Buddhism.
Tai chi, sometimes called tai chi chuan, is a competitive, self-paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching. To do tai chi, you perform a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner. Each posture flows into the next without pausing.
Anyone, regardless of age or physical ability, can practice tai chi. It doesn’t take physical prowess. Rather, tai chi emphasizes technique over strength.
Tai chi is used to:
· Reduce stress and lower blood pressure
· Increase flexibility and balance
· Improve muscle strength and definition
· Increase energy, stamina and agility
· Increase feelings of well-being
Although tai chi is generally safe, consider talking with your doctor before starting a new program. This is particularly important if you have any problems with your joints, spine or heart.
Meditation
Did you know that people who meditate for a short time each day are much happier than people who don’t?
Meditators are much healthier with greatly extended life spans, too. As a matter of fact, their health is so much better that a number of insurance companies have reduced premiums for people who meditate.
Did you know that experienced meditators have developed many latent abilities that they never knew they had, abilities that exist within every person? And they have gotten much closer to answering life’s mysterious questions?
They are much smarter, too. In fact, meditators brains have been proven to function at a superior level on every single test, measurement, and assessment that the scientific community has generated. That is one reason why top level executives and CEOs meditate.
Were you aware that meditators produce immensely more pleasurable brain chemicals, the same chemicals that flow through your system on the days when you feel very good, and these pleasurable brain chemicals are produced constantly?
Did you know that they also sleep much better? As a matter of fact, they need fewer hours of sleep every night because their mind and bodies are completely refreshed and rejuvenated during their highly pleasurable meditation sessions. Meditation is many times more powerful than sleep.
Also, meditators have far superior mental and emotional health. They have less anxiety, depression, anger, sadness, fear, and they have more friends, healthier relationships, and feel a great deal more satisfied and content with their lives?
So with all these benefits, why isn’t everyone meditating? Don’ know how to get started, let us help. Classes are held weekly at Sweetwater Wellness Center
At Sweetwater we have two different typed of Meditation classes
QiGong Meditation and Transcendental Meditation
Qigong – Quiet is the basis for all Qigong practice. Quiet water is crystal clear, quiet people have clarity of mind. In modern society, the seven conditions that cause disease are: Joy, Anger, Anxiety, Excessive Pensiveness, Sadness, Fear, and Shock. Too much anger can cause loss of Yin energy, too much joy can cause loss of Yang energy. Anger makes Qi rise and affects the liver. Joy slows Qi down and affects the heart. Anxiety and Pensiveness knot Qi and affect the spleen. Sadness dissolves Qi and affects the lungs. Fear makes Qi descend and affects the kidney. Shock scatters Qi and affects the kidneys and heart. technique is the most ancient, most effective, most researched and most widely practiced system of meditation available in the world today.
If any of these conditions persist for a long time, it causes stagnation of Qi and blood, creating malfunction of the body and disease such as cancer, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and so on.
Taoist and Buddhist meditations are used to preserve one’s health through movements developed over the long history of Chinese Qigong. Taoist meditation is the practice of breath control to get more energy to flow through the Xiao Zhou Tian (the yin and yang meridians) and Da Zhou Tian meridians (the twelve organ meridians), eventually to keep healthy and to have a long life. The Buddhist meditation is the practice of mind control to brighten people’s lives and to gain wisdom. So the practice of Taoist and Buddhist meditation together will result in improved physical and mental health, gaining new wisdom, and breaking off greed and foolish expectations; and finally, liberating one’s life from upset and sorrow.
In meditation, controlling the breath, the mind and the position of the body is important. Controlling the breath, practicing breathing is the way to save energy, which the ancients called “Tu Na”. There are many types of controlled breathing practice: abdominal, counter abdominal, stop and close, and fetus breathing. In meditation practice, breathing will be slower, deeper, longer and more even; it seems to appear and disappear.
The highest level of breath control is fetus breathing, just like the baby in the mother’s belly. In old times, the Qigong Masters had these comments about breathing practice: “Breathing as a baby in mother’s belly, heart as sincere as a baby; the Yin and Yang are in balance; the heavens and earth are one. Breathing out gently, breathing in unbrokenly… by and by, energy manifestations will appear in the third eye (upper dantian). Fetus breathing restores to the original state – everything returns to the root, the universe.” This is the ancient meditation procedure; the physical body is totally relaxed and peaceful, making the body and spirit completely harmonious.
Modern scientific researchers point out that breathing more deeply, slowly, more evenly and longer breaths can increase the oxygen intake of the body. In turn, the cells get enough oxygen and can improve the body’s metabolism, making the cells healthier. They found with x-ray machines that when doing meditation, the diaphragm and breathing system moves 3-4 times more than normal, thus improving lung function. Also, large blood vessels and heart have been moved more, thus enhancing heart function and helping prevent hardening of the arteries. The abdominal organs also were massaged internally, thus preventing problems of the stomach, intestines, liver and gall bladder.
The “Tao De Ching”, authored by Lau Tze some 2,500 years ago, said, “make the mind as sincere as a baby”. This means the practice of meditation can help us achieve the highest level of anything, such as kindness, unselfishness, equality, generosity, and spiritual attainment. It can help the bad Qi to exit the body and keep good health. It can also help the essence of energy (Qi) enter the body to build up the organs. Proper breathing helps a person to avoid diseases, vexation, anxiety and weakness. If the energy increases and the bad energy leaves the body, we can expect long life and total health.
The Transcendental Meditation -The Transcendental Meditation program is unique because of its source, practice, proof, and universality. These four attributes distinguish it from all other meditation techniques, systems of stress reduction, or programs for personal development available in the world today.
A Timeless Tradition
The Transcendental Meditation technique comes from an ancient tradition of knowledge—the Vedic tradition of India—that has stood the test of time as an advanced science and technology of consciousness. The Vedic Tradition has carefully maintained the purity of this practice for thousands of years, ensuring its effectiveness for us today.
An Effortless Practice
It is easy and enjoyable, bringing the mind to a silent yet fully awake state of awareness—Transcendental Consciousness—the source of thought, the inner reservoir of creativity, energy, and intelligence. Unlike other meditation techniques, there is no concentration or contemplation, no effort to hold or control the mind.
Scientific Proof
Its effects and benefits have been documented by more than 600 scientific research studies conducted at 200 universities and research institutions in 35 countries. The National Institutes of Health has contributed more than $21 million to verify the benefits of the Transcendental Meditation technique. No other program for personal development has received this level of attention and respect from the scientific community.
Universal Benefits
Anyone can practice the technique successfully—more than six million people have learned worldwide. If you can think a thought, you can practice the Transcendental Meditation technique. And when you practice the technique regularly, twice a day, you’ll gain a wide range of benefits for your mind, your body, your relationships, your community, and your world.
