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Yoga
Simple Ways to use Essential Oils
Simple ways to use essential oils during yoga and meditation practices are to apply essential oils topically at specific points such as the wrists, behind the ears or the forehead or over your heart, or simply use a diffuser.
How Essential Oils Can Enhance Meditation and Yoga Practice
Essential oils are a great tool for deepening your meditation or yoga practice. One of the ways to help you enter a meditative state is to use essential oils that bring focus, clarity, relaxation, and connection. You can choose a single oil that your intuition tells you is perfect for you at this moment, or you can choose or create your own blends that help you relax. Because of their thousands of benefits, essential oils are able to stimulate deep breathing, therefore improving this aspect of your yoga practice.
The practice of yoga includes holding postures (asanas) and observing prana (life force energy) in the body to strengthen the connection we have to the energy flow in our bodies. Essential oils are known to aid in this process, and further support the practice of yoga through aromatherapy. The quickest ways to bring your body back into balance are through natural therapies such as Aromatherapy, Meditation, and Reiki.
Both meditation and essential oils help to stimulate the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. When paired together they do wonders for managing emotional wellness and releasing negative thoughts and feelings. The more these tools are used, and in conjunction with each other, the quicker we can stimulate the relaxation response when we find ourselves in a stressful situation.
Newsletter – November 2019
New News!!
Great time to purchase Gift Cards for the holidays and special occasions for the ones you love; and the ones who would benefit from yoga practice and/or wellness coaching sessions. Contact Sarah to get one now at 616-893-5661.
YOGA SPORT
Are you ready?? We are excited about will be starting our new class starting in January 2020 on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm. It is a 60-minute class with vinyasa flows designed to build heat and strength. This practice is a total body workout that will enhance circulation and lengthen and strengthen musculature, improve performance, prevent injuries, and bring more joy to your sport by supplementing it with this yoga class. Great way to enhance your sport!
Special Events and Schedule Changes
There will be NO yoga classes on December 24, 25, and 31st. and January 1st due to the holidays. Take the time to find gratitude with your friends and families. Time to refresh, renew, and relax in this busy time. Find your breath in all situations…it will help you to be fully present and have less stress during the holiday times.
Family Yoga Saturdays, ongoing classes 11:00-11:30 AM
Family yoga is an all-ages activity with a focus on the benefits of mindfulness. Parents/family and children together will engage in fun poses, learn how to breathe, be creative with yoga activities/games, and relax. Location: Englehardt (Lowell) Library. Space is limited; first-come, first-served. This class is FREE.
There will be no Monday evening classes in December. We apologize for the inconvenience.
HEALTH & WELLNESS COACHING
How many are you afraid to change? What is holding you back from growing and becoming the person you really want to be? Coaching is a great experience. You will be amazed with yourself on what you are capable of doing!
Health and wellness coaches help clients make positive and lasting changes to their health. Our coach guides clients through the process of creating a vision for their health and well-being, developing a healthy mindset and healthy habits, and encouraging them every step of the way until they accomplish their goals. Are you ready for a change?? Together we can do this! Call today for a FREE discovery session at 616-893-5661.
LIVE.PLAY. SHOP. LOCAL. We Accept LOWELL BUCK$ at the Hammock.
Benefits of Different Essential Oils for Relaxation and Yoga
Hey there! So, there are many different oils you can use for relaxation and/or yoga. It really depends on the person. For some people smelling something that brings back happy memories is all it takes to relax. Such as Pine essential oil may be relaxing for you if it reminds you of the fun times you had when camping.
Some common essential oils for calming or relaxing are Lavender, Stress Away, Cedarwood, Peace & Calming, or Frankincense. You can simply put a drop or two in the palm of your hands and cup your hands over your nose and inhale slowly to enjoy the calming effect. You could also put some in a diffuser or on your wrists. My favorite relaxing oils are a combination of Joy and Stress Away. I have blended them together with some witch hazel to make a perfume out of them and have received many compliments on my perfume.
For yoga, you could use any of the calming oils or if you are interested in something to help you focus you could try some Peppermint. It is great for focus as well as many other things like upset stomach and clogged sinuses. If you wanted something uplifting you could try Orange, Joy, or Lemon. One way to use the oils while doing yoga would be to put some of the oil in a spray bottle with distilled or filtered water and spray lightly spray your yoga mat before starting. This way you can smell the oil every time you get close to the mat.
Well, that’s it for now. We’ll chat again later on.
– Melissa
10 More Benefits of Yoga
- Ups your heartrate! While not all yoga is aerobic, you can take a flow vinyasa class or ashtanga class. This can boost your heart rate. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen.
Drops your blood pressure. Savasana (corpse pose) of lying down and breathing was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (top number), and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (bottom number).- Regulates your adrenal glands. Yoga helps to lower cortisol levels. Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, If cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis they can compromise the immune system.
- Makes you happier! Studies have shown that consistent yoga practice improved depression, and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in levels of monoamine oxidase and cortisol that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function.
- Healthy Lifestyles. Move more, eat less. Regular yoga practice promotes movement, enhances the spiritual and emotional aspects and may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level.
- Lowers blood sugar. Yoga lowers blood surge and LDL (bad cholesterol) and boosts HDL (good cholesterol). By getting your blood sugar level down, you can decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.
- Helps you focus. An important component of yoga is staying in the present. Studies show yoga improves coordination, memory, reaction times, recall information better, and are less distracted.
- Relaxing your system. Yoga encourages you to relax, focus on the present, and creating a balance within your parasympathetic (rest and digest) and sympathetic (fight or flight) systems.
- Improves your balance. Practicing yoga regularly will increase your ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space. This helps to improve your balance and coordination. Better balance less falls, and more stability.
- Maintains your nervous system. Practicing yoga helps to create a more efficient nervous system that can enhance brain wave patterns, regulate the temperature in the body and much more.
Fun Times During Yoga on Halloween Night
Halloween Fun during our evening yoga class. We all had a howling great time. I can’t wait until the Christmas holiday classes!
Come and join the fun and get great benefits from yoga. Classes are ongoing…check out the class schedules.
Congratulations to Kim Briemayer for best dressed Halloween night! She is sporting her vintage “prom dress” with all her beautiful accessories. She is amazing as she fully participated in the yoga class dressed in style.
(Click images to enlarge…)
Yoga Essence
Breathing
Breathing is typically done through the nose. Deep belly breathing is the key success in health and wellness. The breath is our most powerful tool to calm and relax the body and clean the mind. It helps to get deeper into poses. It is important to focus on maintaining long and smooth breaths throughout our yoga practice.
Feeling
We want to feel something in every pose. Remember to check in with your body and modify or change poses to feel more or less sensation. When we take the time to feel something within each pose, we are more grounded in the moment and aware of subtle changes and our potential.
Listening to the Body
As we practice poses and breathing, check in to see what feels tight, comfortable, loose, how is the breathing, how is our body alignment, how is the mind?
Letting Go of Competition
When practicing yoga, no one has the same body as you. You are special in your own way. No one can have the exact same pose. It is not a competition…it is about what you need.
Letting Go of Judgment
Judgment and fear have a tendency to hold you back from living a rich and meaningful life. Your yoga practice is about you. No one is perfect and we are all unique in our way. Embrace who you are and what you are capable of.
Letting Go of Expectations
In yoga we turn our attention inward, encourage yourself to let go of external comparisons, and judgments that are impacting you from have a deeper experience in your practice. Being here and in the present – today – and not letting the past experience limit you. Yoga is a process and a journey, not a destination.
Staying “In the Present Moment”
It means stopping to notice the beauty and love around us and within us. It means being fully present in each moment because it is only the present moment that exists. So many of us worry about the future, hold regrets about the past, and completely ignore the present.
Free Family Yoga Classes in Lowell this Fall!
Thank you to Maryalene LaPonsie of Lowell’s First Look for the wonderful write-up about our FREE YOGA CLASSES this fall!
An excerpt from the article:
…From September 7 to November 30, the library will be hosting family yoga classes from 11-11:30 am each Saturday. The classes are free and will be led by Sarah Ryder, an occupational therapist, registered yoga teacher and owner of The Hammock.
Classes Part of Energize Lowell Initiative
Stephanie Weaver, a branch librarian, explains the family yoga classes are part of a larger initiative that seeks to promote community wellness. Known as Energize Lowell, the initiative will eventually encompass nutrition classes offered by the YMCA, activities on trails at the Wittenbach Wege Center and perhaps other events.
There has been some evidence linking movement to improved literacy which is one reason the library was keen to offer family yoga classes. It is also an activity that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities.
Family yoga was offered over the summer, and each session contained a unique mix of activities depending on who was in attendance. One week a 3-year old was in the crowd and another week, it was all adults. “It’s very easy for me to modify and change things,” Ryder says. Chairs are also available for those who want to participate but are unable to stand throughout the class.
The library has invested in mats and blocks so families don’t need to bring any equipment to the sessions.
“Americanized Yoga” Comes With Multiple Benefits
Ryder knows some people are wary of yoga because of its spiritual roots. However, these classes are what she terms Americanized yoga. “It’s movement. It’s breathing,” she says. “We’re not sitting and chanting.”…
The article concludes…
In addition to family yoga, Weaver says the library is interested in offering a yoga program specifically for seniors. Stay tuned for more information on that.
In the meantime, Lowell residents are invited to a free yoga class on Saturday, September 14, that will take place at the Grand River Riverfront Park bridge. Ryder says she will meet participants at the bridge at 9 am and conduct an hour-long yoga session that will take advantage of the beautiful views along the Grand River. If the weather is inclement, the session will be moved to an indoor location.
For more information on yoga at the bridge, visit The Hammock on Facebook. And to learn more about happenings at the library, follow the Kent District Library – Englehardt/Lowell branch.
Hammock Poolside Yoga
At The Hammock, we have had some fantastic yoga experiences in the past years and this summer. We have had ongoing poolside yoga at Roxanne’s a beautiful home 1-2 times each summer. Weather has been fantastic, and there is nothing like participating in yoga poolside with true nature all around. The birds, light breeze, trees gently swaying, and the white puffy clouds drifting by. The pool is heated, the light, delightful refreshments and snacks were to die for, and the sense of community and friendship found from the yoga students is wonderful. Thank you so much for the poolside yoga!
