You don't necessarily have to sign up for an advanced yoga class, or even purchase special equipment, to reap some of the benefits of this healthy discipline. Beneficial yoga stretches and poses can often be done wherever you happen to find yourself.
David Conway is one of New York City's most sought after yoga teachers. As a documentary filmmaker, Conway recently completed "the power of yoga" a film focusing on the difference yoga has made in the lives of people from different walks of life. Here he offers some basic seated yoga poses:
- Reduce tension.
Stretching, Conway says, is all about creating a greater relationship with your body through different postures.
- Exhale with sound.
There are many good yoga poses you can do while sitting down, where you're in an office chair or on a park bench.
- Seated Forward bend: Fold chest to thighs.
To complete a Seated Forward Bend, sit on the front edge of your chair with your feet under your knees. Now fold forward, resting you chest on your thighs. It can be helpful to hold one wrist behind your calves.
- Seated Twist: start with lower spine.
To complete a Seated Twist, you once again begin by sitting at the front edge of your chair with your feet under your knees. Keep your legs at right angles. With your right arm behind you helping to lengthen your spine and your left arm helping you to twist, begin to twist from your lower spine.
- Continue twisting.
Continue the twist up through your chest, into your shoulders and then lastly to your head, so you are looking over your right shoulder. You want to feel your shoulders roll back, and let your head fall back.
- Change your body.
When you really accept your body and it's limitations, says Conway, you can begin to change your body in intelligent ways.
For more about Yoga, check out the following websites:
American Yoga Association
www.americanyogaassociation.org
The Yoga Alliance
www.yogaalliance.org
Yoga Research and Education Center
www.yrec.org
Yoga Finder
www.yogafinder.com
Yoga Basics
www.yogabasics.com
Yoga Movement
www.yogamovement.com
Next: Enriching Yoga
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