Much more than another fitness trend, yoga is a discipline anyone can practice for whole-life wellness. Shana Baumgartner of Emmaus's LivingRoom Yoga explains how to tap into this wonderfully accessible activity and enjoy a clearer, calmer life. Much more than another fitness trend, yoga is a discipline anyone can practice for whole-life wellness. Shana Baumgartner of Emmaus's LivingRoom Yoga explains how to tap into this wonderfully accessible activity and enjoy a clearer, calmer life.
Bountiful Benefits
Yoga can absolutely improve strength, flexibility and circulation. It is a gentle exercise that anyone can begin to experiment with, whatever their level of activity or age. But the benefits Baumgartner stresses most are psychological: “It's a great way to manage stress and anxiety.”
There are many types of yoga, from gently holding restful poses to moving constantly through more physically challenging postures, so it can be as robust a physical workout as you want it to be. Whether you're soothingly still or in sweat-breaking motion, it's the mindfulness you forge through the practice that makes yoga what it is.
“It can make you feel more calm, more centered, more even-tempered and better able to manage emotions,” Baumgartner says. When you start to see the benefits, the habit can come to feel as necessary as brushing your teeth or washing your hair.
Check Out the Check-In
Yoga has teachers to guide you, but as Baumgartner says, “The body is the teacher.”
We spend a lot of time at war with our bodies in one way or another. What a relief to be on the same side!
Most practices begin with a check-in. Check in with your mind: Is it racing, calm, quiet? Are you feeling your emotions? Carrying someone else's with you? Check in with your body: Where are you holding tension, and can you release it? Check in with your breath: Is it quick? Deep? Start to breathe more intentionally.
As you practice observing and deepening your breath, linking breath to movement and become more aware of how your mind, body and breath work together, you're empowered to notice your reactions throughout life and calm yourself.
“You're not necessarily pushing yourself to become something you should be,” Baumgartner says. “It's more like uncovering yourself, learning, discovering what your body can do.”
Whether you tend to put limits on yourself or push yourself too far, yoga teaches you to pay attention, explore the mindsets you have and take more agency in deciding who you want to become.
Be Patient with Yourself
“I'll hear people say, ‘I'm not flexible enough,'” Baumgartner says, “and it's ironic, because that's the whole point: to build flexibility, not only in the body, but in the mind.”
The practice of yoga mirrors the practice of life. You attempt things that might be challenging, be they balancing poses, listening to your breath with patience or letting yourself stretch as far and no farther than your body can at that moment. You learn then how you respond to challenges.
“Maybe you get embarrassed, criticize yourself, give up,” she says. Yoga is a safe setting to observe this and try something different. “Maybe laugh at yourself, try again, add a prop to make the pose easier. We practice habits of mind as we're practicing better habits of movement and building new muscle.”
Being hard on yourself, comparing yourself with others and trying to push yourself into things that you think you should be able to do are all habits that yoga seeks to counter with compassionate exploration.
Make It a Habit
“Start any way you can,” is Baumgartner's advice. Just getting on the mat (or living room floor) or to the yoga studio is often the hardest part. Some have difficulty justifying time for self-care when there's so much else to do that might seem more practical.
If you cultivate a habit, be it class every week or just 10 minutes a day at home, you'll find in time it's easier to relax, let go, become that observer of yourself, settle down and center. Your mind comes to recognize that it can pick up where it left off when you're done.
Yoga classes come in all styles, so experiment with different types of yoga and different classes to find what feels good. Yoga studios will have all the accessories you might need, like blocks, bolsters, straps and so on, but if you want to get started at home, you can find countless videos online to follow and things around the house to stand in for yoga props. You can even search for standing or chair yoga that you can do at your desk. Anything to get started!
The Expert:
Shana Baumgartner
Instructor
LivingRoom Yoga | 1328 Chestnut St., Emmaus | 610.216.4698 | livingroomyogaemmaus.com
