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Downtown Durango in the Smiley Building 1309 East Third Avenue First Floor, Room 10 donna@desertnomadyoga.com |
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Desert Nomad Yoga |
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For More Information: Donna Stewart donna@desertnomadyoga.com 970-946-5392 |
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Yoga is a path that offers many different destinations for different people’s journeys. It can be gentle and nurturing or it can make your muscles burn and cover you in sweat. As a science, Yoga is a system of health and fitness that has been evolving for some 5,000 years. An ancient Indian wisdom, it brings practitioners strong, healthy bodies and it’s focus on meditation helps students reduce stress, cultivate inner calm & increase focus and stamina. Who Can Practice? Anybody! When most people think of yoga, they think they have to be flexible before they ever practice. People say, “I’d love to practice yoga, but I’m so inflexible” or “so out of shape.” The truth is that that is exactly why people should practice yoga. It will help you gain and retain your flexibility. Adding Meditation and breathing practices can help you relax, restore and gain a clearer focus and a calm center. Though it has been practiced widely throughout Asia for several millennia, it has only reached the United States in the last 50 years. As modern science validates more and more of it’s benefits, however, its popularity has been sky-rocketing. If you think you are too out of shape or too inflexible to practice yoga, you should start practicing yoga! That’s what it’s for! The wonderful thing about yoga is that it is suitable for people of all ages, abilities, & styles. We offer several different levels and focuses that we customize to each class or individual. Whatever your level of fitness you will be able to make real and lasting improvements to your health and flexibility. Before you ever enter a class, draw a circle around yourself and decide only to pay attention to what is within that circle. Leave ego and judgment at the door and allow yourself to grow into a practice that works for you. Pay no attention to the person on the mat beside you. They might not have any other hobbies! :) The goal is not about flawless execution, but growing at your own pace, physically, mentally and emotionally. Each class is followed by a relaxation period which calms the mind and body, helping to relieve stress and give the body more energy to repair, restore and internalize lessons from class. How do I Measure Progress? This will be hard for any Type A’s that have read on til now, but you don’t measure progress. Yoga is about accepting where you are with compassion and without judgement while learning and growing at your own pace. There is no finish line. It is a continual process of self-discovery—about your body and your mind. Each class you attend or each time that you practice, you are building on your experiences and learning and your body is building greater strength and flexibility. At DNY we encourage students to practice in whatever way that makes sense for them on each particular day. We encourage students not to become complacent and to try to operate just on the periphery of their “Edge” and this helps students continually grow and focus. Can’t do headstand? Take as long as you like to get there, but eventually, you will get there—if that’s what you want. In the meantime, don’t sweat it. Enjoy the process! |
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What is Yoga? |
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What are the Benefits? Experts from the Mayo clinic to Harvard Medical School have found abundant evidence that exercise can enhance your health and well-being. They recommend a combination of aerobic activity, strength training, stretching exercises and balance exercises. Yoga provides three of those and depending on the type of yoga you practice, could provide all four, depending on the level of aerobic activity in the yoga you practice. This combination goes a long way to helping prevent disease, lower your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis and helps you lose and maintain a healthy weight!
More specific benefits from yoga include: increases circulation, strengthens immune system, reduces stress, increases overall strength and flexibility, improves sleep, improves concentration & focus, lowers blood pressure, tones muscles, balances overall muscular strength (especially helpful to athletes), improves digestion, raises metabolism, increases core strength, strengthens bones, relieves aches and pains, reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety, increases the bodies ability to heal, increases lung capacity and it can be just plain fun! For more information, visit our articles page on yoga and health. To learn what others are saying, visit our Comments/Gallery page. |
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From an advanced Private class: Donna helps Ingrid deepen her stretch in Adho Mukha Svanasana while working on her handstand at the same time. |
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Group Class in Canyonlands! Darren, Rachelle & Quinten. April 2007 |
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Yoga is a system of health and fitness that offers practitioners more of everything we exercise for than any other activity and, bonus, it improves our performance in just about every activity we undertake, both physically, mentally and even professionally. |
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Downtown Durango in the Smiley Building 1309 East Third Avenue First Floor, Room 10 donna@desertnomadyoga.com |
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Desert Nomad Yoga |
