Divine Yoga

When we go on our Embracing Health Detox Retreats, yoga is a lovely and albeit important part of our program. For guests that are new to stepping on the mat, this can be a little daunting at the beginning! But what we often find is that after a few days of practicing, the guests come to thoroughly enjoy and look forward to the classes which signal the beginning of each day.

Although yoga has indeed become rather heavily commercialized in the western world, rest assured it isn’t simply a practice for young, fit, flexible people! Anyway can do yoga. If you have a body- you can do yoga! Despite popular mentality, yoga isn’t about being about to touch your toes nor twist your body into pretzel shapes. Yoga has as much to do with the mind and the subtle body as it does with the physical body.

An ancient practice that has been passed down through generations and generations, yoga has a vast array of benefits. During our retreats, we do our best to offer our guests an insight into these various benefits and the ways in which they can continue to accommodate yoga in their everyday lives.

From a medical standpoint, yoga has been proven to increase blood circulation, reduce high blood pressure, assist with arthritis and osteoporosis, treat lower back pain, improve bone density, relieve headaches and migraines as well as reduce stress, tension and depression. On a more subtle level, yoga can help you to understand the mind-body connection and cultivate energy, mental strength and emotional stamina. Yoga can assist with concentration and mood, with balance and posture as well as with a more connected and intuitive sense of body awareness.

Yoga can be modified to suit everyone; it is a perfect low-impact, beginner-friendly practice that everyone can benefit from in one form or another. Strength, flexibility and movement all increase with your journey into yoga. Even for experienced yogis- there is always a deeper place to reach and lessons to learn each and every time one steps onto the mat. Yoga will also assist the performance of any other exercise that you enjoy- be it running, riding, hiking, weight lifting, swimming etc.

Introducing yoga into your life also teaches us one of the most important things that we so often negate and forget- breathing. Yoga teaches us how to reconnect with our breath, it reminds us where we should be drawing breath into our body and how we can best dispel that breath. In these simple reminders, yoga helps to influence our day to day life- introducing simple techniques that can reduce stress, take us back into our body and let go of stored tension. Sleep can dramatically improve with a regular yoga practice and the introduction of simple forms of meditation. Meditation, even for 5-10 minutes a day, can help to restore peace and clarity, improve concentration, lower body pain and headaches, improve digestion, and reduce anxiety.

So are you feeling inspired to begin? Our detox retreats offer daily yoga classes with experienced teachers who work with each guest to find a perfect way to practice in safety and confidence. Our guests often state at the end of their retreat that the yoga classes were one of the highlights of their time and many set goals to continue including yoga in their day-to-day lives beyond the retreat environment.

It is never too late to embrace yoga in your life! To find out more about our retreats visit… http://www.embracinghealth.com.au/retreat

Leisa