Tranquility Yoga in Owasso, Oklahoma

I read the article below and thought, "Wow! I could not have said it better myself." What do you do with discomfort?

Discomfort is just another part of us. We can avoid it, or we can learn to greet it like an old friend.

Read on at the end of the weekend update and see if you can spot yourself in the story. I included a great tutorial on how to breathe in yoga at the end.

Please remember: In yoga the breath is always the key to success (not flexibility). If you can breathe, you can do yoga.
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Come practice with us this weekend and take a picture with us on Tuesday, July 2nd, at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday classes, June 29, 2013
7:30 a.m. Yoga for All - Weights? Yes or No - You decide.
9:00 a.m. Core Vinyasa Flow - Abs and Back Work
10:30 a.m. Private birthday party
12:00 p.m. YOGA DUDES
Sunday, June 30, 2013 - Last day of the YOGA IS FUN challenge!
2:30 p.m. Yoga Isn't for Sissies
4:00 p.m. Family Yoga
Monday, July 1, 2013 - First Day of July - Bring one new friend for free!
5:30 a.m. Early Morning Workout Yoga
12:00 p.m. Core Vinyasa Flow Yoga
5:30 p.m. Yoga for Strength and Conditioning
6:40 p.m. Back Healthy Yoga
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - Breaking Ground Day
5:30 a.m. Early Morning Workout Yoga
12:00 p.m. Easy, Easy Yoga
4:00 p.m. Glow and Glisten Power Yoga
5:30 p.m. Picture Taking Time
6:00 p.m. Happy Hips and Hamstrings
Please note: 116th Street will be closed from 7 p.m. - 5 a.m. You may want to go a different way home.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013 - Hump Day
5:30 a.m. Early Morning Workout Yoga
12:00 p.m. Yoga with Weights, Straps, and a Stability Ball
5:30 p.m. Iron Yoga
6:40 p.m. Flexibility Yoga
Thursday, July 4, 2013 - Happy Independence Day
Only class is outside at noon! FREE to ALL! Come celebrate freedom!
Friday, July 5, 2013 - T.G.I.F.; NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT, JULY 12, PICNIC Dinner at TY is free. Bring a dish to go with FRIED CHICKEN! Bring the drink of your choice.
5:30 a.m. Early Morning Workout Yoga
12:00 p.m. Back Healthy Yoga
5:30 p.m. Modified Astanga Yoga
Saturday, July 6, 2013 - REMEMBER: Next Saturday on JULY 13th TAI CHI Workshop at 1:30 p.m.
7:30 a.m. Yoga for All - Weights optional
9:00 a.m. Core Vinyasa Flow Yoga
12:00 p.m. YOGA DUDES

“Relax, and breathe into the sensation.”
Most of us, myself included, avoid, run from, and try to stay away from "discomfort" of any kind. However, when we focus on our breath, we can stay just a little bit longer and develop our skills of perseverance.

HOW TO BREATHE (OR HOW TO EXHALE):

Alternate Nostril Breathing - Nadi Shodhana

Thumb and index finger or thumb and ring finger - can be done in any position of standing, seated, or lying down

Breathe in one nostril; breathe out through the other

Benefits:

Restores imbalances in the brain

Calms the nervous system

Enhances peaceful sleep

Regulates body temperature

Better thinking skills for concentration

Relaxation Breath

Seated or lying down position

Breathe in to a count of 4, 5, or 6

Breathe out to a count of 8, 9, or 10

Deep belly breathing; follow the exhale to the end with your attention

Benefits:

Releases "fight or flight" emergency sympathetic nervous system overload

Engages "rest and digest" calming parasympathetic nervous system

Excellent for your heart and blood pressure

1970's developed by Dr. Herbert Benson, Harvard Medical School

Three Part Breath - Dirga

Best practiced on your back with knees bent

Three steps

Inhale as the belly rises; exhale as the belly lowers

Inhale as the belly rises, and then inhale a little more as the lower ribs expand; exhale very slowly

Inhale as the belly rises, inhale a little more as the lower ribs expand, and inhale another sip as you imagine breathing all the way up to the collarbone; exhale as if you were releasing through a straw even slower than before

Benefits:

Increases feelings of self-control

Enhances energy systems

Oxygenates the blood and releases carbon dioxide

Calms in times of trouble or feeling out of control

Cooling Breath - Sitali or Sitakari

Air Conditioner breath for hot summer days or feeling over heated

Smile and inhale through the nose

Exhale through the curled tongue like a tube and mouth is slightly open

Benefits:

Calms and cools

Helps to lower blood pressure

Regulates digestive issues

Detoxifying and beneficial to endocrine gland system of the body

Bumble Bee Breath - Brahmari

Inhale through the nose

Exhale with the lips sealed but using vibration in the throat that sounds like a humming bumble bee

Benefits:

Calms the mind and soothes anxiety

Good for migraines and headaches

Terrific for concentration and memory improvement

Beneficial for depression, fears, and sleeplessness

Skull Shining Breath - Kapalabhati

Not for pregnant women

"Ego eradicator" in Kundalini Yoga - best accomplished in seated meditation

Inhale through the nose is passive

Exhale forcefully through the nose

Focuses on the lower belly between pubis and navel

Benefits:

Cleansing for the digestive system

Invigorating whole body

Great for weight loss

Energizes nervous system

Victorious Breath - Ujjayi

So-ham "I am that" breath - inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose

Restricts the glottis at the back of the throat making a noise that you can hear

Sounds like "Darth Vader"

Warms the body and builds elasticity in the lungs

Perfect for Power Yoga Practices

Benefits:

Heats up the body

Builds concentration and focusing skills

Lowers blood pressure and slows down the heart rate

Internal purification - great for asthma and respiratory function

Bellows Breath - Breath of Fire or Bhastrika

Equal inhale and exhale forcefully through the nose

Best accomplished with a certified teacher

Benefits:

Builds immunity system

Oxygenates and detoxifies circulatory system

Reduces addictions and dependence

Improves sense of well-being

Breath Practice is called "Pranayama."

Pranayama is an experiment in stillness. It is a subtle and dynamic exploration involving the art of breathing. It gives a veritable understanding of the prana or the vital force that moves us. It's an exercise without spending energy, and relaxation without any stimulation.

In our daily life, we are so unenviably pressurized and embroiled in our worldly problems that an added bout of exercise seems tiresome. We often fail to find any respite from our daily schedule, an interval which is indispensable for the sustenance of energy. In such a predicament, the only solution you can perhaps opt for is Pranayama. It's indeed a sound answer to this chaotic situation.

It's indeed amazing that sitting and breathing evenly can be a means of tapping deeper resources within us. Devoting half an hour a day even for a week reveals the beauty of this practice. It increases the quality of alertness of the mind, which becomes capable of looking afresh and thinking in completely new ways.

Breath is not only the nourishment of our body but it is also the one essential link between the terrestrial and the vast expanse of the cosmos, for it ties us through its incessant cycles to the universal order of things.

Patanjali, the sage who formulated the Yoga system, the science of oneness, says that Pranayama is a step to be one with God. S. Das

Thanks for practicing with us! Hope to see you this week as we practice gratitude for God's miracle working power.
Namaste'
Jeanne K.
Jeanne K. Doss
ERYT 200/Yoga Alliance; Certified Personal Trainer/Cooper Institute; Pilates

918-855-6459 cell

www.tranquility-yoga.blogspot.com

tranquilityyogastudio@gmail.com

“I rest well. I sleep peacefully, and I awaken with joy” Louise Hay

I remember my first yoga class very well.

Though I had occasionally practiced the postures in the high school gym, I wasn’t physically fit by any means when I walked into a yoga studio that fateful afternoon. From the outside, yoga looked so relaxing. Easy, even. Wasn’t it just a lot of interesting ways to stand? I wasn’t expecting it to be much of a challenge.

Boy, was I wrong.

That first class was a real shock. Far from graceful, I tipped right over in tree pose and my arms shook as I moved through a vinyasa. Wasn’t downward dog supposed to be a resting pose? I had spent the first 20 years of my life actively trying to avoid discomfort, and here I was voluntarily tying myself into unbearable knots. In yoga—as in the rest of my life—it was a struggle to find strength and balance. As I fought to keep my hips back in utkatasana that first time, clenching everything, a grimace firmly set on my face, my teacher said the words I would return to, time and time again:

With every class, with that in mind, I learned to slowly relax the parts of my body that didn’t need to be working. Though my quads, triceps, or abs were often shaking, my shoulders relaxed, my teeth unclenched, and the grimace of pain slipped way. I was calm.

As I got to know by body through yoga, I began to feel more aware of the connection between my body and my mind off the mat. I was working in a stressful environment, and while I sat at my keyboard throughout the day, I felt my shoulders creeping towards my ears—I was tense and uncomfortable. When I noticed my body physically manifesting my stress, I heard those same words that had been repeated to me in yoga class. With new mindfulness, I was able let go of the tension. Just because my mind was uncomfortable didn’t mean that my body had to be!

Next, I started to notice the way body manifested other types of discomfort. I noticed the way my stomach would drop when I had to speak up in meetings; the nervous twitching of my lips when I had to introduce myself to a stranger; the tingling in my hands when I had to make a difficult phone call. No matter what I was feeling, I found comfort in those simple words repeated so often by my yoga teacher: Relax, and breathe.

Since yoga never actually assigned a value—discomfort—to that sensation in my quads, in my shoulders, in the pit of my stomach, little by little I stopped being afraid of it. That discomfort, like an itch or a sneeze, was just another way that my body was physically reacting to the environment around it. Though unpleasant, it isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s not something to avoid at all costs. It’s just a part of life. By relaxing and breathing into it, we face it head on, and come to know it as a part of us.

In yoga, when our bodies feel that particular sensation, that shaking, burning feeling, we know that we are getting stronger. Off the mat, the same is true. By facing the things that make us uncomfortable, we will get stronger. We will grow. When we accept fear and discomfort as a part of us, when we can greet that feeling like an old friend, we can meet every seemingly impossible task, from an arm balance to a job interview, with strength, grace, and even a smile.

We can relax, breathe in, and let go. Jess Wallin