Institute of Serenity PMB 875, 713 W. Spruce, Deming, NM
Teaching Relaxation, Rest, and Renewal since 2002
Yoga
Listen up, Baby Boomers!
Forget about yoga as an acrobatic exercise for those who want to stand on the head or wrap their legs around the neck! Yoga is foremost a gentle, yet extremely efficient, system of movements. With yoga, you can dramatically retard and even reverse the aging process of your body and mind.
Listen to what some students in Deming
have to say about the benefits of yoga:
Ten good reasons to do yoga:
1. Yoga increases flexibility In yoga, we stretch the muscles, the connective tissue, and we stretch the spine. Thus, we make space between the vertebrae and space in our joints. Reaching up and getting a cookbook out from the top shelve of the cupboard, turning around and reaching for the glasses behind you, backing up in your car, bending over to pick the keys off the floor, leaning to the side to open the passenger door - all these movements will get much easier to perform. You do everyday activities with less effort. Consequently, you have more energy for other things at your disposal.
2. Yoga strengthens the muscles and the bones Unfortunately, we start to lose muscle mass in our mid-thirties. Weak muscles not only make it more difficult to lift the grocery bag onto the kitchen table or to carry our grandchild around. Moreover, muscle weakness can lead to arthritis, back pain, and falls.
You can do weight-lifting exercises. But weight-lifting exercises often cause muscle imbalances. During a yoga session, however, you strengthen the muscles in one part of the body, for example, the belly muscles with the Boat pose, and then afterwards you do the Cobra Pose, which strengthens the muscles along your spine. Moreover, with many yoga poses you work on several muscle groups simultaneously.
These weight-bearing poses are particularly important for those with osteoporosis. During these yoga postures, muscles transmit signals to bones that cause them to thicken.
3. Yoga improves balance
Falls are, as you know, the leading cause for hip fractures. Hip fractures don’t heal easily when we are older. We can become immobilized, and this is often the beginning of the end. In order to prevent falls, you must cultivate your sense of balance.
With a regular practice of balancing poses, you are less likely to trip on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And if you do stumble, it doesn’t necessarily mean falling. When you know you can stand on one leg, when you have experienced wavering in class without falling, then you know how to make tiny corrective movements that get you back in a stable position.
4. Yoga improves posture Have you ever wondered why your teachers or parents advised you to sit straight when they caught you in your favorite - slumping - sitting position? The unhealthy yet all too common head-forward position can lead to back pain, headaches and contributes to problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, and fatigue. Additionally, a slumping posture compresses the large intestine and thus interferes with normal movement of stool. Moreover, poor posture may even contribute to heart attacks as the lungs have less room to expand. Consequently, you can’t bring as much oxygen into your body, the fuel the heart depends on.
5. Yoga improves breathing Posture and breathing are deeply connected. A slumping posture pushes the bottom ribs into the abdomen, restricting rib movement and limiting the amount of air taken in. Our cells, however, need oxygen to receive all the nutrients they need for their life-giving and life-maintaining tasks. Oxygen is the carrier of nutrients. Additionally, when we breathe naturally, we breathe with the diaphragm. The movements of diaphragm in return support the heart; the heart has to work harder when we breathe without it. Imbalanced, shallow, erratic breathing causes the nervous system to become imbalanced. Hormone secretion, digestion, elimination and circulatory function are all controlled by the autonomic nervous system. As Dr. Andrew Weil states, “The simplest and most powerful technique for protecting your health is absolutely free – and literally right under our noses. . . The quality of your respiration is the single most important factor for graceful aging, health, and longevity.”
6. Yoga improves immune function
Yoga consists not only of movement. An essential part is meditation. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that meditation has an impact on the immune system. Jon Kabat Zinn concludes, “The mind can influence a healing process all the way down to the level of cell replication,” and the immune system.
7. Yoga relaxes Yoga counteracts the negative physiological and emotional results of stress: Blood pressure, heartbeat rate, muscle tension, cholesterol levels decrease, and the level of red blood cells - the carrier of oxygen - increase. Additionally, stress makes the blood more acidic, which over time removes calcium from the bones. Stress decalcifies the bones. Relaxation on the other hand, makes the blood more alkaline, and the bones retain the calcium.
8. Yoga helps with many diseases
Anxiety
Arthritis
Asthma
Cancer
Depression
Diabetes
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Insomnia
Menstrual problems
Migraine
Neurological and neuromuscular disease
Obesity
Spinal problems
. . . to name a few
9. Yoga improves emotional health Yoga makes you feel better in many ways:
You feel energized and relaxed at the same time. This makes you more peaceful. You experience a kind of spaciousness inside of you. Things don’t get too close to you. You don’t explode easily. You just don’t react.
You feel empowered, more self-confident.
You think more positively and you see new possibilities.
You behave more constructively. Thus, you attract positive reactions from people around you and positive events.
You become more patient and develop an accepting attitude. You discover that only by accepting things as they are we allow change to happen.
10. Yoga fosters spiritual growth
Spiritual growth refers to the connection with higher powers, the ultimate reality, or the supreme being. Regardless of what you call your Creator (Allah, God, Adonai, Shiva), or whether you don’t have a name at all, this re-connection is at the heart of each spiritual path. The term “religion,” by the way, comes from Latin religio, which mean re-connection.
In yoga, you can re-connect with your Creator by honoring your body and mind in the present moment and by allowing to open your spirit to the realm beyond.
There is no other system of movements that is more efficient to slow down aging than yoga.
Nonetheless, yoga is a path that requires commitment. In involves discipline, self-study, non-violent nutrition, respect towards the planet, and the cultivation of inner peace - for the sake of outer peace.
It's time to get started! Put yoga to work for you!
Forget about yoga as an acrobatic exercise for those who want to stand on the head or wrap their legs around the neck! Yoga is foremost a gentle, yet extremely efficient, system of movements. With yoga, you can dramatically retard and even reverse the aging process of your body and mind.
In yoga, we stretch the muscles, the 
Unfortunately, we start to lose muscle mass in our mid-thirties. Weak muscles not only make it more difficult to lift the grocery bag onto the kitchen table or to carry our grandchild around.
Falls are, as you know, the leading cause for hip fractures. Hip fractures don’t heal easily when we are older. We can become immobilized, and this is often the beginning of the end. 
Have you ever wondered 
Posture and breathing are deeply connected. 
Yoga consists not only of movement. An essential part is meditation. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that meditation has an impact on the immune system. Jon Kabat Zinn concludes, “The mind can influence a healing process all the way down to the level of cell replication,” and the immune system. 
Yoga counteracts the negative physiological and emotional results of stress: Blood pressure, heartbeat rate, muscle tension, cholesterol levels decrease, and the level of red blood cells - the carrier of oxygen - increase.
Yoga makes you feel better in many ways:
Spiritual growth refers to the connection with higher powers, the ultimate reality, or the supreme being. 
