Metta Bodywork Traditional Thai & Licensed Massage Therapy

Yoga & Meditation

Yoga, in general, is a spiritual practice or discipline that helps the individual unify his/her body, mind, and heart. There are many types of Yoga. That which comes to mind first is Hatha Yoga, yoga that deals mainly with physical postures and breathing. Karma Yoga emphasizes spiritual practice to help the 

individual unify body, mind, and heart through certain practices in one's daily life and work. Bhakti Yoga, a devotional form, generally encompasses chanting, reading of scriptures and worship practices. In general, Yoga is any practice that can turn the practitioner inward to find and experience an individual's spiritual essence, to realize or awaken to his/her spiritual nature.
 
What are the benefits of yoga?
 
The practitioner derives benefits ranging from the physical all the way to the spiritual. Because Hatha Yoga deals with body and breathing exercises, it gives the practitioner a truly radiant health, manifested through increased flexibility, strength, stamina, and improved circulation of one's blood and other vital fluids. Less visible but equally important is that the practitioner enjoys an improvement in the functioning of the organs and glands. All this taken together suggests that Yoga leads to a better, overall, physiological functioning throughout the body. In that regard, it helps strengthen one's immune system and, really, just about every aspect of one's physical health.
 
As to its psychological benefits, the practice of Yoga can help one become ore mentally and emotionally centered. It leaves one feeling emotionally grounded and, at the same time, it helps the individual release a lot of bound up tension and emotion that creates illness and dysfunction in both the body and the mind. Yoga helps the practitioner enjoy a purification of the physical impurities and harmful emotions that are trapped in the system.
 
On a more spiritual level, the practice of Yoga stimulates the practitioner to see the inner connections between the individual and his/her environment and with other people, people everywhere. In that way, it helps the person become more compassionate; it helps the person become kinder and gentler and, even, more ethical. Once the individual recognizes that the lives of all people are intertwined, the thought of trying to steal from another or otherwise harm another becomes unacceptable because of the realization that such action would be effectively taking or harming the practitioner him/herself. Simply put, one's heart, one's core, expands with the realization and experience of how we are all interconn­ected spiritually.

Personal Yoga Classes Are Available.


Meditation Makes (Brain) Waves
News Note
By Lara Evans Bracciante

Originally published in Massage & Bodywork magazine, August/September 2003.
Copyright 2003. Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. All rights reserved.


Turns out, those monks really are on to something. Meditation has a biological effect on the body, easing anxiety and boosting immunity, according to a recent study published in Psychosomatic Medicine. Using a technique called "mindfulness" meditation, researchers at the University of Wisconsin enrolled 41 subjects, 21 of whom attended a weekly meditation class and one seven-hour meditation retreat during the study, the remaining 20 served as the control group and did not participate in any meditation. All subjects were given a flu shot at the start of the study to measure immune response. After eight weeks, electrical activity on the frontal left side of the brain -- an area associated with lower anxiety -- was more active in the meditating subjects, indicating a more positive emotional state. The meditation group also had higher antibody levels, suggesting stronger immunity.