Yoga for Everyday Living Program
Match your yoga to your circumstance and watch yourself soar!
If you are someone who attends yoga class regularly, you know how great you feel afterward.
There are so many ways to apply the elements of yoga -- breathing techniques (pranayama), warm-ups (kriya) and poses (asana) -- to everyday life situations and receive tremendous benefit. By strategically selecting and emphasizing certain elements over others, you can get much more out of yoga.
When you modify your yoga practice, you can ease these symptoms of modern-day living: too much stress and anxiety, too much standing, too much sitting, muscle tension, and subsequent insomnia.
Join us for six Kripalu Yoga themed-sessions in this program and explore practical strategies to restore a sense of peace and steadiness to life.
“Yoga for Everyday Living” Program Description
This program has been specially designed to help you incorporate yoga into everyday life. It matches the exact elements of yoga with the current life circumstances you may be experiencing. Six 90-minute themed Kripalu Yoga sessions explore practical strategies to restore a sense of peace and steadiness to life through the practice of yoga.
Session 1: “Turning Ackkk! Into Ommmm….” - Yoga For When You’re Stressed Out or Anxious
When feeling stressed out or anxious, you can restore balance to your system by drawing the attention away from frenetic thoughts in the head toward the stabilizing ground below. By drawing downward, we magnify awareness of the solid place within; we realize that there is more to life than the scenario in mind. By engaging in slow, repetitive movements that are synchronized with the breath, we calm the alarm center of the brain. This session explores reducing stress and anxiety through grounding yoga poses and calming, repetitive movement.
“Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly or resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don’t transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better. ”
Session 2: “I Just Can’t Stand It Anymore” - Yoga For When You Stand Too Much
Whether it’s standing all day at work or just having a full day on the move, yoga can really help you take a load off your feet! Through creative modifications and elevating inversions, this session approaches yoga in every position except standing. Explore warmups and poses from different orientations, and yes, even traditional standing-balance poses like Tree and Eagle. When you just can’t stand it anymore, keep your feet off the floor!
“You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.”
Session 3: “Sitting is a Pain in the Ass-ana” - Yoga For When You Sit Too Much
One of the by-products of modern existence is sitting for extended periods of time, whether in front of a computer, driving in car or slumped on the sofa for a Netflix binge. Sitting keeps the hips flexed, contracts the iliopsoas muscles and overstretches the muscles of the lower back (erector spinae, quadratus lumborum and gluteus). This session explores elongating with full body stretches and gentle back-bending to restore balance to the core.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Session 4: “Slacken Up A Little” – Yoga For When You’re Imbalanced
Remaining in one position too long causes the active, flexed muscles to be contracted and feel tight, while the opposing muscle groups are overstretched and feel tight too. No wonder your whole body feels sore! Reverse this process by moving the major joints in circles to warm up the muscles and to get a sense of where the imbalances are. Then, through Postural Yoga techniques, relax the muscles while you relax your mind.
“The real secret to lifelong good health is actually the opposite: Let your body take care of you. ”
Session 5: “Sleep Like A Bear!” – Yoga For When You Want To Sleep
Bears aren’t the only ones who need to rest, we do too. Sleep is an essential part of wellness. This session explores breathing techniques and calming postures to invite sleep. Gentle inversions, folds and twists are great poses to relax the mind and prepare the body for rest. The warm-ups done here are very slow and gentle to build enough warmth to prevent injury, but not too vigorous to avoid over-stimulating the body. Its a great way to shutdown for the day.
“Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.”
Session 6: “I’ll Do It Myself!” - Yoga For When You Are On Your Own
Creating Your Personal Yoga Practice Workshop
For people who routinely attend yoga classes, this is often the most over-looked application of yoga, and, ironically, the one that yields the most benefit. It has the biggest impact on everyday living!
Once you know the effects of the various pranayamas, kriyas, and asanas through experience, you can tap into your yogic wisdom to bring stability to your situation no matter what it is. You can select the elements that will be just what you need, when needed most.
This session explores how to design your own practice at home, which elements to include, and when to do them. It puts into practice concepts learned in the earlier sessions. Now you can fly solo!
“The time has come. Your time. To live. To celebrate, and to see the goodness that you are. ”