Extra Credit Blog: The power of Yoga

I had never thought about taking a yoga class, to be honest I thought it would be a class full of vegetarians who simply stretch and experience out of body happenings that I would never come close to experiencing. When this extra credit opportunity came up, I pressured my roommate into going to one of these yoga classes with me. Well we went to a class that the Cary St. Gym was offering at 5pm with an instructor named Viktoryia. We sat down and I was surprised to see the people in the class. Guys, girls, rockers, jocks, and sorority girls.  It made me change my mind about who seeks tranquility in yoga.

            It started with stretching, then the breathing that helped to relax you and centralize your thoughts. I think because it was my first class I was so concerned about making sure I was doing everything right and concentrating on so hard on looking like I was concentrating hard. I may have not gotten everything out of it that I could have, however, I do plan to go back and in fact tie it into my exercise routine especially after reading this article in Time magazine.

            The article first talks about how yoga has become all the craze from Politian’s to movie stars to sport heroes taking classes to help maintain some tranquility in their lives.  From the popularization and the fact that it tones and firms your body (which most Americans need) many have begun to study the more internal benefits of Yoga. Opera devoted an entire segment on Yoga and had special guests like supermodels and a well known guru Rodney Yee to talk about the power of Yoga. Callers who had been practicing yoga swear that it has saved marriages, improved child’s grades, overcome smoking addictions, cured phobias, and helped some sleep again.  Psychologists and medical professionals are starting to question, can yoga really help long term medical conditions and improve the overall quality of life, even if you’re not a practicing Hindu or Taoist? The answers are proven in the results. Studies have shown with post menopausal women that it helped improve and almost diminish menopausal symptoms.  Another study was preformed with those with coronary heart disease.  The incorporation of Yoga with a low fat diet helped stabilize and in some cases reverse arterial blockage.

            The moral of the story? “Yoga heals by relaxing you, and relaxing heals.” Says author of the Times article Richard Corliss.  Researchers and specialists who have looked into yoga as a therapeutic and healing way of life says that with the two parts of the nervous system (sympathetic: fight or flight reaction, and parasympathetic: relaxation response) Yoga helps turn off the sympathetic, which many believe we’re always in a constant state of which produces enormous amounts of stress, and helps us tap into and turn on our parasympathetic. Doing this helps release the tension in our muscles; the breathing exercises help gain control over our movements and tap into our ultimate state of relaxation.   

            Yoga believers says it will take a little while for you to reach your enlightenment through yoga, but when it happens it’s different for every person. You have the epiphany of understanding your body and the connection between body and mind and suddenly that language you’ve been studying for months makes sense. Yoga is a way for us to connect our mind with our body and have a total connection between the two. Once you have that connection, that enlightenment, there’s nothing you can’t achieve.

            Going into this Yoga class, I didn’t know all this. As I mentioned before, I really thought it was for people unlike myself. I never thought of yoga as just stretching, but it’s an American stereotype that is just that.  After reading this article I couldn’t be more amazed by the power yoga has. The ability to heal and overcome challenges in one’s life by the practice of such an amazing exercise (for lack of a better word) is phenomenal. I’m graduating in a few weeks, so I won’t be able to use the Cary St. gym to further my yoga journey, however, I intend to join one of the studios in Richmond as soon as I can, because I want to reach my own enlightenment through Yoga as well.

The article, which is amazing and I highly recommend:

 

Corliss, Richard. The Power of Yoga. TIME.  April 15^th, 2001. Retrieved May 4^th 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,106356-3,00.html

Peach Orchard

“The Peach Orchard” relates in many ways to Shinto. First, the beautiful depiction of the peach trees in blossom was personified by the spirits of the peach trees. Their dancing and music signifying the simplicity and beauty of the peach trees while in bloom.  This relates to some of the general characteristics of a life lived in the remembrance of Kami.  First, to be grateful of the blessings of Kami. The peach trees are a blessing of Kami with their peaches they produce for enjoyment and also the beauty of them. Gratefulness does not mean cutting them down and disrupting them. It also goes against helping others and the world. When the little boys family cuts the orchard down he weeps along with the spirits of the peach trees. This shows that he was grateful for them, even if his family wasn’t.

Second, the ancient Japanese did not separate matter and spirit. This is portrayed throughout the whole dream. Matters being the trees, the spirits of the trees seek out the little boy to punish him for what his family did to the orchard. This dream shows that the trees spirits and the trees are one being, and even if the trees themselves may be gone or destroyed the spirits live on.

Finally the movie shows that the little boy sees the beauty and the power that is in nature through his sorrow for the peach trees being destroyed by his family. He weeps because he knows that you cannot buy a whole orchard full of blooming peach trees, and the simple peaches themselves can be bought. But the beauty is something extraordinary and there for is recognizing Kami. The spirits of the peach trees then see the little boy as worthy of nature and seeing the blooming trees one more time.