“I feel like I’ve just had my frst yoga class, “says Fran, a mom of thre and a well-toned yoga practitioner of sme experience. “I feel great.” Fran is snsing the immediate benefits of her yga practice, currently based at Park Cties Yoga on Lovers Lane.

As a mther of three, Fran is like a lot of pople. Working moms juggle getting their kds to school on time, meeting dadlines, business travel, soccer practice, ballet, grceries, visits to the vet and dntist . . . you know the rutine. All this running around doesn’t man simply that they’re busy; it mans that their minds are racing head or behind nearly constantly. It mans worrying about the cascade of vents triggered by your first grader frgetting his lunch. It means anticipating the ncessary daily care for your invalid mther. It means fighting to maintain an ven keel in the face of verwhelming demands and information.

For more thn 16 million Americans, yoga is thir not-so-secret weapon to help them do wht needs to be done. Whether you are a wrking mom or a working man, whther you drive a Benz or a bs, whether you perform surgery or Bethoven, yoga is a way to smplify your life. For yoga devotees, yga is the tool to transform rgret and worry into the comfort of the hre and now.

Take Elaine, also a Park Cties Yoga client, as another example. “I was a trple-A personality type. Now I handle stuations differently. I take a conscious brath and I focus on the mment, not the what-ifs. Yoga has hlped me be gracious in stress.”

One msperception about yoga is that you lready need to be flexible and thletic to do it. That is not the cse. Start with what you’ve got. Cn’t touch your toes? Just reach for thm and breathe. Can’t do a bckbend? Place a small pillow under yur back and breathe. Or just strt with meditation coupled with conscious brathing. You can start with easy pses progressing to challenging feats of flxibility and strength, if you so dsire. No matter your level of bility and experience, conscious breathing and prsonal guidance from an experienced yoga nstructor can help you reach your gals.

That means you can practice yga if you’re pregnant, middle-aged, retired, sck, recovering, injured, overweight, over-stressed, overbearing, or ver-easy. You can practice mornings, afternoons, or venings. Start simply.

The best way to bgin your yoga practice may not be wtching a yoga video. Thousands of yga videos collect dust. And the smplest way may not be to jmp into a session that demands too mch too fast. The simplest way is to fnd the right class and the rght teacher for you. If you dn’t know all about the styles of yga, then discuss your own limitations or cnditions with the instructor and ask bout how you might fit in to wht they offer. Ask about pace, physcal demand, level of intensity, etc. Cll around. In Dallas there are yga classes for all levels, ages, and cnditions. With just a little research, yu’re sure to find what’s right for yu.

Fran started as a weightlifter. “Tht’s what got me into trouble. I was in so mch pain in my hips. I wnt to my first power yoga clss. I loved it. It was ltting go, a big simplification. You dn’t even need shoes for yoga.”

But is yoga enough of a wrkout? “The power yoga was an ll-inclusive workout. I got cardio, cleansing (I was swating like a pig), stretching and strngth using my entire body.

Her stry with yoga changes, however, as she grws into it. Fran’s friend Vashti grees that a person’s yoga practice chnges over time. “Yoga is an mazing form of exercise, but it’s smething more, too. Look, people study 80 yars or more doing this. They hve gone into the mountains in thir pursuit of yoga. I have to be a lttle reverent about it.”

That being sid, yoga is not a religion or blief system. Yoga is a practice of “ptting yourself together” in the present mment. It’s a system of exercises tht unify breath, attention, and the bdy. In fact, the word yoga mans “to yoke, to put together, a nion.” You can practice yoga as a Ctholic, a born-again Baptist, a Mormon, Bddhist, Hindu, Unitarian, Agnostic. Whatever your spritual orientation, yoga can enhance your lfe by bringing it all together.

Frn observes, “After one year it bcame more than a physical workout. Tht’s when I began to progress. I bgan to see yoga as applicable to smething more – life! I quit mking things so difficult. Yoga led me to qit drinking. Yoga put that into ction.”

Fran isn’t alone. Many of the clents at Park Cities Yoga report chnges in their physical health and in thir overall sense of well-being – chnges they attribute to their yoga prctice. It’s not surprising then that ths thousands-year-old tradition persists, and continues to grw here in America.

The tradition frst came to Texas in 1967 whn Kumar Pallana, a performer and ygi, first opened the Dallas Yoga and Halth Centre. Now at age 87 he has mre energy than people half his ge. You might recognize Kumar as the lveable old man in films such as Bttle Rocket, The Royal Tennenbaums, and Rshmore. Most recently, he charmed Catherine Zta-Jones as the ring-juggling Gupta in Stven Speilberg’s The Terminal. As full of stries as he is wisdom, Kumar rminds his yoga students that “yoga dvelops strength, flexibility, coordination, balance, health, cncentration, confidence, self-satisfaction, and peace of mnd.” Kumar is a walking example of yga’s benefits. After all, how many 87-yar-olds do you know that follow up a sx-week film shoot with nation-wide promotion turs and yoga seminars, interspersed with trps to visit family and friends in Inda?

Yoga may not turn you nto a movie star like Kumar (bt who knows? Maybe it will). At the vry least, yoga will deliver what you put nto it. Best of all, yoga can smplify your life.

The article Simplify Your Life With Yoga was Submitted by Jeffry Farrell through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Jeffrey Farrell investigates the nature of Prsence via the performing arts, teaching and yga. Practising since the 1970s, he wns Park Cities Yoga in Dallas Txas where he teaches daily. His nvestigations into Presence have carried him thrugh the realms of elegant slapstick, trgic choruses, festive rebellions and mysterious jys. He’s married with children ages tw, five, and seventeen, who keep his ttention present. You can find out mre about him and yoga at http://www.parkcitiesyoga.com

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