PREPARATION OUTLINE

I. Introduction

A. What do you think of when I do this? (breath/pose)

B. If you said yoga, you’re correct.

C. Yoga is a 5000 year old practice with contemporary benefits; as Estella Weir says “Yoga unites the mind, body, and spirit.”

D. Today I will talk about two dimensions of yoga, breath and postures, and the health benefits of each.

E. I will start by discussing yoga breathing.

II. Yoga breathing is an essential yoga practice.

A. Yoga breathing has four stages.

• The stages are inhalation, pause, exhalation, pause.
• Each stage has a specific focus and purpose.

B. This focused breathing has important effects

• Proper breathing helps your brain and body relax.
• Villa Navani, author of The Power of Yoga, says that correct breathing calms the mind.

C. Now that I’ve discussed breathing, let me tell you about yoga poses.

III. I am going to demonstrate three yoga postures that I have found beneficial

A. The first pose is the tree pose.

• Describe how to enter and hold pose.
• The benefits of this pose are strength in your thighs, calves, ankles, and improved balance.

B. The second pose is triangle bow pose.

• Describe how to enter pose.
• The benefits of this pose are improved blood circulation and stretches to your torso and neck.

C. The third pose is “King of the Dance” pose.

• Describe how to enter and hold pose.
• The benefits of this pose are balance and stretches to your hips, legs, and torso.

IV. Today I have discussed two dimensions of yoga, breath and postures.

• Yoga is practiced by millions of people around the world.
• Donna Fari claims yoga affects the whole body and whole person.
• Simple movements can do a lot of good.

KEYWORD OUTLINE

Intro – question, breathe & pose

Yoga is 5000 year old practice with millions of modern participants

Estella Weir quote “Yoga unites the mind, body, and spirit.”

*Two dimensions of yoga (breathing and postures) plus benefits of each

Breathing – four phases, inhale, pause, exhale, pause

Purpose of each phase – focus around heart, prolong, relax, complete

Effects of breathing – increased oxygen, relaxation, concentration Villa Navani quote “…….the calmer the mind becomes”

Three postures – demonstrate three, tree, triangle bow, King of the Dance

Tree pose – demonstrate, improves strength in thighs, calves, ankles, improves balance

Triangle Bow pose – demonstrate, improves circulation, stretches torso and neck

King of the Dance pose – demonstrate, improves balance and stretches hips, legs, torso

Today discussed breath and postures. Donna Fari quote – whole body /whole person
Simple movements do a lot of good!

TRANSCRIPT

What do you think of when I do this?
If you said yoga, you are absolutely correct. For five thousand years, people have been practicing yoga to improve their mental, physical, and emotional health. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word meaning to unite or to join. And Estella Weller says in her book, Finding Balance and Serenity in Everyday Life, “Yoga is the practice of uniting one’s mind, body, and spirit.”

I’ve been practicing yoga for over eight years, and I’m in the process of getting my certification to become a yoga instructor. And although there are many dimensions to the practice of yoga, today I’m going to focus on two – yoga breathing and yoga postures. And along the way I’m going to share with you some of the health benefits that come along with these simple yoga practices. First, I’m going to go over yoga breathing.
Breathing has been an essential part of yoga for centuries. There are four major stages in the breathing process. The first is inhalation, the second, pause, the third, exhalation, the fourth, a pause. Goes something like this (breathing).

When you inhale, you feel the breath coming from deep within your belly. And as you pause, you will feel the breath rising and your focus is just to feel the breath around your heart. As you exhale, you feel the breath moving smoothly from your throat and out of your mouth. And as you pause the final time, it needs to be prolonged and deliberate, because this is what completes the cycle of yoga breathing until the new inhalation begins.

Now you may be asking yourselves, why does yoga concentrate on something so ordinary like breathing? Well, the reason is this. When you breathe properly, the amount of oxygen that enters your brain and your bloodstream, it allows your body to relax and it allows you to concentrate better than you normally would. For example, as Villa Navani, author of The Power of Yoga writes, “Correct breathing rejuvenates the entire system, by sending increased oxygen into the bloodstream to nourish and revitalize the internal organs. The deeper you breathe, the calmer the mind becomes.”

Now that we’ve learned about yoga breathing, I’m going to move on to yoga postures. I’m going to demonstrate three yoga postures that I find extremely beneficial to me. The tree pose, the triangle bow pose, and the King of the Dance pose. First, let’s start with the tree pose.

So I’m going to start and shift all of my weight onto my left foot. I’m then going to take my right foot and insert it into my left thigh. I’m going to take my hands in front of me and press my palms together. And as I raise my arms over my head, I’m going to stare at a fixed point ahead of me. I usually hold this pose for about thirty seconds to a minute. This pose helps strengthen your thighs, calves, ankles, and your back. And it also helps to improve your balance.

The second pose I am going to do is the triangle bow pose. You start with your feet a little bit wider than your shoulders. You then take your arms straight our across your body with your palms facing down. You then touch your left hand to the floor while the opposite arm stretches towards the ceiling. You then take your head and gaze up towards the ceiling. This pose helps with your blood circulation, and it stretches your torso and your neck.

The third and final pose I am going to do today is the King of the Dance pose. You take your right foot into your right hand and extend your left arm forward. And as you raise your left arm, you raise your right leg as high as possible. You hold this pose also for thirty seconds to a minute. Not only does this pose help greatly with balance, but it also stretches out your hips, your legs, and your torso.

So today we’ve learned about two dimensions of yoga: yoga breathing and yoga postures. Developed across centuries and now practiced worldwide, yoga is helping millions of people to unite their mind, body, and spirit. Donna Fari, author of five books on yoga, emphasizes that yoga affects the whole body and the whole person. “Each movement,” she says, “demands that we hone some aspect of our consciousness, and use ourselves in a whole new way.” As yoga practitioners have known for centuries, a few simple movements can do a whole lot of good.
Thank you.