Benes Companies

Why is yoga good for you?

The whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts, that’s why.

The average yoga class combines many or all of the following seven therapeutic techniques into one:

1. MOVEMENT. Start with no-impact, repetitive movement like flow vinyasas to synchronize the activity of neuromuscular junctions with that of the motor cortex. This also improves muscle tone, which helps regulate blood sugar (thus insulin) and stress (thus cortisol) levels.

2. BREATH. Add slow movement with intentional breathing to retrain vagus nerve activity and related hormonal shifts that can contribute to chronic illness.

3. MEDITATION. Add brain training to slow down, be present, become more aware of limbs, monitor status of emotions, filter thoughts, dream, etc.

4. ART. Add rhythmic music, sound baths, or dance to connect to emotions that are only accessed through subconscious engagement like visual, auditory, or performance art.

5. SPIRIT. Add spiritual practices like blessings, prayer, or cleansing to promote unity within and beyond the class.

6. CULTURE. Surround students with a culture of self-care, gentleness, fun, or curiosity to promote emotional regulation and stress release.

7. COMMUNITY. Promote student interactions to build relationships with others, which reduces the sense of carrying the world’s burdens alone.

By combining multiple beneficial activities that address more one part of a Seven-Part Person, yogis are practicing multi-dimensional healing! But yoga instructors can add even more to their classes to get exponential healing impacts for their students.

How can I make my yoga classes better?

Any healer can improve the healing benefit of their therapeutic technique by combining it with other parts of a Seven-Part Person:

• Higher Power
• spiritual experience
• psychological experience (subconscious & conscious thoughts AKA heart & mind)
• bodily experience
• environmental experience
• social experience (community)
• life impact (presence, behaviors, actions, immediate, multi-generational, historical).

For example, in addition to the seven items above, yoga instructors can:

8. PSYCHOLOGICAL. Add positive verbal declarations during various poses to require brain to focus on positive aspects of the person’s experience.

9. IMPACT. Allow students to share stories at the end of the class about how something they learned in their yoga practice has benefitted someone else with whom they interacted.

10. MULTI-GENERATIONAL. Create classes that can be done with students and their aging parents, or students and their children (e.g. Mommy and Me Yoga, or Baby Yoga for Caregivers, or Parent-Supported Toddler Meditations).

11. MYOFASCIAL RELEASE. Incorporate Rolfing techniques with massage rollers and balls to release stuck myofascia, which can store pent-up emotional biochemicals that contribute to chronic illness. Add Trauma Release Exercises to the end of yoga class to demonstrate how muscles can shake out trauma patterns imprinted during emotionally overwhelming experiences.

12. CRYING. Discuss the fact that certain body positions can bring up sorrow, grief, anger, or fear and encourage students to let these emotions roll through their body like waves through an ocean. Use loud, heart-touching music and dim lights to provide more privacy during emotional release.

13. VISUALIZATION. Invite students to visualize doing the proper (or next-level) form of a pose before they attempt it.

14. ANIMALS. Add emotional support animals or other personable, well-behaved pets into or around a class to promote student well-being, sense of safety, or reconnection with their childhood playfulness.

15. ENVIRONMENT. Add heat to promote sweating and cleansing of toxins through the skin and lymph system. Add plants, diffused oils, water fountains, or sculptures to increase sense of connectedness with natural elements. (Or yoga outside.)

16. NUTRITION. Add a whole food pre-class snack or post-class recovery drink to help students connect their body’s sense of well-being to the food they put in their bodies.

Your turn!

Have you experienced or incorporated techniques like this into your classes? If so, what happened? Do you have other techniques you’d like to share?