self-care
/ selfˈker/
noun
the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health.
Self-Care Awareness Month in September is a time to remind us that taking care of ourselves is essential. It is a time to remember that self-care plays a key role in being whole, healthy, and happy. The tasks and pace of everyday life make it easy to put others’ needs before our own, however it is difficult to care for others when we are working on empty. Whether your physically burned out from overworking your body, mentally exhausted from raising kids, or just constantly stressed and tired, renewal and restoration is essential.
Yoga is a form of active meditation that offers both physical and mental benefits, allowing the participant to truly take action to preserve their own health, as the definition of self-care dictates. Baptiste Power Yoga is a hot yoga practice developed by Baron Baptiste. With its focus on asana (poses), meditation, and self-inquiry Baptiste Power Yoga aligns perfectly with the core requirements of any self-care regimen, delivering that much-needed renewal and restoration.
As the area’s only Baptiste affiliate studio, Yoga Body Shop encourages you to consider how a consistent Baptiste Power Yoga practice could make a difference in your life.
- Improved Mental Health
Yoga can help with depression, anxiety, and overwhelming stressors through its emphasis on purposeful movements and the use of breath to guide through asanas. Yoga increases awareness of present-moment experience and attentional focus, in Baptiste Yoga this focus is called Drishti. As a result of this unique calm, participants dealing with depression and anxiety are more aware of the negative characteristics and distractions associated with each. This aspect of a yoga practice also allows individuals to disengage from evaluative thinking and quiet “mental chatter” associated with depression and anxiety. - Increased Strength
Baptiste Yoga builds your functional strength, or the ability of your muscles to move the joints of your body through their full range of motion. Yoga could almost be considered a form of weight training because many poses require the participant to lift their own weight. - Improved Balance
While balance of the body starts with balance of the mind. Yogis find that their physical balance is improved through their practice creating an outer calm equal to the inner calm experienced through a consistent yoga practice. Interestingly, rather than focusing on holding poses and being still, balance is found to improve through movement and mastering the transitions between poses.
As Baron Baptiste is quoted in saying, “The work you do on the mat facilitates your whole life.” Self-care on the mat, will translate to self-value and confidence off the mat. Yoga Body Shop is proud to be a part of that journey for so many across the Southern Tier of New York. We hope that you will give us the opportunity to join you on the same journey by joining one of our many hot yoga classes this week.
