Balance

Do You Quantum Think? By Diane Collins

What It Offers:

Do you run from task to task, eating smoothies on-the-go and answering emails during your commute? Are you constantly ticking things off your to-do list and multitasking a mile a minute? Whoaaa, Nelly. Give yourself a break! Get your head out of the stress cloud and your feet back to the ground by allowing yourself to just exist in the area around you. Slow it down. Breathe. Sit back down in your office chair, and feel your feet in your shoes, on the wood floor, or in your rainbow toe socks. Close your eyes. Hear the sounds of the office, the commuter train, or the birds. Feel the breeze.

In order to live a peaceful life, one must learn to find harmony in one’s daily routine. A good way to find harmony is to try and work three important factors into your daily life: meditation, yoga, and a healthy diet. By combining these things, and incorporating them into your life, you are adding a form of balance to your life that will make you feel at ease. There are many benefits that come along with all three of these elements, including relaxation, energy, and good health, so adding them to your schedule each day should be a pleasure, rather than a burden!

Alignment-based yoga is a broad term for any form of yoga that utilizes knowledge of anatomy to position the body precisely for optimal safety during asana practice. Cues help to align the posture with an awareness of the body’s natural tendencies. Certain schools of yoga have more of an attention to alignment than others.

Alignment-based practice may seem like it’s not overtly “spiritual”. Sometimes there is no incense, Ganesha statues, or even talk of God. However, it’s a practice that translates heavily into day-to-day life.  

While much of the Western World is acquainted with the Ancient practice of Yoga, few know of its deep connection to Ayurveda, the science of life. Rooted in the laws of nature, Ayurveda is the healing branch of yoga and the 5000-year-old medicine of holistic being. The science of Ayurveda draws wisdom from the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Believe it or not, the qualities of these elements appear in a yoga practice. Each asana pose carries an energetic remedy.

It takes next to nothing—a news story, a phone call, a happenstance event —and in a moment of distraction we’re carried off track. Learning to stand but still sometimes unsteady, we sensitive souls succumb to the weight we perceive. We shut down in our conversations for the rest of the day, we give as little of ourselves as possible to the task at hand, and we both consciously and unconsciously resist connection. We may not speak the words, but the sentiment shows: we feel we’ve lost our faith in humanity.

As Director of an after-school program, I have worked with children for many years. During this time, I have come to appreciate the many benefits of yoga for kids.  After-school programs offer many varied enrichment opportunities (as they should), but the yoga classes stood apart. 

Following a day cooped up at their desks, children usually came to the program rambunctious and with the day’s pent-up energy and frustrations.  I would send them into their class with silent sympathy for the yoga teacher.  They came out an hour later noticeably tranquil and calmed.