welcome to yoga

what is yoga?
Yoga is perhaps the most time-tested, powerful method of self-improvement known to man. Over 5,000 years old, it utilizes mental focus and deep breathing while performing a series of special postures. From the outside looking in, yoga appears to be primarily physical, but what makes this system radically different from western “workouts” is the remarkable internal impact of the practice. Yoga is a combination of:

• Mind (calm mental/emotional focus)
• Energy (life-force cultivation through breathing practices)
• Body (movement and postures)

Harmonizing of these three components makes the yoga experience unique and profound. Whereas traditional fitness regimes aim at health and beauty only, yoga aims for a fulfilling and meaningful life, with health and beauty as a wonderful side effect.

inner fitness?
When we experience stress or depression we pull our family and community down with us. But what is also true, is that when we dedicate a relatively small amount of time each week becoming more conscious and kinder human beings, while simultaneously improving our health and vitality, we elevate not only our own lives, but also elevate our family and community. What we attempt in the yoga room is to leave the craziness of our lives behind to feel more vital, relaxed, and sane. As we do this, what we cannot help but take from the yoga room is a kinder, more focused, more patient, and of course, a more physically healthy sense of being.

getting started
For your first classes it is recommended that you take it easy and allow yourself the immense freedom of being a beginner. We highly recommend that you begin your yoga practice with exhale’s Absolute Beginner Yoga Series. In this special workshop atmosphere, you will learn the most basic and fundamentally important aspects of yoga. This 4-week course will cover:

• sun salutations and yogic breathing
• standing poses and balancing postures
• twists and back bending
• inversion preps and forward bending

Our Absolute Beginner Yoga Workshops (see our workshop + event calendar listings) will provide you with invaluable information, which will build a solid foundation for your practice and guide you throughout the years of your yogic journey.

In the beginning of your practice, attend two or three classes a week for about the first eight weeks. After this, you can build up to practicing four days a week, or even more if your schedule permits. From a consistent practice like this, a momentum is gained and you will see notable, exponential changes within a relatively short time. Since one of our aims is regenerating health and peace in the body and mind, competitive goal setting towards astounding flexibility or impressive feats of gymnastics is actually counterproductive.

Don’t worry at all about how your body looks! You are in a room full of friends who are here for the same reason as you. So, instead, aim on practicing with breath awareness, and compassion toward yourself and those around you. Do this and you will find that your body will become stronger, more supple, healthier, and radiant without the vanity or sometimes self-loathing that is often attached to our idea of “fitness.”

We recommend that you wear loose-fitted, comfortable clothing when practicing yoga.

our ideas are what we become
At the heart of yoga is a transformational component which some call “self-improvement,” and others call “spirituality”. One of the great powers of yoga is that we practice non-dogmatic, unifying precepts that are embraced by virtually all religious, spiritual, and self-improvement paths.

• Kindness
• Honesty
• Mindfulness
• Respect
• Cleanliness

These precepts promote harmony and reverberate throughout all of our relationships, intimate, business, and casual. How we behave with one another both in and out of the yoga room determines how we affect the world.

“Harmonizing mind, energy, and body makes the yoga experience unique.”