Submitted by Lori Wittner, Bedford Senior Center
Including yoga in your New Year’s resolutions is a great way to renew your commitment to healthy living. Most New Year’s resolutions are usually forgotten by February, but if you start going to yoga classes, you’ll start feeling so much better that you will stick to your commitment with willingness and ease. Yoga will make you feel younger, and not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. With several yoga classes starting at the Bedford Senior Center, there are now many opportunities to find a class that’s right for you. And how can you go wrong at $5 a class? Most yoga studios charge $17 a class, and we have the same high caliber instructors with over 30 combined years of yoga teaching experience.
“So what can yoga do for me?” you might be asking yourself. For starters, you’ll feel more comfort and ease in your body – sometimes as quickly as the very first class. Yoga strengthens weak muscles, lubricates the joints, brings relief from the suffering of arthritis and low back pain, strengthens the immune system, and releases energy into your body. It also helps with balance and improves your breathing.
If that wasn’t enough, yoga also brings remarkable emotional and mental benefits. Yoga relieves stress and stops you from worrying or feeling overwhelmed. You’ll actually build resiliency the more you practice yoga. And over time, it increases your focus and your creativity.
The Bedford Senior Center has a rich offering of yoga this winter, so take advantage of these offerings. You have the option of doing yoga in a chair with CHAIR YOGA, if you feel that you need to build strength. This is also a great way to start, if you’ve never tried yoga before. If you have already practiced yoga or feel that you are fairly mobile, even if you have never practiced yoga before, the MAT YOGA class offers a yoga practice that is invigorating and energizing as well as deeply relaxing.
Even if you think you couldn’t do yoga, you should still come. You will receive benefits even just sitting in a chair and practicing some deep breathing and relaxing while watching others stretch – that’s perfectly acceptable in a yoga class. Over time, you may find yourself moving along with the others, but there is absolutely never any judgment in a yoga class, since it’s all about YOU and learning to tune in to your own body and your own wisdom. And on Mondays and Fridays, you can enjoy a gourmet lunch provided by either before or after your class. How can you go wrong?
So do yourself a lifelong favor and join in for one of the four classes offered:
CHAIR YOGA – Mondays and Fridays, 9:30 – 11:00 AM with teachers Laraine Lippincott (Monday) and Helen Theodosiou (Friday)
This class is a gentle form of yoga. You will practice sitting in a chair or standing using the chair for support. Complicated maneuvers and complex movements are NOT present in this class. The chair is used due to the difficulty in getting down and up off the floor. You will learn many yoga postures, breathing techniques, meditation and ways of relaxation with the aid of a chair. The class is one hour followed by a half hour of relaxation and meditation.
MAT YOGA – Mondays, 1:00-2:30 PM; Thursdays, 9:30-11:00 AM with teacher Laraine Lippincott
Develop body awareness, learn basic postures (asanas), and proper alignment. Learn yogic forms of breathing and how to sequence breath and movements together, and become familiar with the connection to your physical and energetic body. This class combines postures and movements on all fours, seated, standing and lying down. We help you modify the postures with props so that your joints are comfortable and at ease. This is a multi-level class. Though ideal for someone who has already taken some yoga classes, it is also well-suited to someone who is fairly mobile but has never practiced yoga before. Class always ends with a deep relaxation and meditation.
To register for Yoga or for any of our other fitness classes, please call the Bedford Council on Aging at (781) 275-6825.
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