Yoga: Relaxation for the mind, body

Looking for an exercise routine that strengthens your body while calming your mind? Chera Steele teaches a yoga class at the Cheyenne County Community Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. that does just that.

Steele said that participants need their own yoga mat and a water bottle, towels and yoga blocks if they wish to use them. Yoga mats are also on sale at the center.

Class members should wear comfortable workout clothes and come barefoot or with socks if their feet get cold easily.

“Avoid eating two hours before you practice and if you need to eat something eat something light. You can do yoga on a relatively empty stomach,” said Steele.

The instructor said that yoga is a natural way to relieve stress and calm the mind as well as enhance flexibility, strength, coordination and body awareness.

“Yoga can be an all around life enhancer,” she said.

“The type of yoga class we practice is Hatha Yoga, which is a gentle form of yoga,” said Steele. “Our class is a general, slow-to-medium paced class and we always start each class with a seated meditation and sometimes end it with meditation.”

The instructor said that the class typically follows the routine of stretching after initial meditation, then moving on to a simple yoga routine, sun salutations, balancing poses, more stretching and ends up in corpse pose (a pose of lying flat on your back.)

“We start out every class in a state of meditation just focusing on our breath and clearing our minds, getting ourselves ready to do our yoga practice,” she said. “Then we work into some light stretching with a little series of poses. Then we move into our sun salutations, or a series of poses one after the other. You can complete them at your own pace.”

Steele said that she lets participants move at their own pace because it is their yoga practice and she is just there to teach what they want to get out of the class.

“It’s their practice and I want them to get out what they want to put into it. But most of the time people just follow me -- which is fine,” said the instructor of 3 years.

Some of the different poses are called the downward dog, the cobra and the mountain, just to name a few.

But the different names and the idea of yoga should not deter anyone from joining the class, said Steele.

“It’s a gentle workout that you can make as strenuous as you want,” she said.“There’s different levels of beginner, intermediate and advanced and we try to stick to more of the beginner but everything can be modified.They don’t have to be super flexible at first or have a lot of strength. You build those things up.”

Along with building up flexibility and strength, the instructor said that yoga helps with the toning of muscles as well as weight loss.

Steele said that her class is for all ages and that some kids have even came in with their parents and seemed to really enjoy the routine.

Some of the poses can help rehabilitation efforts by the stretching that is involved, but she said that she stresses to participants that if a certain pose hurts them that they stop immediately and go into a relaxed pose.

She also said that different poses are created solely for certain kinds of pain, like back pain, joint pain, migraines and there are even relaxing poses that supposedly help clear up acne.

“Even if they do 15 minutes of meditation and deep breathing I think it would make a world of difference to them in their lives. It helps with even things like depression and insomnia,” said Steele. “Some of the poses we can hold from 30-seconds to 3-minutes but if they want to they can always hold it for longer if it is helping them.”

But along with the different poses, Steele said that the most important aspect of yoga is quieting the mind and breathing correctly.

“The essence of yoga lies in the breath. Good breathing is reassuring, soothing and healing and it will bring your posture alive,” said Steele based on what other professionals and researchers have told her.“Holding the breath dulls awareness, creates tension and impedes the feeling of flowing freedom that yoga brings to the body and mind.”

“Breathing oxygenates the organs, muscles and cells of the body, as well as soothes and calms the nervous system,” according to researchers via Steele’s findings.

Steele said that everyone should come and try yoga at least once to see if it is something for them.

“It’s an overall body enhancer and it helps with body awareness,” she said.“I love it because it is a good stress reliever. If they want to sit in class and do meditation for an hour I’m okay with that. It’s really good for the mind as well as the body.”