Find a yoga class in Pretoria

Discover Your Blissful Body with Yoga Classes in Pretoria

Wouldn’t you love to change the world, simply by discovering your own blissful body?

We see daily on the news how people are in need of love, peace and acceptance; but did you know that the practice of yoga uses your physical body as a tool to cultivate qualities like mindfulness, connectedness, well-being and self-love? 

Yoga, an ancient Sanskit word for unity, usually includes a sequence of connected poses or asanas and at the core it’s a practice that’s built on mindful movement. The philosophy of yoga has always been grounded in creating inner bliss through a stronger mind-body connection. Since ancient times the yogis believed that we can change the outside world by cultivating inner peace through our practice.

Yoga has also become incredibly popular over the last decade. Many people turn to yoga training in an attempt to manage the excessive stress they experience in today’s demanding daily life.

We sit in front of computers, watch TV and spend hours in our cars. All of these activities create bodily patterns that puts stress on our physical bodies. Above and beyond that, we also have the added pressures of modern working life and stress. Ongoing stress will not only impact your overall posture, the associated increase in the stress hormone called cortisol, has been scientifically proven to increase inflammation and contribute to weight gain.

If you delve a bit deeper into yoga, you’ll also see how it’s helped some people with depression, insomnia, eating disorders and many other diseases. Doing Yoga will thus not only teach you to discover your body and mind in new ways, it will also enable you to learn and benefit from priceless tools that can have an impact on the world.

Can Yoga Bring Bliss?

What creates the blissful feeling you experience when you do yoga? With most types of yoga, especially vinyasa yoga, we slowly increase activity to work towards an increased heart rate to get the blood flowing. Using a combination of stretching, breathwork and relaxation we then slow down our movement at the end of our practice to enter a state of bliss.

But blissfulness is something we want to use in our daily life, right? It’s been proven that yoga and meditative methodologies can also impact you positively on a physiological and psychological level. Here are some additional ways in which Yoga can create a happier you:

• Practicing yoga will help you get rid of muscle aches and tension
• Yoga has been proven to reduce cortisol levels and lower stress
• You’ll increase your strength, mobility and flexibility to make simple tasks like picking up a box easier while you become less injury prone
• You’ll tone up and lose wight to feel more confident and happier with your body and yourself
• Yoga training will teach you to use your breath to balance your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system which means you’ll better manage daily stress
• You’ll quieten your mind and reduce anxiety in yoga classes

By practicing yoga you’ll become more aware of the stress and tension you hold in your body. You’ll learn to move with awareness while focussing on those areas of concern as you work towards creating a more balanced and relaxed body.

Yoga also has the capability to take your mind completely away from the to-do lists or stressors in your daily life. Yoga is designed to challenge you, but more importantly to help you focus on only your breath and movement to bring your complete awareness on what’s happening on your yoga mat.

During yoga practice you will focus only on what you are doing at that moment and this in itself becomes a form of meditation for most people while it quietens their mind. 

Pranayama, or breathing techniques, are also an integral part of yoga, and if you consult a professional yoga tutor or go to a registered yoga school in Pretoria, you’ll start to learn all about the formal practice of controlling the breath.

Establishing a Good Foundation with a Private Yoga Teacher

Yoga has a history of mysticism, tradition and even its own language. All this and how some expert yoginis talk about yoga can be quite intimidating, especially if you are new to yoga.

It’s important to realise that yoga is about your own body, objectives and experience. The practice itself should make you a healthier and happier person and it’s therefore useful to organise your own private yoga classes or join a class that suits your personality.

A good yoga teacher will adapt their classes to suit your body and personal needs. Be sure you clearly communicate whether you aim to take classes directed at the physical benefits of the exercise, or whether they can include aspects around yoga philosophy in your class.

Here are a couple of other aspects that a private yoga tutor can tweak and change to make your yoga class more customised:

• Adjusting the class to your fitness levels
• Focussing on the yoga type you enjoy (fitness, relaxation, mantra etc)
• Increasing the intensity / decreasing it based on your energy levels
• Spending time to adjust your poses to get it right (asanas)
• Add/remove meditation as part of your class, using visualisation exercises & relaxing music

Attending a registered yoga school will address all the above and give you a more social experience as you learn yoga. Unfortunately, you’ll have to keep up with the class and everyone’s level of experience. 

Browsing local yoga instructors on Superprof is easy and it means you can compare and choose a yoga teacher whose style you enjoy. A professional teacher from a registered yoga school will be happy to adjust your private yoga classes.

You can be Happy in Your Body

We all want to be happy in our bodies. We want to look at ourselves in the mirror and smile as we love, accept and appreciate ourselves. Yoga will help you change your focus to move away from what celebrities and the media tell you, towards discovering your own essence and body.

Whether you want to be more slim, muscular, firm or toned – there are local yoga instructors who can bring you closer to achieving those goals. The biggest benefit you’ll get from yoga, however, will be a discovery of self-love as you build a healthy relationship with your body.