About Yoga and Testimonials
Give Yoga a try and discover what it can do for body and mind!What is Yoga?
Yoga is the process by which you get out of your head and into your body. By using a series of physical postures and your breath, you can develop an better understanding of the many different aspects of yourself. Yoga develops a personal awareness of your physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual states and helps bring them together. Yoga is a deeply personal experience: you create your practice and in turn learn about yourself.
Who can practice Yoga?
Everyone and anyone can practice yoga. Whether you can stand on your head or barely bend over towards your toes. You need not come with strength, flexibility, experience or spirituality. You do not even have to come with willingness or an open mind. Just come as YOU, that's all you need: to come and give it a chance.
Is Yoga a religion?
The quick answer is: No. Instead of undermining their personal faith, Yoga can actually deepen it.
At the heart of all forms of Yoga is the assumption that you have not yet tapped into your full potential as a human being. In particular, Yoga seeks to put us in touch with our spiritual core, our innermost nature. Rather than being expected to believe in any of the traditional explanations, you are free to allow your personal experience and realization to shape your understanding. For this reason, Yoga can and in fact has been practiced by people with widely differing philosophies and beliefs. Yoga itself is simply a tool for exploring the depth of our human nature, of plumbing the mysteries of the body and the mind.
So whatever your beliefs are, you can take from Yoga what makes sense to you and deepen your own faith and spiritual practice.
"Nama-what?"
At the end of class we often say “Namaste”. What the heck does it mean?
In Yoga this is the highest form of respect one can pay to another human being. It is a humble greeting or farewell that means: “I honor the place within you in which the entire Universe dwells; I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace."
This place is within all living beings. It is the place where we take our Yoga from and the place we take our Yoga to.
Health Benefits
A central premise in Yoga is that "everything is connected." That's clear when looking at the health and fitness benefits of Yoga that have long been reported by practitioners and are now being confirmed by scientific research.
1) Stress Relief: Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on our body by encouraging us to relax and lowering the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion, and boosting the immune system, as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.
2) Pain Relief: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing Yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions.
3) Better Breathing: Yoga teaches us to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps improve lung function and trigger the body’s relaxation response. Good Stuff!
4) Flexibility: Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains.
5) Increased Strength: Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. Yoga also helps to relieve muscular tension.
6) Weight Management: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing cortisol levels in our bodies, as well as by burning off excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self-esteem.
7) Improved Circulation: Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells!
8) Cardiovascular Conditioning: Even a gentle Yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.
9) Better Body Alignment: Yoga helps to improve body alignment. resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems. It opens the way to improved coordination, reaction time and memory.
10) Focus On The Present: Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more centered and aware and to help create mind/body health.
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At Amsa Yoga our approach to Yoga is non-dogmatic and eclectic. We offer a variety of Hatha Yoga classes that draw from ancient yogic traditions including Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Viniyoga, Yin and Kripalu all designed to help you cultivate inner awareness and deeper sense of health and well-being in a non-competitive and nurturing environment.
Our Pilates classes are based on traditional classical Pilates training by Joseph H. Pilates.
Following are some testimonials and thoughts from some of our lovely Amsa friends:
"I enjoyed the Yin class on Sunday.....apparently so did everyone else in Columbia!"
"Love the new Friday 9:30 class. Just what I needed. Thanks, Kim, for gently leading the way and getting me to a better place. You're the real deal."
"Thanks for a great Hot Yoga class on Saturday... it still resonates with me."
"Thank you Amsa for enabling Columbia to have a Yoga Day for all. You provided so many kinds of yoga experiences and the community arrived...it was impressive to see the parking lot overflowing; the studio filled with so many souls; and to hear the 'Om' echo among those souls. Thank you."
"Lovely class Tuesday night. Thanks!"
"Thank you again for your efforts in creating such a wonderful environment.
I really enjoy the Yin Yoga class on Sundays."
"Thank you, Kimberley and everyone at Amsa Yoga, for helping me meet my April challenge! Kyra, Pam, Anne, Philip, Sara, Brenda, Elle, Amy, Audrey, Feili... I could go on and on. You are shining lights. Thank you for igniting my spark!"
"You really need to relocate to Maryville, TN so we can take all these amazing classes."
"Today's class was awesome!"
"I just did the lunch time flow class & it was great!"
"I feel so energetic after some Deep Stretching!"
"Thanks for the AWESOME class this morning!"
"Great Gentle Yoga class with Pam today!"
"I bought the unlimited class pass today and I'm so psyched about jumping into spring after a mostly sedentary winter. Or maybe I should say 'stretching into spring...'"
"Thanks Pam for a great beginners class this morning! Namaste!"
"Thanks again for providing a wonderful space and instruction for relaxing yoga."
"Heather's Flow class today was wonderful. I'm still a peaceful noodle..."
Please email Kimberley at amsayogasc@yahoo.com if you have any questions about yoga or our studio. We appreciate you visiting our website!
