Yoga Tips For Weight Loss
From The Fred Hutchinson Center
Yoga Tips That May Encourage Weight Maintenance or Loss
The co-author of the study into the weight loss benefits of yoga, teacher Denise Benitez, owner of Seattle Yoga Arts, offers the following suggestions for enhancing one’s yoga practice. These tips may be particularly helpful for those who wish to maintain or lose weight:
- Practice in a room without mirrors, and pay more attention to your internal experience than to your outer performance.
- Learn to feel sensations more and more subtly, so that you become deeply involved in and curious about small movements, sometimes called micro-movements.
- In your poses, find an edge for yourself where you are challenged but not overwhelmed. At this edge, practice maintaining a clear, open and accepting mental state.
- Give yourself permission to rest when you feel overworked.
- Pay close attention to what you are saying to yourself as you practice, and make an intentional effort to appreciate your own efforts and innate goodness.
- Go to class faithfully, arrive early, and talk to a few people in your class before class begins.
- Buy your own yoga mat and bring it to class.
- Realize that the development of qualities like patience, discipline, wisdom, right effort, kindness, gratitude and many others will arise from your yoga practice. These qualities create a steady and soft mind.
- Find a teacher who offers a balance of gentleness and firmness and whose teaching inspires you to practice from your highest self.
- Recognize that simply attending class is a major statement of courage, self-care, and positive momentum. Realize that you are inspiring others as you become more true to your deepest desires.