Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be holding our yoga classes at Amrita in Fishtown near Center City. We are SO excited about this! We have held our classes in many different locations in the Philly metro area, mostly in Manayunk and in other areas as well such as King of Prussia, Havertown, West Chester and Ardmore. Without a doubt Amrita is the most stunning yoga studio I have ever been in ( and I have been in hundreds of yoga studios at this point…. maybe even over 1,000…. you don’t keep track anymore after a certain point.)
If the Four Seasons was designing a yoga studio it would look like this. If you have ever been in the Mandarin Oriental or the Setai in New York or Miami that is a bit of the feeling they are going for. Zen luxury.
Amrita Yoga and Wellness has been around almost four years in the hip and happening Fishtown. Right next to some outstanding eateries such as the Fette Sau and Frankford Hall . I also discovered they are right near Federal Donuts which has some of my favorite guilty pleasure food – fried chicken and donuts. On my way to Amrita today, I stumbled upon Federal Donuts and got the finger-licking spicy chili and garlic chicken and then the chocolate and sea salt donut. Not very yogic at all but a most yum-yum treat!
I’ve been to an aerial yoga class at Amrita earlier this year and was beyond impressed with the facilities, ( showers, changing rooms, cubbies to put your belonging in and shoes in) as well as the actual classroom set up which has water falls and fireplaces and stunning light fixtures that feel very romantic and ethereal. The room we will practice in has a key feature that is almost always missing – a fireplace! Actually there are two fireplaces!
Lighting is a very key thing in a couples yoga class. For daytime classes there are bright and airy skylights which give a heavenly feel to the room. At night the sconces on the side dim. Since you are sometimes lying on your back in a yoga class, you don’t want bright lights to blind you as you are attempting to find your inner bliss.
Since our couples yoga classes are the most popular in the Winter months, we will start up our couples yoga season in January with classes almost every Friday night until March. On Valentine’s Weekend we will have an extra Saturday night class as well.
The promise of yoga is to unite your finite self with the Infinite Self. There’s no better way to enhance that journey than to practice yoga with your partner or yoga for couples. Sexuality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the ancient yogis understood that a worshipful attitude towards your partner created a neuro-chemical change in the brain that allowed for the experience of ecstasy and bliss in couples meditation and couples yoga.
Meditation is a very private, internal experience that a person has with his or her inner Self. It is an important technique in the quest for a sacred sexual relationship. Meditation improves self-esteem and heals individual wounds, allowing the development of self-awareness that can lead to a heart-centered opening in the love relationship with one’s self or one’s partner. Meditation also connects one to one’s soul and balances the female and male energies in the body. Certain meditations can enhance the feeling of ecstasy experienced during sex. Other meditations have been known to end arguments, get rid of grudges and clear the clouds between couples. Couples Yoga uses a variety of sacred yogic meditations for couples as a way to augment the experience of oneness. These couples’ meditations are an especially beautiful practice that can elevate your relationship to a higher level.
1. Can couples yoga foster romance?
If you begin a couples yoga class with an existing partner, talk with each other before going to the first class about what you want from this. Try not to let your expectations get overblown in terms of how the class can remedy any specific relationship challenges you’re having. Go in with an open mind and heart — not with a sense that this is going to fix something, but a willingness to learn and grow together by sharing and connecting through yoga. It can be sensual though, if practiced with loving intention and can secretly set the mood. If the low lighting and candles — two things that most yoga masters recommend to help de-stress while doing yoga — don’t help set the tone, doing yoga together allows you to perform partner-assisted poses. These types of postures require a partner to help the other person get a full stretch or just get into position. Having to focus on your partner’s body, plus all that extra touching, lets you be playful as you exercise together
Spirituality Merge in Yoga Poses and Couples Meditation
2. What is the purpose of specific moves?
The first part of the class is a time to ground, center, learn to synchronize energy and breath and become sensitive to your partner’s rythms as well as start to gently warm up the body. The second part of the class is a time to build up more heat in the body with some balancing poses that challenge somewhat as well. As partners are able to get into more difficult poses, this builds self-esteem, confidence, emotional mastery, focus and this can heighten the bond as well. Some of the poses are aesthetically wondrous when you are juxtaposing bodies or mirroring. Some poses are childlike and playful and bring you back to a place of wonder and innocence. The last part of the class is both restorative with poses that you melt into in order to rebalance the central nervous system or there is guided Thai massage where intention, rather than technique is emphasized. The last pose is “Corpse” pose where student are able to integrate and process all the deep work and the body can reset itself from a place of renewal and rejuvenation.
3. How does yoga for couples allow one to experience another?
It makes you more attractive. This may not seem important, but the truth is, the more thoughtful and focused on your partner you are, the more endearing you will seem to her or him. . That’s because anytime a person expresses genuine interest in someone else and committed to just being physically and emotionally present — you will feel a sense of safety and support on a purely kinesthetic level. When you experience a profound truth through the experience of the body, it becomes ingrained in your mind and heart as well. Without realizing it, simply committing time to doing yoga with your partner becomes an opportunity to strengthen your level of intimacy — something that always adds strength and solidity to any partnership. It can reveal interpersonal dynamics about the couples that lead to inner growth and intimacy. Learning how to become really attune to your inner world while simultaneously being totally present to your partner is not a gift we often receive.
4. What are we meant to experience?
As each participant learns to let go and trust, the partners begins to explore spiritual levels of the practice together. They build on the energy of each other and create a better understanding of their connection as well as the practice of yoga. It removes distractions that keep humans from focusing on each other.
Now a break from enlightenment and a dip into pop culture.
Kim Kardashian Doing Yoga
So we know the two are very much in love, but according to insiders Kim has managed to persuade her man to sign up to Couples Yoga in order to “make their love life even better”.
A few years ago in the midst of Kim Kardashian’s divorce from Kris Humphries I wrote a post about how yoga could have make an impact in her commitment to staying married. Maybe this path into Couples Yoga will help her and Kanye?
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may be as loved up as we’ve ever seen them, but according to a new report the engaged couple are keen to inject even more passion into their relationship with the help of some couples yoga classes.
The TV star and her rapper beau got engaged back in October after welcoming their adorable baby daughter North in June.
Kim and North have been following Kanye across the country in recent weeks as he continues his Yeezus tour, with the new parents spotted indulging in a PDA filled shopping trip on Friday.
So we know the two are very much in love, but according to insiders Kim has managed to persuade her man to sign up to yoga in order to “make their love life even better”.
Kim has been on a health kick since giving birth, with the star proudly showing off her impressive 50 pound weight loss just five months after welcoming her little girl. It sounds like Kim is keen to keep up the hard work as she allegedly hires a private instructor to show her and Kanye how to do yoga in a Hatha style in order to make them more flexible.
Kim & Kanye look loved-up in Miami (Splash News)
A source explained to US OK! Magazine: ”Kim says if their bodies are more flexible, it will make their love life even better. She has convinced him that it’s good for his state of mind and if he finds inner peace, he will be even more creative.”
Kanye is known for his incredible work ethic so we’re betting anything that helps him expand his mind is a plus! The source added:
”Kanye likes to see himself as spiritual and a great thinker, and suddenly he’s getting all enthusiastic about Buddhism and finding his karma.”
Thai Yoga Massage is a kind of bodywork that applies light pressure and facilitated stretching to your muscles. From a rehabilitation perspective, this is exactly what your tight and rigid tissue needs. The other component to this practice that must be mentioned is that it allows you to dip into a passive moving meditation, which opens up many channels that promote healing. This is similar to what happens in yoga, but Thai Yoga Massage goes a bit deeper because the yoga is being done to you.
In my work, I target three components of health: proper amount of rest, good flexibility throughout the whole body, and cardiovascular strength. Most people need more of all three of these. Thai Yoga Massage targets two of these components very well, and makes cardiovascular strength training not nearly as daunting.
Rest, Flexibility, and Cardio become very important because every day we are bombarded with things that do not serve us. For example, most people live with unreasonable work expectations, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition.
These situations cause stress on bodies, and as a response, we create tension in an associated area to protect ourselves. It can become a vicious cumulative cycle that can only be repaired through chemical shifts. Let’s face it: most people are medicated in some way to induce the molecular changes needed when they could have prevented the downward spiral of their health through enough rest, flexibility, and cardiovascular strength.
When we drive ourselves too hard mentally, physically, or emotionally, we absorb tension all over our body. Eventually, it afects our movement patterns, sleep cycles, and mood. Thai Massage is the perfect modality to ward of this tension, as you relax and let a good practitioner move, compress, and stretch you. It is an ancient healing art, originally created to support a god to many cultures: Buddha. If it helped him so long ago, it most certainly can help Americans today.
We have a lot to be thankful for as we live in a world where we can access necessities rather easily. However, we often don’t take enough time for our basic health needs. We should have enough rest to recharge the immune system, enough flexibility for tissue to maneuver around possible injuries, and enough cardiovascular strength to maintain good circulation. If you attain these three things, the cumulative cycle does not have the chance to begin. Thai Yoga Massage is a fantastic way to ensure that you are taking the time to recharge and protect your body. Try scheduling this practice into your life so that you can maintain a happy active lifestyle.
Guest Post By Joy Carey – MS Rehab Science & Certified in Thai Massage
Thai Yoga Massage for Beginners
Hawthorne Community Health is offering a 4-hour workshop for on how to integrate facilitated stretching into sessions. (It does meet requirements for 4 CEU’s for massage therapists.) The emphasis will be a stretching a person effectively, yet safely. After the workshop, you will be able to give a 20 min. Thai Yoga Massage that you can trust your receiver will love.The event will be held at 1241 Carpenter Street near the Italian Market in Philadelphia on Friday, October 25th from 11am to 3pm. Cost is $110 for one person, and $176 for two. If you are interested, please contact Joy Carey at 717-519-7289 for more information or visit our website:www.HawthorneCommunityHealth.com.
If you are just starting your yoga journey, it is helpful to know the benefits and risks with certain classes of poses..usually divided into four categories.
If you are pregnant, working through any serious injuries then it is best to consult a rehabilitation doctor or OB/GYN before practicing to know what are some limitations that you should honor. For beginners, let go of striving and competition.
Forward Bends, Side Bends, Inversions (Going Upside Down) Side Bends, Balancing Poses and Twists Yoga Poses for Partner
Forward Bends
Forward bends with the hands clasped behind the head in order to give the shoulders a deeper opening.
Directions: Stand both feet firmly on the ground. Bend both arms forward and then clasp behind and up in the air.
Benefits: Forward bends are calming, they also provide a nice stretch for the hamstrings as well as a nice opening for the shoulders.
Caution/Dangers: Those with high blood pressure conditions that are not taking medication should not do forward bends. 3rd Trimester pregnant women will probably not be able to bend down very far. Those with shoulder injuries should not try to hyperextend the shoulders. All should keep shoulders soft in pose and let shoulders blades slide down the back to give more of an opening.
People often feel calmed when forward bending and also slightly disoriented as they start to come up in the pose. It is helpful to come out of the pose very slowly, one vertebrate at a time, letting the head come up last.
Forward Bend Variation.
Directions: Stand both feet firmly on the ground. Bend both arms forward. Keep knees soft.
Benefits: Forward bends are calming to the central nervous system, they also provide a nice stretch for the hamstrings.
Caution/Dangers: Those with high blood pressure conditions that are not taking medication should not do forward bends. 3rd Trimester pregnant women will probably not be able to bend down very far. You can also use a wall to forward bend on or a solid chair.
Students often feel calmed when forward bending and sometimes slightly disoriented as they start to come up in the pose. It is helpful to come out of the pose very slowly, one vertebrate at a time, letting the head float up last.
If practicing yoga for its calm-inducing, stress-reduction, weight loss, flexibility-increasing and/or fitness maintenance benefits doesn’t strike your fancy, fret not – you don’t have to practice yoga for any of those reasons. If, however, you want to be a better lover, you may want to reconsider.
Inherent in the magic spell of yoga is its ability to calm you down, connect you to yourself, the present moment and those around you, and help you feel less reactive, aggressive and more open, loving and appreciative. Being a better lover involves shifting from a space of reactive defensiveness to receptive openness.
5 Ways Yoga Makes You A Better Lover
How yoga makes you a better lover
Relaxation
To be a good lover, we must move away from our fast-paced, high-stress state when we come home to our partner and families. Staying in a stressful state is dangerous as it leads to chronic stress, which can manifest as physical, mental and emotional pain down the road. You’ve probably known someone who’s had a breakdown, a hospital scare or an illness brought on and amplified by stress.
Yoga helps you relieve stress, as it focuses not only on physical poses that stretch and strengthen the body but also because it focuses on breathing, which counters cortisol (the stress chemical) released in the body. Anything you can do to release your stress will help you be more available to love your partner and enjoy his or her company.
Plus, to have good sex, you must know how to relax. It’s a physiological fact.
Giving AND Receiving
Yoga also teaches you how to give and receive. Practicing yoga can be very challenging, but also extremely rewarding. Understanding the balance between pushing yourself to your limits and easing off to receive the benefits of relaxation during a yoga class is similar to the play between giving and receiving between partners.
Couples yoga is especially beneficial, as most poses require each partner to communicate and work together before either partner can experience the true benefits of the pose. While understanding balance for yourself is a big win, learning how to understand it between you and your partner is a relationship saver.
Strength
It’s hard to argue that yoga does not make you strong. Many a muscly man walks into a yoga class skeptical about such “sissy” workouts, only to leave drenched in his own sweat, appalled at how hard yoga actually can be and somewhat ashamed that his big muscles couldn’t power him through the same poses petite ladies all around him naturally and effortlessly complete.
Besides the physical strength and tone yoga can provide to the body (and the eyes of your partners), the emotional and mental strength yoga builds must not be neglected. Emotionally, yoga makes you less reactive and more receptive, less assuming and more questioning, less freaking out and more calm and in control.
Oh, and women, it also helps you tone up your pelvic floor muscles, which happens to be one component of experiencing better orgasm.
Connection
Practicing yoga by yourself also strengthens your connection to your Self and your spirit. There is nothing religious about yoga in and of itself, but you can certainly feel more connected to God, Buddha, Allah, Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham, whoever.
Practicing yoga with your partner naturally makes you feel more connected to your partner. Besides the fact that you get a full session of yoga touching each other for the majority of the time, you get to experience gentle, relaxing and compassionate touch. For some couples, this is a rarity.
Focus & Self-control
Finally, yoga helps you increase your focus and self-control. What does this have to do with making you a better lover? Increasing your focus helps you perform better at work but also helps you pay more attention to your significant other. It helps you put down the phone and get rid of distractions so that you can better connect with your partner.
Increasing self-control comes from the mental and emotional benefits of yoga, but also a particular muscular engagement called mula bandha. Similar to a Kegel exercise, engaging mula bandha holds your energy in, rather than allowing it to flow out, if you get my gist men. Over time, this increased focus and self-control can account for longer and more enjoyable sack sessions.
Whether you’re looking to feel more connected to your partner, be a better person for yourself and others, increase strength and flexibility, decrease stress and anxiety or just have better sex, yoga can definitely help you out on all fronts.
Ashley Josephine Herzberger helps busy women relax. She integrates yoga, meditation, energy practices and self-care exercises to empower women to redefine and rediscover balance in their work and lives. She recently published her first ebook, available for free download on her website, “The Unconventional Beginner’s Guide to Yoga.” Check out her online yoga community for women at AshleyJosephine.com.
