Article from THE CAPE CODDER FRIDAY MAY 24 2002

LIVING IN BALANCE
by Nicola Francis Burnell

In recent years, yoga has entered the forum of mainstream physical fitness in the West. While many people focus on the physical benefits of yoga, which can be seen in increased flexibility, improved strength and balance, a regular practice of yoga will also promote mental and emotional clarity, while nurturing a direct connection to whatever you consider to be your higher power.
When translated, yoga means “union” and refers to an ancient healing art that has been practiced for more than 5000 years. Yoga is a holistic practice that addresses the needs of the entire body, mind and spirit.

There are many different kinds of yoga, each with a name identifying a particular school or practice. Yoga classes can be found in most towns on the Cape, where people of all ages and physical conditions study various forms of yoga, from the traditional hatha yoga, to the newer Bikram Yoga, also know now as “Hot Yoga”.

Richard Freeman, a renowned Ashtanga yoga teacher, summarized yoga as “the practice of bringing yourself into a safe, controlled environment, where you take yourself to an unknown edge and then watch how you are with your own resistance and your own growth.”

Ashtanga refers to the eight limbs of yoga which means the whole practice of yoga, beyond the physical, says Tricia Duffy, who teaches various forms of yoga at the Life Center of Health in Orleans.
“ Ashtanga yoga yoga, as we know it in America, has been called “Power Yoga”. It’s a beautiful sequence, like a dance, where a whole series of postures are strung together , ne after the other.
Karma yoga is another form of yoga that focuses on the philosophical aspects of service. “Mother Teresa was a karma yogi who dedicated her life to service” notes Duffy.

Hatha yoga is perhaps the most familiar term used by Westerners. Hatha yoga is the physical form of yoga, which emphasizes moving the e body through various postures ar asanas. “A Hatha yogi is someone who uses the physical body to experience a deeper sense of their truer self and to connect the emotional body with the physical body: Duffy explains.

Duffy believes hatha yoga is often misrepresented in Western culture simply as a form of physical fitness. “Those of us who are studying yoga in it’s truest form are concerned that Westerners will reduce it to just another form of fitness” she says. “Truly, Hatha yoga is an approach to deep physical opening, preparing the body so it can spend hours in stillness, to contemplate the divine.”

Prior to becoming a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor, Duffy worked with physical injuries as a deep tissue massage therapist. “When I started to work with injuries, I could see the correlation between injury, massage and the need to stretch and align the body” she says. Duffy began studying the Iyengar style of yoga, which focuses on the correct alignment of the body and strengthening the muscles.

Duffy teaches the importance of physical alignment, sometimes focusing on one asana extensively, until her students fully understand and adopt the correct form. “Alignment is essential” explains Duffy. One of the benefits of the Iyengar style of yoga is the use of “props” or blocks and straps, that help a student who may be trying to struggle into a position to ease into it, at their own pace. “Props help to accommodate all kinds of people, so I can reach everybody” Duffy notes.

Breath work is another area of yoga practice that Duffy focuses on in her classes. “The thread of breath is the thread that brings the emotional and the physical body together” she says. “Getting the rhythm of breath to be synchronized with movement creates a relationship with body and breath, which enhances the sense of self with the self” Duffy, who has worked as a fitness instructor for more than 25 years, suggests that many people avoid exercise because they feel “disembodied” when they don’t have their breath and movement coordinated.

The goal of yoga,Duffy maintains is to create “equanimity and balance in three aspects of yourself: in balance, flexibility and strength.”Duffy predominantly teaches the Iyengar style of yoga, but she also incorporates other styles, including some vinyasa flow yoga.