In Conversation with Katy Appleton and Transforming from within through Yoga

To watch Katy Appleton’s full interview on Tazeen.TV

What is Yoga?

Yoga is a complete science of life that originated in India many thousands of years ago. It is the oldest system of personal development in the world, encompassing mind, body and spirit.

Sadhguru: Yoga transforms us back to the cosmos

Union

The ancient yogis had a profound understanding of man’s essential nature and of what he needs to live in harmony with himself and his environment. They perceived the physical body as a vehicle, with the mind as the driver, the soul as man’s true identity, and action, emotion and intelligence as the three forces which pull the body-vehicle. Is a process of alignment with the Cosmos.

The rise of Yoga

In order for there to be integrated development these three forces must be in balance. Taking into account the interrelationship between body and mind, the yogis formulated a unique method for maintaining this balance- a method that combines all the movements you need for physical health, with the breathing and meditation techniques that ensure peace of mind. Fast forward to 2019 and this ancient practise is more alive than ever. Today, there are 2 billion people who practice yoga in various forms around the world.

Yoga for Healing

Back in 2003, I returned from the Maldives devasted at the loss of a baby girl who was to live for 10 hours before being returned to the earth. Just before her traumatic labour, I was lucky enough to have a class with a yogi from India. The breathing technique he showed me were invaluable during the 5 day labour I underwent in the small hospital in Male. On return, I wanted to learn more about yoga and tried a few local yoga teachers. It wasn’t until I received a flyer in the post from appleyoga.com that I found Katy Appleton whose weekly classes helped me enormously in recovering from the trauma and begin the healing process of the body-mind.

Her guidance and holding of space allowed me to delve deep within and to begin the enquiry of where the energy and oxygen needed to flow on any given day. Her work also began an enquiry into my heart, changing the interactions I was experiencing with others off the mat.

Why practise Yoga?

Watch this short clip of Katy’s explaination on why the practise of yoga can be transformational for the mind-body-spirit.

Benefits to the Body and reconnection to Joy

Beginning to observe our habits- which are our regular and repeating behaviours which are done unconsciously. Through a regular yoga practice, our mat-based enquiry, will still the body to identify what needs shifting within and where the energy is stuck and needs to return back to flow. We begin through the breathing to reconnect our mind to our body and spirit, gradually returning to our innate pure energy of joy.

Health benefits

Jonathan Greenberg, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School shares, ”

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We know that accumulating evidence shows yoga is good for your body, health and mind. Yoga has been used in the treatment of anxiety conditions, depression, insomnia, eating disorders, and others,”

Take one recent study in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, which found that mind-body exercises like yoga actually decrease the cascade of inflammation that so often sits simmering in the body and wreaking havoc due to chronic stress.

Brain benefits

The deep breathing and meditation may work on what’s called the HPA axis (or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis), which controls your sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight response that keeps your body cued up) as well as the parasympathetic nervous system (this tells you to chill out). Yoga may reduce the SNS and increase the PNS, resulting in a reduction in heart rate and blood pressure, says Greenberg. Your brain takes cues from your body (and vice versa, of course), so when your body is calming down, your brain gets the message that all is well.

In addition to keeping your body young, yoga turns back the years on your brain, too. In one 2017 study published in the journal International Pschogeriatrics, older adults (over age 55) with mild cognitive impairment spent 12 weeks either practicing Kundalini yoga or memory training. While both groups’ memory improved, the yoga group saw a boost in executive functioning and emotional resilience, possibly due to the chanting in this yoga that strengthens verbal and visual skills, the researchers report.

Continuous work

All of these subtle shifts transforms our energetic vibration and ultimately impacts how we are showing up with others in our life. Katy Appleton referring to the work of Jack Kornfield, reminding us however that the work is constant for after the ecstasy comes the laundry. https://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Ecstasy-Laundry-Jack-Kornfield/dp/0712606580

Enter our FREE competition to win an online voucher to redeem £85 worth of Katy’s lessons and courses (voucher applies to Katy’s “There is no place like home” meditation course + appleyoga elements “fire, water, air and earth” series). See https://my.appleyoga.com/collections

Our lucky winner (to be announced on Friday 16th August, 2019) will be picked and sent a redeemable online voucher for the above courses. See https://my.appleyoga.com/collections for more details

yogaTazeen Dhunna9 August 2019appleyoga, yoga, spirituality, sadhguru, TheGoodBody.co