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Health & Fitness

BLOG: Yoga and You

Brigitte Koepke, Lead Instructor at Fusion Yoga in Eagan, talks about the ups, downs, ins and outs of practicing yoga in today's often-hectic world.

Considering yoga? Looking for a reason to try it? Wondering what the benefits are?

As a yoga instructor and as a practitioner, I’ve found that everyone who comes to yoga has a different story as to why they began to practice, but that most experience similar, often-exhilarating benefits.  

As a long time dancer, I came to yoga to find a place where I could move and sweat without subjecting myself to anyone else’s criticism or direction.  Other people I know turned to yoga to recover from injury or to escape the stress and pressure of a hectic job. 

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No matter what path people take to get there, the outcome and benefits are usually quite similar. First, they discover they feel more flexible, fit, leaner and awake. Then they realize there’s more to yoga than feeling their jeans fitting a little better.  

Practicing yoga, you begin to experience changes in all parts of your life. Your attitude shifts. You come to realize that anger, frustration and impatience aren’t going to get you where you want to be. You feel yourself relax. Your shoulders move away from your ears.

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And while your lower back may not ache as much, or maybe your knees feel better than they have for a long while, the larger benefit is that you find yourself greeting the world with kindness, patience and a sense that we’re all connected, all sharing the human condition, all breathing, hearts beating as one.   

As yoga students advance, they begin to call their time on the mat, off the mat, the postures, their breath and flow their, “practice”.  It’s a word that should resonate with all of us. Because life is just that, a practice. A chance to try things on, to make mistakes, to get our feet wet, to stumble, then get up and try it again another way. If you’ve experienced yoga, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, maybe it’s time you and your aches, pains and stress gave it a try.

Brigitte Koepke is the Co-Founder and Lead Instructor at Fusion Yoga at 1012 Diffley Road in Eagan, opening Fall 2012.  Got a question about yoga or your yoga practice? email it to Brigitte at brigitte@fusion-yoga.com.  

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