Serenity Now!

            Serenity, tranquility, and relaxation was the atmosphere at Healing Waters Center for Yoga on Friday morning, Nov. 15. Located in East Aurora N.Y., the center for Yoga, Health and Mindful Living sits overlooking beautiful Cazenovia Creek, welcoming hundreds of students each week.

Every Friday morning from 9:30 to 10:45, the Gentle/Restorative class is generally attended by a minimum of 15 people. Susan Garguiolo, a certified yoga instructor, leads the class with breath-focused and slow instruction. The skillful combination of Susan’s soothing voice, the striking view outside, and the spa-like music in the background quickly allows the students to enter in to a peaceful state of mind. 

            Susan uses several different stress-relieving asanas, or poses in the Gentle/Restorative class. Several times the students are instructed to move in to “Child’s Pose,” or Balasana. This particular movement stretches out the back, and helps to relieve stress and anxiety.

For many Americans, the term “yoga” is often immediately associated with the idea of exercise. Susan explained that “There are all different kinds of yoga. Here in the West, people tend to look at yoga as just exercise, but it’s more than that. Yoga is a way of life.”

            The word “yoga” has many derivations, and can take on meanings including “connection,” "contact,” "method,” “to yoke” and “to concentrate.”  In the Gentle/Restorative class, Susan focuses heavily on breathing within movements. To those who have no knowledge of yoga whatsoever, the thought of “breathing within movements” sounds very strange. However, inhaling and exhaling at the right time during movements can be very effective in relaxing both the body and the mind.

“Breathing helps to change the nervous system in a positive way. It can help those who suffer from insomnia, and it is extremely effective in lowering blood pressure. I started yoga because I was a very high-strung and anxious person…and breathing correctly through movement is so great at de-stressing the body,” Susan clarified.

Due to the fast-paced, busy and worry-ridden culture Americans are surrounded by every day, medications prescribed to help stress, anxiety and depression have been on the rise. 65 percent of North Americans take prescription anxiety medications daily, and 43 percent of North Americans take a mood-altering drug regularly. In the year 2002 alone, over 3.3 billion prescriptions were filled in America, which is 12 times the population of the United States in that year.

Brenda, an East Aurora local and yoga student, who wishes her last name to remain anonymous, was prescribed the anti-anxiety medication Zoloft for over 10 years.

“I was prescribed three different medications before Zoloft, and I just decided I would deal with the side effects because I didn’t want to try another medication. I had been on Zoloft from the time I was 20 up until the day after I turned 32. The night of my birthday was horrible because my medication was making me feel dizzy and nauseous. I decided the next day I was going off medications and trying a new approach. That was when I thought of yoga.”

Brenda now attends yoga classes once every week, and said that “all of my anxiety symptoms are gone. I feel like a completely different person.” Although Brenda practices yoga at a different center, she has attended a few classes at Healing Waters throughout the years and describes it as “welcoming and inspirational.”

Jamie Levy, a 21-year-old waitress living in East Aurora, tried the Gentle/Restorative class at Healing Waters for the first time on November 15^th. Her experience was also described as “welcoming.”

“It was amazing, and I feel so good. I’ve been dealing with a lot of back pain, and it feels better after doing just one hour of this stuff. The only thing that was hard was that I had to be to work right after the class, so it kind of ruined my concentration. Susan was great though and I can’t wait to go back.”

If it is possible to live a life with less stress and anxiety using natural methods, without the use of prescription medication, wouldn’t you want to know the secret? Yoga may very well be the answer for you. Visit a center near you to help ease the stress of everyday life, without dangerous chemicals in your body or harmful side effects.

Also, if you are skeptical of going to yoga classes due to religious convictions, many studios offer non-denominational classes in which you can feel free to practice yoga while incorporating your personal beliefs.

More information on courses available at Healing Waters as well as prices, scholarship opportunities and much more can be found on their website, www.centerathealingwaters.com.