Fitness

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Archive"><U><I><U>September Archive</U></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Front Page"><U>Front Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Editorial"><U>Editorial</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id9.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bellyworld"><U>Bellyworld</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Music"><U>Music</U></A></div> <div> Fitness</div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Move of the Month"><U>Move of the Month</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Business"><U>Business</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><IMG SRC="1e787590.png" border=0 width="135" height="89" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Navel Magazine"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Fitness</div> <div> <I><B>My Introduction to Yoga</B></I></div> <div> <I>by Ariellah</I></div> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="1e9d6160.jpg" border=0 width="214" height="278" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="10" VSPACE="0"></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I>Ariellah  has  a  rich  background  in  dance  and  was classically trained in ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance from London for 12 years.   She has been belly dancing since 2001.  With a Moroccan ancestry, Ariellah's style reflects her personal  interpretation  of  tribal  fusion  belly  dance,  which blends traditional Middle Eastern dance with a modern, very dark flavour, that is uniquely her own.</I></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.ariellah.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ariellah.com"><U><I>http:// www.ariellah.com</I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> I view yoga as a breath of fresh air for the body, spirit and mind.  A challenge.  I breathe it in and accept where I am, in that moment … Today.</div> <bR> <div> When I began yoga it was impressed upon me to do so.  It was to be part of my rigorous belly dance training.  I was to take one to two classes a week.  I was resistant, as I thought it was a bit too “New Age-y” and trendy for my taste.  My first three months of yoga class came and went and there I was in class every Friday afternoon, sometimes Sundays, plugging away, not really feeling anything one way or the other about it.  However, I did enjoy my yoga instructor very much.  Her voice had a calming sense about it.  </div> <bR> <div> It was quite a while later, perhaps four months or so, when a momentous day came where I literally felt my heart, my mind, my body, and my chest opening up to the world and to myself, right there in the midst of stretching in a lunge with hands and heart facing upwards.  Something had shifted in my body physically and it affected my state of being in that moment.  I find it hard to describe what happened to me that day, but it was something along the lines of a breakthrough for my body.  Like when you pull very tightly on a string and then it breaks.  It was from that day on that I took this study seriously.  I realized there really was a benefit to be gained from this practice.  I delved deeper into my yoga practice and, as the years progressed, my body awakened even more and I noticed the openness and strength seeping into my belly dance movements. Until four months became six years, and now it seems I reap the gifts this practice has given to me as a dancer.</div> <bR> <div> Like my dance, my yoga practice has grown and evolved as the years have progressed, and I have found much strength, contentment and openness from my practice.  My experience of yoga has shown me what my capabilities are and what my weaknesses are, simply from practicing the asanas (postures).  I strive to master my weaknesses, but I do not push for them to be mastered.  I ease into them, listening to my body and allowing my body to tell me when I am ready.  For when I force myself, I only hurt myself.</div> <bR> <div> I have become my own voyeur, watching my heart open and lift, literally.  Through the postures of vinyasa yoga I have gained much flexibility in my chest, to the point where recently I find it so open that my backbends have become effortless.  When I do a backbend on the floor I can feel the heart opening and lifting up, kind of in a diagonal, up and out of my waist and backwards.  Bridge pose, bow pose, sun salutations, lunges, twists, all of these things and more from my yoga practice have steadily opened my chest and my heart. I have found the abdominal and core muscle strengthening exercises from my practice to be most helpful in also aiding my backbends, making them strong, fluid, open and safe.  Even when sitting in a chair I can feel the healthy posture coming back into my body; the posture that was once there from years of classical ballet training, but had gotten lost during the last decade or more.</div> <bR> <div> I have found more strength in my arms than I ever had before, allowing my arm undulations to remain strong and fluid, elevated, effortless.  This comes directly from my regular yoga practice, from holding plank, doing push ups (yoga style) or downward dog or chaturanga.  The openness in my body however, did not come overnight.  It has come with time, patience, dedication and practice.</div> <bR> <div> And the thing about all of this is that not only is the practice of yoga benefiting me now, in my dance and in opening my body, creating a healthy stronger body, but it will continue to do so into the future.  My practice can prevent many ailments that could arise as I get older. For instance, all of the hip work I do in my yoga practice will most likely prevent me from having one of those infamous hip replacements - this being but one of many preventive measures that yoga fosters.</div> <bR> <div> So I invite you to join me on an exploration of all the ways that yoga can benefit your belly dance practice.  </div> <bR> <div> You will find no proselytizing here. I will only write from my own experience. I truly believe everyone's experience is uniquely their own.  You can take from other's experiences what you desire, and you can also go and learn and find out for yourself and make your own decisions.</div> <bR> <div> Namaste</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>