Gene Rockwell stood before her Saturday yoga students in the Harmony Healing Arts Center and urged them to stay healthy as cold weather approaches.
“Try to limit the amount of running around and avoid over-scheduling yourself,” Rockwell said during her Ayurvedic flow yoga class.
Rockwell’s voice tinkled like a wind chime through the yoga studio as students listened and looked at their Vata Dosha handouts.
According to The Chopra Center website, Ayurveda is a Hindu system of healing and medicine. In the fall season, Vata becomes the most prominent Dosha, meaning that the elements of air or wind, and ether, are the strongest energies to be circulating in the body and controlling physiological activity.
The students also learned that sticking to a daily routine, participating in Abhyanga or self-massage and avoiding being out in the cold weather and wind can help to maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle in the fall season.
After going over the handout, the students followed Rockwell through yoga poses that help balance Vata Dosha. “Slow, steady, restorative poses are best for this time of year,” she said.
As Rockwell taught, the students moved through twists which stimulate digestion, forward folds that aid in calming the body, and standing poses that are grounding and strengthening.
Rockwell said, “We are a reflection of nature and these elements will become stronger in us at this time in the year.”
After the class, everyone joined together in drinking hot mint chai tea, which Rockwell added was a good beverage to consume in the fall season. The health and balance radiating from the students were almost tangible as the students reflected on their Vata Dosha practice.