The Benefits of Yoga Petts Wood 
Welcome to Simon Tolsons' Yoga Studio in Petts Wood
There are as many reasons to practice yoga as there are styles of yoga. Yoga can bring physical health and vitality, reduce pain and stress, give emotional strength, and support during difficult times and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yoga creates a toned and flexible body. How you look to yourself has an impact on how you feel, and vice versa. A youthful appearance is often a blessing of regular yoga practice. Yoga works on toning muscles rather than building bigger muscles. Toned muscles not over developed have less chance of injury, provide you with a better posture and allow a better alignment. Yoga by itself will not cause you to lose weight, but once you start to feel more vitality and energy as a result of yoga, you are able to do more - maybe more exercise - and this will help you shed those pounds you don't need.
Yoga can compliment Osteopathic treatment
Stress is an energy zapper, having less stress affecting the body frees up more energy to devote to other activities which can then reduce the stressful events in your life. Yoga can teach you to "let go" of this stress with each and every exhalation of breath. Having less stress can reduce blood pressure, heart rate, breath rate and metabolic rates as well as increasing your slow alpha waves (when in deep sleep); all this is known as the "relaxation response". Yoga can reduce the tightness, tension and fatigue in your body and hence the pain. The vast majority of patients visiting me as an osteopath have pain in one form or another. Most of their pain is a direct consequence of tight, shortened muscles, poor posture and too much stress. Osteopathy is a great fix for their problems but long term if they return into their usual routines then the pain and discomfort returns as the body slowly develops the tension and fatigue back.
In order to heal you need to feel!
Yoga develops awareness. Awareness allows you to feel the beginning of tension and discomfort building up, and provides you with a way to deal with it before it builds up into pain and breakdown. Awareness can be described as "a state of being that has different levels, including being conscious of your inner and outer surroundings and your self-identity". Taking the unconscious process of breathing and making it conscious is an essential aspect of yoga. The yogis and sages of old found that when they became aware of the breath the mind could be consciously controlled. The yogis then used the mind to control the breath, which then benefited the mind and the body.
May the (life) force be with you!
The ancient yogis were very aware of the universal life energy that all things are made of. They were experts of the use of vital energy that enters on the inhalation and called it prana. The exhalation produced energy which is named as apana. It's the interplay between the prana and apana that keeps us alive by circulating the vital life force and eliminating the used up energy. What the Indians called Prana the Chinese call Chi!
Recharge and balance your chakras
Yoga can teach you about the hidden energy centres within the body which according to Eastern Medicine are called Chakras. Chakras are vital to your health and Eastern Medicine recognises seven major chakras (as well as many minor ones) that interact within the body and an eighth chakra that connects all of them. When practicing yoga you recharge and balance your chakras by bringing circulation and prana (chi) to the nerve plexus at each of the chakras.