YOGA
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Yoga means union. Union of mind, body and spirit. The practice of yoga is centuries old and originated in India as a spiritual discipline of cleansing, purification, and strengthening ones connection with the divine spirit and the universe.
BENEFITS
Increases flexibility and mobility
Increases strength, awareness and energy
Improves regulation of respiration. digestion, circulation, endocrine and metabolism.
Relaxation
Meditation
My style of yoga is based on Taoist esoteric yoga and White Cloud yoga ( a synthesis of Hatha and Kundalini). Emphasis is placed on deep full body breathing, gentleness, and extension of mind and energy throughout and beyond the body in a continuous fluid form. As in all Stress Defense practices, I emphasis clarity of intention and mindfulness, as a path to cultivating balance, harmony and abundant health and happiness.
Go To YOGA NEW ENGLAND ARTICLE
Stress Defense® YOGA DVD
A 70 minute guided Yoga class with Ron NaVarre
Stress Defense Yoga is a gentle, fluid style of Yoga based on my 20 years of teaching people how to soften, center, breathe and neutralize tension and stress. Regardless of your age or physical ability this 70 minute class will teach you how to gently activate your physical and emotional energy through deep rhythmic breathing and natural movement. What is unique about my Yoga class is how incredibly simple and effective the practice is, and how it makes you feel open, relaxed and energized. There is no foreign/esoteric terminology to decipher. No pretzel style wrap your leg around your neck postures to struggle with. Every exercise is simple, clear and easily accessible.
Testimonial
When I was 8 I couldn't sit cross-legged in school assembly - tight hips! At 32 I had a herniated disc. At 43 I severed my Achilles tendon. At 48 I took up dance.
The challenge was to open up my body safely and that meant gradually. Dance teachers were often supportive but even basic classes were taught at break-neck speed. My body was unresponsive to ballet, jazz involved too much choreography and not enough basic technique, and modern seemed a form of body suicide!
I was delighted, therefore, to discover Ron Navarre's yoga class. Here was a class with no ceiling and no floor: a carefully orchestrated series of poses which challenged all, from the top professional students at the Ailey School, where the class was taught, to older newcomers like me, yet were very safe. I would often enter the class tired and stiff and leave with whole sections of my body released and my mind alive. It was strange and liberating to feel an area permanently locked, such as a section of my upper torso, free to "breathe" and move about. The freedom also felt eerie and more than a little unnerving.
Ron's teaching is holistic in nature. It is more than just a well-designed series of poses. Ron talks and engages the class in conversation throughout each session, sometimes speaking more and sometimes less, according to the mood and needs of the class. He teaches how to use the breath to free the body and focus the mind, and emphasizes the importance of focus and intention, both as performance tools and as necessary ingredients of safe yoga or dance practice. The class is now available on an excellent DVD.
Ron began dancing in his late teens and, after training as a classical ballet dancer in Canada, spent many years performing on Broadway. His career was at times interrupted by a series of injuries, some serious, so he understands from experience how injuries occur, how devastating they can be, and how best to recover from them. He will often diagnose and identify both the immediate cause of students' aches and pains, and injuries, and recommend modified poses where appropriate. He also teaches how certain mental and emotional states can inevitably lead to injury and the importance of recognizing, accepting and incorporating emotion into yoga, dance and all other aspects of our lives, which will otherwise be boring to us and to those who watch us.
Ron cares about his students and has been very helpful to and supportive of me from the very first class. He has helped me to identify my objectives as a student dancer, assess how realistic they are, and discover how best they can be achieved. It is hard to ask more from any teacher or, for that matter, from any friend.
Graham Daw
Attorney and Student Dancer, NYC