One of the things I am most thankful for is Yoga. As wonderful as it is to get together with family for holidays and eat lots of amazing food, it can also be incredibly stressful. Entertaining family and friends, preparing and serving food, cleaning up afterwards… or if you are like me, maybe you had to drive to multiple homes to be with all your loved ones. Or you could be travelling out of state. House of Light Yoga made the Thanksgiving holiday so much easier for our community by offering a 2 hour Yoga class on Thanksgiving morning to get us all prepared for the intense day ahead. It was a donation based class to help the local Humane Society. Students brought in pet food, pet toys or currency.
The class started with Kathy Kowalski leading us in a chant of “Shaanti” which is Hindi for “peace.” Next, Raymond Smith kicked off the Yin practice which is a slow paced serpentine style of yoga. Then Nancy Cunningham started out her Yang practice which is much more fast-paced. She guided us through some active pranayama breathing exercises while Raymond put on some house music to relax us. My personal favorite was the “Breath of Joy” exercise. Throughout the 2 hour session, Ray and Nancy switched back and forth between their slow and fast paced yoga technique, which made the time fly by. During each one of his Yin practices, Ray came around and placed essential oils on us and led guided meditation.
By the end of the class, I felt so calm yet energized at the same time. It was definitely worth getting up early on my day off for. I have to admit, when I first heard that it was a 2 hour class, I almost backed out. Part of me was screaming “There’s no way I can sit still that long!” and part of me was complaining “There’s no way I’m exercising that long!” But the combination of the strength building yang yoga and relaxing yin yoga allowed me to reap the benefits of both practices. Just when my mind wandered too much, we switched to yang yoga. Then when I was holding a tough position for so long that I wanted to give up, we switched back to yin yoga. It was such a perfect combination. Smith says “When you take the yin and the yang and put them together, you become balanced. The yang is the strength and balancing, and the yin is the softening, the feminine side, the darker side, the release side. When you mix those two together, you achieve balance.”
House of Light Yoga offers classes to fit every schedule and every fitness level. From beginner to expert classes to kid’s yoga, yoga for seniors, mindful meditation, and more there is something to benefit everyone. For more information visit houseoflightyoga.net or call 352-610-1083
Located at: 12560 Spring Hill Dr, Spring Hill, FL 34609