Mary Cardinal is a Yoga teacher for Minerva Educational and Wellness Treatment Center LLC and educator specializing in Holistic Health practices such as Therapeutic Yoga, Yoga for Seniors, Prenatal and Postnatal Yoga and Children’s Yoga.

Mary has a Masters Degree in Education and trains yoga teachers in the specialty areas of Therapeutic Yoga and Prenatal Yoga. She holds degrees and certification in both traditional and Montessori education.  She has taught Yoga at the college level and works with all populations.

WHAT IS YOGA?

The term "yoga" comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "union." Yoga combines physical exercises, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques to stretch and strengthen the body and relieve stress.

Yoga is an ancient art dating back 5,000 years... meant for achieving union, harmony and happiness-harmony with our own bodies and minds, harmony with other living beings, harmony with our environment and ultimately, harmony and happiness. Yoga is a healthy exercise that has become very popular. It involves tough stretches and movements to help build muscle, provide relaxation and promote optimum health.

On the physical level, yoga postures, called asanas, are designed to tone, strengthen, and align the body. These postures are performed to make the spine supple and healthy and to promote blood flow to the organs, glands, and tissues, keeping all the bodily systems healthy. On the mental level, yoga uses breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation (dyana) to quiet and train the mind. Yoga is not a religion, but a way of living with health and peace of mind as its aims.

Classical yoga is separated into eight limbs, each a part of the complete system for mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Four of the limbs deal with mental and physical exercises designed to bring the mind in tune with the body. The other four deal with different stages of meditation. Hatha yoga, the most commonly practiced branch of yoga in America, a highly developed system of nearly 200 physical postures, movements and breathing techniques. Yoga philosophy believes the breath to be the most important facet of health, as the breath is the largest source of prana, or life force, and hatha yoga utilizes pranayama, which literally means the science or control of breathing. Hatha yoga was originally developed as a system to make the body strong and healthy enough to enable mental awareness and spiritual enlightenment.

A typical hatha yoga routine consists of a sequence of physical poses, or asanas designed to work all parts of the body, with particular emphasis on making the spine supple and healthy and increasing circulation. Each asana is named for a common thing it resembles, the sun salutation, cobra, locust, plough, bow, eagle, tree, and the head to knee pose, to name a few. Each pose is carefully executed with proper form and alignment. A pose is held depending on its level of difficulty and one's strength and stamina, and the practitioner is guided to inhale and exhale breathing fully in each posture. Mental focus in each position improves awareness, poise and posture. During a yoga routine there is often time for meditation and relaxation, the goals of the practice.

Yoga routines can take approximately one hour, a good time investment to perform a sequence of postures and a meditation. Yoga achieves its best results when it is practiced as a daily discipline, and yoga can be a life-long exercise routine, offering deeper and more challenging positions as a practitioner becomes more adept. The basic positions are covered in these weekly classes to increase strength, flexibility and sense of well-being

Please join us on Mondays at 5:00 p.m.
 

WHAT CAN YOGA HELP WITH?

Those who practice Yoga have found that they have reduced anxiety, are more resistant to stress, have lowered their blood pressure, have more efficient heart function, better respiratory function and have improved their physical fitness.

Yoga can assist with many different ailments such as:

Addictions, Asthma, Backache, Cancer, Cold, Constipation, Depression, Emphysema, Headache, Heart Disorders, Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), Indigestion, Insomnia, Menstrual Disorders, Migraines, Obesity, Premenstrual Tension, Prostate, Sciatica, Sinus, Stress and Tension. 

Yoga promotes:

Better Breathing, Body Awareness, Flexibility, Mental Calmness, Muscle Tone, Pain Prevention, Strength, Stress Reduction

If you are interested in attending a Yoga class with Mary Cardinal, please
call 570-253-8060 to see the classes she has available.  For directions or for any other additional information or questions you may have, please go to our Contact page.