destresser
Serenity Now, and Later
When life goes too fast, slow it down with yoga
We don’t look for it,
but it finds us. Like
deadlines and traffic
jams, it’s a fact of mod-
ern life. But that doesn’t
mean that it has to get
the better of us. The
practice of yoga carries
benefits that extend
beyond the end of the
session. Montclair’s Joe
Gandarillas, who teaches
at Yoga Mechanics and
is a Certified High
Performance Life Coach,
explains how it helps.
CONNECTING BODY
AND MIND
Gandarillas teaches Anusara, an align-
ment-based yoga, in which practitioners
are asked to hold their bodies in specific
positions, and to coordinate their breath-
ing with the movements and each other.
“We might focus on our hips, shoulders
or full body, which requires focus,” he
says. “I might say, ‘On the inhale, bring
your right leg forward, exhale, and touch
the ground.’ Poses help you focus
your mind and bring you into
the present moment.”
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We may not be aware of it, but our
breathing changes when we’re stressed,
often becoming quicker and shallower.
By focusing on regulating it while forming
poses, yoga helps us learn to control it
at other times. “Yoga affects the
parasympathetic
nervous system,”
Gandarillas says. “It
can slow the heart
rate, lower blood
pressure, and even
relax the gastroin-
testinal tract.”
GANDARILLAS
WHAT HAPPENS TO US
SPIRITUALLY
“I want to leave clients feeling better
than when they came in,” he says.
The final five to 10 minutes of his
75-minute classes are devoted to
Savasana, when participants lie on
their backs with their eyes often
closed, and he offers reflections that
tie into the theme of the class. “It
might be about determination, letting
go, or just being,” says Gandarillas. “It’ll
be something you can walk away with
and take into your life – to create a
mantra, journal entry or just to have
something to contemplate.” The pose
allows students to let go and com-
pletely relax.
YOGA CREATES A
COMMUNITY
When a room full of people move and
breathe together, it promotes a feeling
of shared experience and togetherness.
“Studies of people who live to be 100
show that being part of a community
is good for you,” says Gandarillas.
THE GOOD FEELING
CAN LAST
As with most skills, the more we prac-
tice, the better we’ll be. “If you learn to
become more present with yourself,
you can learn to be more present with
your work, or with another person in
your life,” says Gandarillas. You can’t
control the guy who gives you a
fender-bender, or the babysitter who
suddenly cancels, but you can respond
with some deep yoga breathing,
and calm yourself down. ■
– CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
OF GRACE
STRESS:
WHAT HAPPENS TO US
PHYSICALLY