Five Reasons Why You’ll Love Chair Yoga

The other day I found myself feeling sad about something that happened in the past. My mind wandered and I continued to perseverate about this event. “There is nothing I can do about this anymore”, I told myself. I could feel myself slipping into a familiar pattern of guilt.  Up until my mind started to wander, I was working on a yoga sequence for an upcoming workshop that incorporates a chair and other props. It was then that I realized I had all I needed to get my mind off of the guilt trip – my chair yoga sequence! After all, I had the one prop I really needed - I was already sitting in a chair.

 
 

Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is a practice where breath, meditation, and movement combine so the practitioner can achieve an inner peace, the ultimate Joy.  There are many documented benefits of the practice, physical as well as mental. Below is a partial list of the benefits of yoga:

  • Focus on breathing to calm the body and mind

  • Strengthen the body and improve flexibility

  • Protect the spine and help with posture

  • Increase your blood flow

  • Improve balance and help with focus

  • Bring awareness to the body, heart, mind connection through meditation and breath work

  • Makes you happier

 Chair yoga is no different, but has the added benefit of providing ease and support to anyone who wishes to practice.

Five Reasons you’ll love chair yoga

Chair yoga is expanding beyond the traditional senior centers and nursing homes.   A chair is basically just another yoga prop – like a blanket, bolster, strap, block or the wall – making the practice of yoga available to more people in more places.    

 

1) Practice anywhere there is a chair. Consider all of the time you are seated – doctor’s office, airplane seat, airport gate, train station, bus station, your kitchen table, your office chair, conference room…the list goes on.  Anytime you are feeling anxious, tense, worried, sad, or stressed out and there is a chair available, you can do yoga.     

2) It’s unobtrusive. No one needs to know you are doing yoga.  To others around you, it might look like you are resting (in meditation or a breathing technique) or that you are just stretching. 

3) Practice yoga even when you aren’t feeling your best. Had a hard day? Don’t feel like changing into yoga clothes and attending a studio class. Not even interested in practicing along with a video at home? Take a seat, close your eyes and begin. 

4) Injury? A seated practice may be what the doctor ordered. Sitting on a chair may be more accessible to you if you have an injury. If mobility is an issue, you can still have a practice without having to get on your mat. 

5) You still get the great benefits of yoga. the best reason of the five is that you will still get the benefits of yoga while seated in a chair.  


Give it a try the next time you need to quiet your mind

Try this breathing technique.  Sit with your feet firmly planted on the ground.  You may need to move closer to the front of the chair.  Let your hands rest in your lap. Sit tall with the top of the head parallel to the ceiling (pretend you have a book on your head and you are balancing it).  Close your eyes or just let your eyes rest. Notice your inhale and exhale.  

Gradually increase your breath by inhaling to a count of 3 and exhaling to a count of 4 (you can increase the count if you like). Stay with this breathing technique for as long as you’d like but for at least 5 breaths. You can also add simple movements to stretch your legs.  When you inhale come onto your toes and lift your heels. On the exhale, lift the toes and press your heels gently into the floor.



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