WellWoman Yoga with Birthlight Instructors
WellWoman is a practice with yoga therapy elements. The style was created by Francoise Freedman (UK), the founder of BIRTHLIGHT international science and practice school.
This practice is especially beneficial:
1. during PMS
2. during menstruation
3. for women suffering from menstrual disorders
4. for getting ready to conceive
5. for getting into shape after childbirth
6. for women suffering from reproductive system disorders
7. for preparing to easy and trouble-free menopause
8. during menopause
This type of practice is characterized by a smooth dynamic style and an emphasis on the reproductive system in close interaction with all the others.
Yoga for women can be considered the first adapted variation of classical yoga that appeared in the West after yoga made its way to our civilization.
It is both surprising and not very surprising that yoga was accepted by women so quickly. It is surprising because for centuries yoga was exclusively male practice (except, perhaps, tantra yoga, one of the most mysterious practices for the West). It is not very surprising because yoga suits the woman perfectly and can give her a lot.
Certainly, there are miracles if you come to any yoga class, let us say, in Moscow, you will see that women significantly outnumber men there.
Certainly, there are miracles if you come to any yoga class, let us say, in Moscow, you will see that women significantly outnumber men there.
Having received this fabulous gift from the East (as Geeta S. Iyengar brilliantly states in the title of her book Yoga: A Gem for Women), the woman started practicing yoga. Each year it is getting more and more obvious that women should not copy mens practice due to effectiveness and safety reasons. However, even today separate yoga classes for women are rather rare. The professional yoga community still fights for purity of tradition and denies adaptation in general. Moreover, yoga for women, as well as yoga for children, is perceived as a joke or some commercial trick. In fact, this is absolutely not the case.
Knowledge can and must develop. Actually, by having accepted and adapted the female audience need for yoga practice, Birthlight comes back to the origin of yoga and renders its meaning based on the womans needs. Returning to the source, rethinking ancient practices in the context of todays life and comparing them to modern knowledge are crucial points that determine success of the practice. We have to and should ask ourselves the question: How does yoga work for women and what are we to do for the woman to get all the best from yoga? Thus, by having perceived and understood yoga essence and yoga in its different appearance, we not only adhere to classic principles but also may understand them better, since yoga practice does not deny but welcomes development and harmonious coexistence with the body and the world around us. It is especially up-to-date in our era of disappearing geographic boundaries.
At various life stages the womans needs change significantly. Childhood, adolescence, femininity blossom, motherhood, maturity all these stages are a part of the womans way and each of them may and must be harmonious, as nature has planned. We abandon ourselves, our nature and this is the reason why many, if not most, of these stages are gloomy, difficult or even painful. It is enough to name such hackneyed phrases as adolescence problems, painful periods, infertility, postpartum depression, menopause, etc. (not to mention various health issues in advanced age) and it becomes clear that in fact we see almost the entire life as a permanent problem. Yoga helps to conquer many wide-spread hardships and if the practice is regular and properly structured, these hardships can be avoided altogether.
Yoga helps to maintain focus and clear consciousness; it has the most powerful therapeutic and restoring effect; it helps the woman to be in peace with herself and to spread harmony around.
The text is based on www.birthlight.com website materials.