What Science Says About Mindful Movement & Meditation and How Both Can Benefit You

Mindful Movement & Yoga

Slow, gentle, mindful yoga posture practice has health benefits (in additional to the usual exercise benefits) that can help build resilience in the nervous system.

Yoga posture practice can:

Reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain Enhance muscular strength
Enhance flexibility
Promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function
Improve sleep
Enhance sense of well-being and quality of life
Build awareness
Improved memory and brain function
Promote recovery from and treatment of addiction

This includes both standard floor yoga and chair yoga. Thus making it available to anyone of any size, shape or ability.

Meditation

A robust body of research has emerged over the past couple of decades touting the brain optimizing benefits of meditation practice.

Here are some of the ways that scientists understand meditation helps the brain:

Reduce pain, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, anxiety, depression, menopausal symptoms, inflammation, and insomnia
Increase gray matter in the frontal cortex which is associated with working memory and executive function
Active attention networks
Improve learning, cognition, memory and emotional regulation
Improve empathy and compassion
Reduce emotional reactivity and reduce stress levels

Our Classes

The classes we offer at Meditate Madison can benefit you in all of these areas of research.

Yoga for All Bodies Classes

These classes I teach are 60-minute body-positive classes that involve half the class spent in gentle yoga and the other in guided meditation and relaxation. It is a quiet, slow, and meditative class incorporating mindfulness and meditation. Variations of poses will be provided using props such as chairs, blocks, straps, walls, and bolsters. If you attended one of my chair yoga classes in the past, you can be at ease in attending this class. Anyone is welcome at any size or ability. I offer variations to poses to assist you to make the most out of our practice.

I also offer Restorative Yoga classes on a monthly basis. It leads to a healing and recuperative experience and helps attain a mindful stillness within. Sarah offers workshops on Yoga for Stress & Anxiety coming up in March and April. See below for our class schedule link.

Guided Meditation Classes

It doesn’t matter if you are new to meditation, need support or have been meditating for some time. Our guided meditation classes are guided by the facilitator and can be one of the following: Mindfulness, breath, loving-kindness, intention or affirmation, a journey to discover the inner self or an inner spirit guide, body scan, walking meditation on our portable labyrinth, or others. Some may be spent in silence and some sessions will include the Crystal Singing Bowls or Tibetan Singing Bowls.

Consistent practice with a community can assist you in your accountability in your own personal practice.

Access Our Class Schedule

I hope you will join us!

~ Deb Phelps, C.MI, MMT, RYT, Yoga Therapist IT
Owner of Meditate Madison