Can Yoga Help You Sleep

Can Yoga Help You Sleep?

Transcription below:

00:01                                     Hi, I’m Javier and this is a special, a Good Mornings with Sleep Well and with me today I have Cindy Sagenkahn from Mind Body Fitness Yoga, and, we recently had a, a yoga for sleep seminar and Cindy was kind enough to, to be there with us for that. And I wanted to continue with an interview on all the interesting things that yoga does for you, both for your sleep but also for stress relief and tension relief and

00:37                                     [inaudible].

00:38                                     Cindy, welcome to our morning program. Thank you. Um, can you give me a little bit of background on, I know that you’re licensed and I know you have a wonderful studio here in town, so let’s start with,

00:50                                     okay. Um, so I’ve been practicing yoga for 16 years. Wow. And of those 16 years I’ve been teaching for 13. Yeah. Um, it had, yoga has changed my life. The first yoga class that I took 16 years ago was the last time I lifted a weight. And the reason being, because in Yoga you, uh, you use your own body weight, you don’t need a weight Pete to be holding onto a way. Um, so the studio has been opened. My buddy fitness yoga has been open in Granada Center since 2012. Wow. Okay. It’s been awhile. And we have five, uh, Yoga alliance certified teachers. They’ve all gone through the 200 hour registered yoga teacher trainer or certified yoga teacher training. In January and February of this year we did our first teacher training. So the studio became a registered yoga school. Wow. Yoga alliance is the governing international governing body for a yoga teachers all over the world. And um, all of our teachers have 200 hours. I have 500. So I took a total of 500 hours of training and I also have, um, over 2,500 hours of teaching. Um, wow. So you do have to have 30 hours of teaching every three years. A CEC is continuing education, right. So we have a great group of teachers. Um, we have seven classes, a different styles, different times, different days. Um, something for everybody. Yeah.

02:28                                     See I had, I had no clue that there was that much certification.

02:32                                     Yeah. It’s pretty amazing. It’s not quite the same. Uh, as you know, a, a regular type certification that you’d have to have in a gym,

02:40                                     like a fish bowl, like a fitness a fitness trainer doesn’t have near that amount. Right? Oh

02:45                                     yeah. There’s a lot involved. Um, although there are yoga teachers out there that have done weekend trainings and I just really feel that the 200 hour yoga alliance, um, is a way to do it. Right. So all of our teachers are certified.

03:05                                     Wow. So I know, I know when, when we were talking this morning, uh, to me I thought yoga was more stretching. You know, while I was joking with you yesterday, it’s all about stretching and I, I’m not a stretcher, I have issues. But um, you know, you’ve described it as a lifestyle. Can you give us a little bit of background on that?

03:23                                     So I think that everybody that takes yoga finds that there is a different style that resonates with them. Okay. So it’s not just about the stretching and flexibility piece of it, but it can be, uh, it can be cardiovascular at Ken, be muscle strength and endurance where you’re building your core. Um, it whatever kind of yoga you’re doing, the components fit into the lifestyle because it’s so important that number one, that you’re breathing because you can go without food and water for a couple of days, but you can’t go without breathing, right? So if you learn to breathe in a way that you’re bringing the breath up from the belly, instead of reading from, you know, right at the top of your chest or through your mouth, because in yoga you breathe through your nose, um, it’s going to help you distress, uh, relax. Um, so that piece, uh, as far as the breath work is really important, but in combination with your lifestyle, it’s really important to make sure that you’re getting enough sleep. Um, and there’s nothing better than having a, uh, wonderful mattress. And I’ll just say from here, she was plugged in. So, um, you know, the components of sleeping, which are huge, they’re gonna, it’s gonna pull you along your life if you get enough rest and exercise and eating right. Um, so all those pieces are part of enhancing your lifestyle.

04:58                                     Okay. Now, okay, so go in with the yoga for sleep. Now, um, your description on, well, when we were talking before your description was that the tension released and the breathing.

05:13                                     So, um, you know, the breath work is going to help release tension and stress regardless whether you’re on the mat in class or whether you’re off the mat and you’re encountering a stressful situation or trying to go to sleep. So you can use that breathwork, um, by incorporating it into meditating when you’re getting ready to sleep or what’s called Neidra, which an are a witchy, which literally translates as Yogis sleep. Um, and so it’s just, there’s guided meditations that you can use. So it’s all, it’s all encompassing to relax yourself so that you can get to sleep. And also one of the issues of course is you maybe like myself, who I have no trouble getting to sleep, but I wake up in the middle of the night, um, after, uh, you know, four or five hours of sleep and I’m not done, I need to go back to sleep. And sometimes, um, so again, a comfortable space, uh, as well as incorporating some kind of breath work which can be Neidra what can be meditation, uh, all are involved in the whole process.

06:26                                     So, okay. What, what gets me is there’s people out there that, that don’t know the importance of sleep, you know, and, and they’re the ones that are, that that’ll take in their phone and they’re going through social media or whatnot. And I know that just reading on the research that I read this morning is giving that up and doing the meditation right before bed. Like it is a wonderful thing. Can you give us a little bit of background on, on, on what that does for you? What,

06:55                                     so I think that any kind of electronic device is going to stimulate and the idea for going to sleep is to relax, right? And to breed. So you can go to sleep in Yoga, we call it monkey mind. So, so your mind is just going, going, going, and when you start focusing on bringing your breath through your nostrils from the belly up and down and really focusing on your breath, you’re not thinking about what you’re going to eat next, what you have to do tomorrow. Okay. Um, one of, one of the things about breathing as well is that it keeps you in the present moment when you’re being mindful about your breath. You’re not thinking about, uh, yesterday or tomorrow. So it’s really helpful, um, to focus on the present.

07:49                                     So almost like a, yeah. Well, yeah, a mental distraction to calm you.

07:53                                     Yeah. I mean, so it’s, it’s not so much distracting because all the other things are distracting, right? So when you use your breath in a way to focus on, uh, you know, inhaling and exhaling, you’re not thinking about the past, you’re not thinking about the future, you’re focusing on your breath right now in a mindful way. Wow.

08:14                                     Okay. All right. So, um, part of our thing that we just did with good mornings for sleep wall probably two episodes ago was, uh, that exercise is actually bad for you right before sleep, but we’re not yoga in this fashion or in, in this way, isn’t the next one.

08:31                                     Depends what kind of yoga you’re doing. Okay. I went into a vignette. I wouldn’t take a Vinyasa class at eight o’clock to nine o’clock and you’re going to go to sleep at nine 30. Okay. Um, because of Vinyasa classes, breath to movement, but it’s very active and you’re using muscle strength and endurance and cardiovascular. But there wouldn’t be anything wrong with taking, like on Wednesday nights we have a mindful stretching where you’re using a lot of props, straps, blankets, um, bolsters and almost all of it’s on the floor and you’re, and you’re doing deeper stretching. So something like that is going to really help enhance the process of getting home and going to sleep, relieving that tension. And it dies because you’re breathing and you’re also doing deeper stretching. So it doesn’t mean that in a more active class, you’re not going to do deeper stretching, but it’s going to be in combination with muscle strength and endurance. Oh, so you’re combining muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, core work, um, uh, all for, uh, you know, doing things like improving circulation, um, increased Strange’s flexibility, pain relief, stress relief. So, so it just depends on what style. Um, and we offer a lot of different choices at the studio as far as what you’re looking for. Yeah. For an exercise program. Okay.

09:56                                     So, okay. So, yeah. Yeah. So it’s important to notate that there is exercise program and then there’s tension and relief, but it’s all the yoga lifestyle. It’s all the relaxation.

10:07                                     Yeah. I mean, so there’s all, you know, there’s, there’s just all of the different reasons as stress relief, the pain relief, better breathing, flexibility, increased rate, weight management, improves circulation, cardiovascular focusing on the present and inner peace. All of those, um, reasons are ways to incorporate into your, into your new yogurt.

10:32                                     I see. I was fascinated when when I first approached you to do the seminar. Now after speaking with you a couple of times, I’m like, this is something that’s missing because number one, you mentioned breathing, which is an issue for my running. I run and I have, I, it takes me, like I told you yesterday, it takes me about an mile to, to, to really warm up to the fact of here I am going and my breathing catches up or whatnot. I think that Yoga could actually help me with focusing on that.

10:58                                     No question that we’ll see that these trained athletes, the Olympic athletes who want that and I can almost guarantee you that they practice yoga. But as part of that yoga, which is a lot of people don’t realize is the meditation. Um, and um, so that they can bring all of the components together to enhance their running game, know their, their success at running. Oh, awesome. Okay.

11:29                                     Now, you mentioned an app when we first started and, um, I, I, I, I’m already in love with it. I haven’t even tried it yet, but you want to talk a little bit about [inaudible].

11:37                                     So it’s a free app called insight I n s I g h t s timer insight timer and it’s free. Okay. Um, it, there are thousands of different meditations. There’s meditations would just sound there was guided meditations. They’re all different times, different types that you can use it at different times during the day. I listened to a morning one that just talks about affirmations and how to bring, um, you know, a really positive outlook into your day. There’s ones where you can definitely utilize before you go to sleep. You can be lying in bed in a comfortable place, um, so that it helps you to sleep, um, besides having a great mattress. Um, so, um, though, so it, and there’s just, it’s an amazing, if there’s, and it’s not the only app out there. Okay. There’s others. I just, I just liked the insight timer. Other people use different apps.

12:37                                     This is, this is, this is just awesome. I can’t wait, I can’t wait to download it myself. So yeah. Yeah. I’m really looking for in a couple of things

12:43                                     is that you can really do, um, when you’re in bed both before you go to sleep and when you get up in the morning that I believe are really important. Yoga stretches and one is just bringing your knees to your chest and drawing him so that you stretch your spine and you can do that before you get out of bed. Because a lot of times when you think about it, if you don’t like take your time getting out of bed, a lot of seniors could go ahead and just pop out of bed, get their feet on the floor, either get dizzy or um, you know, not have the muscle straight there right then and there. Um, and that could fall and hurt themselves. Um, so that’s a really important part getting up is making sure. So every morning when I get up, I take my knees to my chest and then I also do a, just an easy twist. Will you take one knee towards your chest? The other leg is length. And then you take it to the side and you just stretch your spine. Oh Wow. So I do that twist every single morning, swing my legs around, set my feet on the floor, and just make sure that I’m connected because a huge part of, uh, injury, whether you’re a, whether you’re a senior or not,

13:53                                     um, his body awareness, right. And not paying attention to surrounding. Yeah,

13:56                                     that’s right. So one of the things that yoga teaches you is about body awareness. So once you start learning about what your body can do for you and can’t do for you, um, you start incorporating that into like, what am I putting in my mouth? What am I eating that I shouldn’t be? Um, you know, how can all of those mindfulness, um, meditation’s during your day help you to achieve a better quality of life? Wow. So there’s things you can do on your mattress. Just start simple yoga, stretches chest in that twist.

14:35                                     Um, and we’re not talking more than a minute or two, right? Barely. Right. Yeah. Okay.

14:38                                     You know, 30 seconds or a minute. It just depends on, because it feels good before you go to bed. Um, and when you get up in the morning, that is pet pets.

14:49                                     That’s something I’m going to start implementing. It is, I, I’m, I’m what you described up, I’ll hop out of bed and it’s fear of falling right back asleep. So doing that and then just warming up. You’re getting your heart rate started, so, yeah.

15:01                                     Yeah. You just, I’m bringing Bot, you’re just bringing movement into your body. Um, I truly believe that somehow, um, we have to move every day. It doesn’t matter whether you run or walk or do yoga or, um, you know, or are bicycle, um, there, you know, and when you say do yoga for me, um, yes, I teach in, I take in a studio setting because I find that, uh, it helps motivate me to be around other people that are practicing. Uh, there was a sense of community. Um, there’s no competition or judgment at the studio, so everybody is in a different place. Um, and everybody is just doing what they can based upon how they feel for that day. Okay. You know, it’s not about what you did a couple of days ago.

15:52                                     I think that’s important that we address two. Let’s bring the studio back into it. So you just mentioned there is no competition or whatnot and I know that a lot of people have this fear of going into a yoga studio. It’s my first time. I can’t stretch. I can’t do that. Me being one of those people. So describe the studio setting and described your mission of, of the studio.

16:12                                     So I really believe that, um, what we’re trying to accomplish is affordable. Okay. Yoga. Okay. Um, that is for every body, B, O, d y for everybody. No matter what your body looks like, no matter what age you are, what condition you’re in, physically, mentally, emotionally, um, that you can come to the studio and feel like everybody there is there for the same reason. Um, any of those reasons. Um, so that there isn’t any competition. You’re not, you know, a lot of people practice with their eyes closed. You don’t even know what your neighbor is doing. Um, there might be one person that is in a, in a full plank, I’m working on their core and another person that has both knees down because they’re not ready for that yet. So it’s, it’s a mixed level, um, opportunity for you to not feel the pressure of that competition that you might feel any yoga studio in a big city where everybody is dressed in really nice yoga clothes and Rhino.

17:22                                     And so it’s, it’s not what the studio was about. How awesome. Yeah. It’s a really safe place, uh, to, to learn about incorporating yoga into your lifestyle. Hello. Awesome. And you mentioned community. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Whether it’s on or off the mat because the idea is to take what you’re learning about your body, um, because the teachers are just guides. You’re your own teacher. Um, so you know what you can do that day. Maybe you’re tired and you don’t want to do more. Um, so you don’t, maybe the next day you have a lot of energy and you want to take the postures that we’re working on, towards, in towards the edge of the postures. Um, wow. So there’s just a lot of different, uh, a lot of the different things that are going on. Everybody’s individual and treated that way at the studio. Okay.

18:16                                     And, okay, so tell me about the classes. What time is, tell me what location. Give me a little bit more.

18:21                                     We’re located in the Granada Center. Okay. Um, number seven 90. If you, um, come in on either side of the Asian restaurant and just head straight back or on the right hand side, it’s the last, second to last door front. Um, the um, west side of Granada, there’s huge red letters that say yoga on it. And, um, let’s see, what can else can I tell you? So a pricing, the drop in is $10 for a class, but we have a 10 class package that is $60, which means just $6 a class. It’s unheard of. Yeah, it’s good for 120 days. Unfortunately, because of our low prices, we can’t take credit cards, so we take check or cash. Um, there are, right now there are seven classes, um, Monday. So most of them are evening. The only who. So Monday’s a heated Vinyasa at 5:30 PM Tuesday is a gentle flow, 9:00 AM Tuesday evening is core and more 5:00 PM Wednesdays, mindful stretching, 5:30 PM Thursdays and Saturday or Vinyasa flow Thursday night at 5:00 PM and Saturdays 9:00 AM and then on Sunday the teachers that graduated from the teacher training rotate. Um, so that they all get the experience of teaching. You can’t even tell that they’re newer teachers for a donation only flow. Um, good for everybody.

19:52                                     So not only are you helping students but you’re helping teachers get their hours. That is fantastic. Yes. So all the

19:59                                     classes are 75 except Sundays, just 60. So, um, we also, you can go to the website, www yoga, alamogordo.com, very simple to remember. Um, it will also guide you to the Facebook page, which is mine. Calm, calm, body, calm or fitness yoga. Okay. Um, we have a Facebook page for and it has a new event on it. Um, we are going to have another teacher training in January and February of 2020. Um, so just have to watch out on the Facebook page for more to come on that. Yeah, we have plenty of time to contact her. Yeah. And uh, so we have free classes occasionally. Um, we have an open house on, uh, June 28th from five to seven. You can get information on the, um, on the Facebook page for that. There’s an event on there.

20:50                                     I’ll put all the links on the bottom in the comment section so that way you guys have access to that

20:56                                     and um, it’s just a, you know, it’s the only yoga studio in town, so we really pride ourselves on, uh, on what we offer there. Um, as far as that sense of community and being comfortable in knowing that you can walk in the door and not feel like you’re going to be judged or there’s any competition. That’s fantastic. So fantastic.

21:20                                     Well, thank you Cindy, for joining us. Thank you for all the wonderful info. I’ll be leaving the links, like I said in the bottom in the comments section. Um, if you have any questions for Cindy, please leave them in the comments and I’ll be getting with Cindy and let her know whatever. I do have one more question and that is because, um, you have, I know that the studio isn’t tremendously huge. Is there a need for reservation or how do you know you have space?

21:44                                     You, you know, what if we just, it’s just basically walk in. Um, we always seem to manage somehow no matter how many, and we we’ve fit up to 25 people in the space and you’re just more Matt to Matt, but it’s just a very comfortable and, um, we don’t have any, uh, reservation system. Awesome. Okay. Come on down.

22:07                                     Okay. Okay. And it’s, uh, and one thing I do want to tell you is I’ve seen her, her, her students love the class. They always talk about how much they enjoy it. I also know that there’s no, like, like, like Cindy said, there’s no competition. It’s actually your community. Because I’ve seen these people walk out of the studio and everybody’s talking like they’re best friends. So yeah, it’s definitely something. And now I’m, I know, I’m super interested in checking it out. So you probably do,

22:32                                     it’s a really good place if, especially if you’re new to town, if you’re a military family, and, uh, looking for a place to practice, um, to come and meet likeminded people, you know, to meet New People. Fantastic. Correct.

22:47                                     Well, thank you very much and thank you for watching. And don’t forget to like the video and subscribe below and remember when you sleep well, you live well. Have a great day.

22:56                                     Thank you.

23:02                                     [inaudible].