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If you have taken a couple of minutes today to close your eyes and take a deep breath, chances are that you might feel more relaxed. In fact, mindfulness practices such as yoga and meditation bring endless benefits for your physical and mental health. This Mindful May, we invite you to re-center your body and mind and discover the multiple benefits of yoga and meditation – especially if you are looking for a great complement to your dance practice.

Every twist, stretch, inversion or stand posture (aka asana) highlights the health benefits of yoga while reducing levels of stress and anxiety. When combined with dance activity, yoga and meditation can improve body awareness, strength or even provide great flexibility exercises – so no surprise you might feel your body more relaxed and agile in the dance studio.

5 reasons why yoga and meditation will help your dance practice:

  1. It boosts your strength and flexibility
  2. Improves balance and coordination
  3. Increases body awareness, alignment and posture
  4. Helps to regulate breathing to calm the mind
  5. Helps your mental health by reducing levels of stress and anxiety

 

Yoga with Crystal Costa fesmonstrated by Emilia Cadorin
Yoga class with Crystal Costa fesmonstrated by Emilia Cadorin

1. It boosts your strength and flexibility

Yoga can be the perfect warm up before a dance class. Why? The repetitive flow of movement will surely tone up your muscles and increase your mobility. At the same time, holding still in yoga  postures for a long period of time will strengthen your legs, core, back and arms while stretching the body. Indeed, yoga offers an endless list of flexibility exercises.

Surprisingly, the gentle flow of yoga not only calms the mind , it also helps you increase your energy levels at the same time. What’s better than starting your next dance class full of stamina?

Our top favourite posture for strength and flexibility: Downward Facing Dog

Yoga with Crystal Costa demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: downward dog adapted with extended leg
Yoga class with Crystal Costa demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: downward dog adapted with extended leg

2. Improves balance and coordination

The slow pace of yoga allows you to find the time to focus on your posture and optimise it. That is why you might find it easier to stand on one leg after a few yoga sessions. If you repeat the same routines constantly, your body will get familiar with certain postures, you will know what muscles you need to activate and what placement is required to hold the position. These are valuable skills to bring to a dance class!

Yoga practices such as Ashtanga, Hatha or Vinyasa are famous (and loved) for being grounded in a physical practice, providing an ongoing flow that links a series of asanas.  Just like dancing! Connecting different postures and memorizing short sequences will also help your coordination.

Our top favourite posture for strength and flexibility: Tree Pose

Yoga with Crystal Costa demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: tree pose adapted with extended leg
Yoga class with Crystal Costa demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: tree pose adapted with extended leg

3. Increases body awareness, alignment and posture

Just like dance, yoga requires you to pay extra attention to your alignment and posture. Listening to your body is crucial to execute the 84 asanas that exist in yoga. And the best part? You can also improve your body awareness through meditation exercises. Having a strong sense of self-awareness can also help prevent injuries or pushing the body too hard.

This was one of the lessons shared by English National Ballet’s First Artist Isabelle Brouwers in Well and Good, where she describes how her workout routine supports her dance work, so exercising mindfully and listening to the body are key to avoiding fatigue and injury.

Our top favourite posture for alignment and posture: Chair Pose

Yoga with Crystal Costa, demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: chair pose
Yoga class with Crystal Costa, demonstrated by Emilia Cadorin: chair pose

4. Helps to regulate breathing to calm the mind

One of the best health benefits of yoga and meditation is the breathwork, so never underestimate the power of breathing. Although we do it so naturally that we tend to forget about it, a mindfulness breathing exercise can help us relax, energise the body and focus on our body. Indeed, one of the biggest lessons you can get from yoga and meditation is learning (and mastering) breath control. And how can this help your dancing? Practicing breath control –while you are still or moving – will help you understand better how to use breath to give movement different qualities. While inhaling expands movements, exhaling is great for working on your contractions. Breathing will certainly make your dance more dynamic and fluid. So why not play some meditation music and try some yoga-inspired breathing exercises?

Our top favourite breathing exercise: Deep inhale through the nostrils for 3 seconds, hold the breath for 2 seconds, and exhale slowly through the mouth for 4 seconds.

Yoga with Crystal Costa: breathing and meditation
Yoga class with Crystal Costa: breathing and meditation

5. Helps your mental health by reducing levels of stress and anxiety

Both yoga and meditation offer the possibility to focus on the present moment, and on yourself. So both your body and mind will appreciate it if you take some time to disconnect from your busy routine and recharge through a mindful meditation before going to sleep, or start your day with some yoga.

According to some studies shared by Harvard University, yoga – as a physical exercise – can improve your mood by lowering levels of stress, and produce the “feel-good” endorphins in your body, which improves your overall mood. Meditation, reduces activity in the limbic system – our part of the brain dedicated to emotions. This particularly helps us stop overthinking and respond more peacefully to stressful situations. Additional studies published in the Aging and Mental Health journal points out that yoga and music are the most efficient practices to reduce depression and anxiety.

Our top favourite posture to relax: Child Pose or Shavasana.

Bitesize Yoga for Bedtime with Crystal Costa: child's pose
Bitesize Yoga for Bedtime class with Crystal Costa: child's pose

Implementing yoga and meditation into your daily routine can be as simple as setting up small goals and dedicate some time to practice – and the positive results will speak for themselves.

If you are keen to try out yoga and meditation this month, our Mindful May playlists are the perfect introduction. Get started with a 7 day free trial (cancel anytime), pick your commitment level  and start practicing anytime and anywhere through our BalletActive platform. With expertly curated classes, you can choose from 45-minute yoga and meditation twice a week, 15 minutes once a week or exercises for limited mobility, to help you get started on your mindfulness journey. Not sure how to use BalletActive website/app? Check out our demo video.

Discover more about Mindful May and sign up for a trial on our bespoke BalletActive platform.