Yoga ॐ

Twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Elide Frangi is in Singapore, Mindful Wealth’s social hub turns into a yoga studio for an hour during lunch. A yogi who has been practicing yoga for many years, Elide teaches classes in Pranayama, Hatha Flow Yoga, and the 5 Tibetan Rites for the staff as well as her most important student, Marco. Elide is a certified yoga instructor and spends 3 months every year in Goa practicing yoga.

Pranayama is a breathing technique that controls the breath. Prana: means breath, a life-giving force + Ayama: means expansion or extension. Together this means 'the expansion of life force'.

Hatha yoga is a branch of yoga that focuses on the physical form and breathing. As the body comes in and out of yoga poses, the body’s centre of gravity changes and creates resistance in the limbs. The muscles become stronger, flexible and lead to better body posture. This also enhances muscle coordination. The breathing technique used, pranayama, evokes calmness and promotes good mental health: a great stress reliever.

The lymph, which helps the lymphatic system protect the body from infection and cancerous cells, is drained when muscles are contracted and stretched and organs moved around as the body comes in and out of yoga poses. Hatha Yoga also improves digestion and circulation of blood and oxygen around the body. You can reap the benefits of practising hatha yoga, even for an hour a week and notice improvements in posture and body imbalances.

The benefits of Hatha Yoga:

1. Healthier body – strengthens the immune system, improves metabolism and breathing, maintains a healthy mind.

2. Stress reliever – detoxes mind and body, deep breathing promotes calmness.

3. Increased energy flow – breathing and postures regulate prana, ‘life force energy’, throughout the body.

4. Stronger body – body posture corrected, muscles becomes stronger and more flexible.