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Students frequently ask if and how slow, meditative Hatha yoga helps manage weight.

The short answer is YES, and here’s how: 

1. Extended holding of specific yoga poses that gently massage the internal organs promotes improved metabolism, such as ‘spinal lift’. 

2. Through relaxation and stress management, it prevents emotional overeating.

3. Learning how to be ‘present’ will show itself in the way you eat - you will chew more slowly, digest your food more easily, and you will be less likely to binge eat if you are fully aware of the way you are eating.

4. It is a longterm approach to weight loss, a way of finding balance and acceptance in your body through mastering the mind and breath. 

5. It is a gentle and less dramatic way to lose weight. The effects will take longer to set in, but your ability to maintain your new healthy weight will be stable because of deeply transformed habits and ways of thinking about your body.

6. Constant, slow, deep breathing makes you less hungry. Try an experiment: Next time you have an unhealthy craving, try taking 3 deep, full belly breaths and see if you still desire it. 

7. Increasing awareness of our bodies as a result of holding poses longer will encourage you to take better care of it. You truly have to take a look within before you will learn to not take your body for granted.

Slow yoga is an amazing addition to any healthy weight loss program. Consider adding a class to your routine today!

Love & Light,

Natasha