Custom-made yoga gains favour

KOCHI: Yoga is becoming a much sought after panacea for various ailments. It is also gaining popularity as a fitness mantra. To cater to the needs of aspirants, yet another yoga centre has come up in the city - Tranquil Yoga on Deshabhimani Road - run by yogashiromani Charu. “Now more people,
especially women are becoming health conscious and are willing to spare some time for yoga in this mad rush of life,” she says.
  Charu who is also into theatre has been offering training for nearly a decade. She organises yoga sessions in houses and apartments, but as the demand grew she thought of setting up a centre with a one-hour ‘women-only’ session.
 She also holds a session for pregnant women. Yoga is customised because persons with different ailments have to concentrate on specific exercises, she says. Stress is laid on meditation, and being a theatre person she focuses on helping people express their emotions which is relaxing. “People enjoy these sessions and sigh ‘oh, its over’ when it ends,” she says.
 A session is set aside for artists who want their body to be flexible, she said  Tranquil Yoga offers one-hour sessions from Monday to Friday from 6.30 am to 10.30 am. The women’s session is from 10.30 am to 11.30 am. The afternoon session commences from 3.30 to 8.30 am.
Saturdays and Sundays are set aside for children. “Yoga is imparted in an entertaining way through theatre-based games that instill confidence and improve concentration,” she says.    
   Charu was drawn to yoga when she met with an accident and her illness persisted despite different treatments. “I used to practise kalari which has heavy movements but I needed to do soft and relaxing exercises and it was very effective,” she says. When yoga came to her rescue she wanted to spread its benefits to all and decided to offer training. She decided to take it up seriously and after practising for a while, got trained under Shivananda Yoga Centre and did a one-year course under India Yoga Federation. She has won the state championship in yoga several times.

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