Try Yoga For Good Health And Well-Being

 By Kaaren Valenta

Stressed? Having a hard time coping? Have you considered yoga?

Rose Bergen has been studying and teaching yoga for 23 years, since shortly after the birth of her first child. The featured speaker for the Monday, January 3 meeting of Newtown Business and Professional Women, Ms Bergen knows how yoga can change a life.

Although she studied yoga originally with a goal of toning up her body, she quickly found that the practice of Hatha yoga has many other benefits as well.

“It’s really been my whole life,” the Newtown resident said. “It changed by life and allowed me to sit still long enough to let the grace that’s all around us come in.”

Hatha yoga comes from the Sanskrit words “ha” for sun, “tha” for moon, and “yui,” to yolk or join. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word yoga means the uniting of the self with the universe.

Hatha yoga is the practice of uniting opposites, of balance, of union, Ms Bergen said. The techniques of Hatha yoga develop strength, flexibility and balance in body and mind, creating inner peace and harmony.  It promotes relaxation, stress reduction, pain management, health and well being, mental calmness and an increased ability to focus body, breath and mind. It also is used as a preparation for the practice of meditation.

Through her business, Transformational Arts LLC, Ms Bergen teaches yoga through Newtown Park & Rec, the Learning Center in Bethel, at Newtown Health & Fitness, Woodbury Yoga Center, and in private classes for individuals and groups. But the classes that give her perhaps the most satisfaction are those involving pregnant women at the Connecticut Childbirth and Women’s Center in Danbury.

“Labor is a life-altering experience,” she said. “I try to support them in that. “

Yoga strengths the abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor, which is very helpful for women, whether they are pregnant or not. But in labor, each wave of contractions can cause the  body to tighten up and become tense.

“We use the time in between the contractions to focus on breath and bring [the women] back to focusing on relaxing the body,” she said. “It is a process of focus and release. They aren’t going through the whole labor carrying the last wave into the next.”

“That applies to our lives, too,” Ms Bergen said, explaining that yoga and meditation can be powerful religious tools.

“People think [it is] either Christianity or yoga, but one does not negate the other,” she said.

While she was living in Boulder, Colorado and teaching at the O’Hearne Medical Clinic two decades ago, Ms Bergen also began to explore her spirituality. She traveled to India to study Saundaryalahari, the ancient scripture of Sri Vidya knoweldge, became versed in Eastern philosophy and religion, taught at the Indianapolis Himalayan Institute of Yoga, converted to Catholicism and became an oblate in a Benedictine Monastic tradition.

“An oblate is a lay member of a monastic community,” she said.

Working with pregnant women and couples, she designed a program called Birth Focus to offer experiential practices that reduce anxiety and pain in labor.

“We have an inner knowing that labor is important,” she said. “We focus our energy into preparing for this major event. There is an innate sense that we are entering a healing and holy space. We want our partners to enter into this space with us, to support us and to share the challenge and the joy.”

Rose Bergen is the mother of three children: Joseph, 23, a student at Western Washington State University; Sam, 17, a senior at Newtown High School, and Gracia, 9, a third grade student at Head O’ Meadow School. Her husband, Bruce, is a computer software developer.

At the BPW meeting, she will teach seated yoga, through which the body is brought into alignment and emphasis is placed on mind-breath-body awareness.

“We will bring attention to focused breath,” she said. “It takes only a minute during the day and you can do it over and over. It is a practice and a skill that anyone can learn.”

The January 3 meeting will begin at 6 pm with networking. Dinner reservations, $18, are required by calling Ann LoBosco at 426-0472. Leave a message specifying entrée choice of chicken, fish, or vegetarian.