‘Internal workout’: Yoga instructor leads online classes, offers tips on maintaining life balance

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Local yoga instructor Lena Armstrong-Strober suggests using breathing exercises and yoga, along with maintaining a routine, to combat depression and stress at home. (Courtesy of Lena Armstrong-Strober)

Getting in touch with your body, spirit and mind is an important way to stay healthy during an unsettling time.

Like many other New Mexicans, yoga instructor Lena Armstrong-Strober is out of work. The studio where she teaches closed in compliance with the state’s COVID-19 regulations. She has taken to providing her classes online so people can stay mentally, physically and emotionally healthy while being stuck at home. She will be offering yoga classes and meditations on her website on a donation basis at LenaArmstrong.com. Her colleagues at Bhava Yoga Studio are also offering virtual classes through bhavayogastudio.com.

“It’s called intuitive kundalini yoga,” Armstrong-Strober said. “That’s what I did for my Facebook live post. Kundalini is really great to redistribute energy throughout the body, and it utilizes breath work, meditation, mantra, postures and rhythmic movements and rhythmic movements are really great for relaxation. Kundalini yoga works on the nervous system. It works throughout internally. It will give you a physical workout, but it will also give you an internal workout”

Intuitive kundalini yoga is a well-rounded practice that offers specific sets for the heart, for peace of mind and for stress, as well as sets to eliminate anger and sadness, Armstrong-Strober said. Another practice Armstrong-Strober specializes in is traditional hatha yoga, with positions that many are familiar with, such as downward dog, warrior one, warrior two and triangle pose. Armstrong-Strober suggests people find a yoga practice that is gentle to de-stress and relax during this uncertain time.

Another approach to slowing the heart rate and calming the senses is meditation and breathing exercises.

“The left side of the body is our feminine side of our body, and our right side is the masculine side of our body, and that doesn’t have anything to do with gender; that’s just an energetic balance that we have between the two,” Armstrong-Strober said. “… If you just came in to do left nostril breathing, you would take your left thumb and close off the right nostril and simply breathe in and out long, deep inhales through the left nostril. I would suggest sitting in a comfortable seated position with the spine straight so you get optimal breath. And then, also an important thing to think about is on the inhale, you want the body to expand the inhale so the belly blows up with the inhale, and with the exhale, the belly goes back into the spine. So if you were focusing on your belly button when you inhale, the belly button would come away from the spine, and on the exhale the belly button would come back to the spine. It will slow the heart rate down. T he thing is the mind is always going and always moving, even the subconscious mind, so when you focus on your breath, it gives you the opportunity for the subconscious spots to run their course through the mind and then to be released, so it’s physically calming and also mentally calming.”

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Keep breathing exercises short when starting out, and keep track of the time, she said.

“Do specific times so that way you can kind of keep track of where you are,” Armstrong-Strober suggests. “It would be easy to start off with 10 minutes right away, but in a beginning practice, especially with practicing alone, start at three minutes and set a timer so when you are done with the three minutes, mentally scan the body, mentally scan the mind to see if there’s been any change.”

Creating a schedule for yourself is another way to maintain sanity.

“This doesn’t have to be the time to drastically reinvent yourself or take up a new career,” Armstrong-Stober said. “But do create and keep a healthy routine for your days, such as get dressed, bathe, make your bed, keep your house in order, eat healthy, exercise, read and (do) any chores you’ve been wanting to tackle. Maintain some sort of consistency for yourself. This may sound trivial or obvious, but isolation can cause depression and a way to defeat depression is with routine.”