Yoga with Marlize Sturman
Yoga as we think of it originates in ancient India. In Sanskrit, the word “yoga” means “union.” This is because the art is concerned with an encouragement of connection between the body, the mind, and the spirit; the unity of body, mind, and spirit is a state of eternal bliss. While many think of improving strength and flexibility with yoga, the practice of yoga is actually more concerned with the mental and spiritual aspects of a person than the physical aspects. The ultimate goal of ancient practitioners, or yogis, was to discover self realization and personal enlightenment.Asana, the practice of physical postures and poses, offers both physical and spiritual benefits to those who practice it regularly.
Asana, the more physical limb of yoga, offers a plethora of benefits to those who practice the art. These physical benefits include increased flexibility, increased joint and ligament lubrication, detoxification, and excellent muscle tone. Also, because of the calming nature of yoga, many practitioners feel relieved of much stress; stress is one of the greatest threats to health and well-being for most people. These physical benefits, while plentiful, are still outweighed by the spiritual benefits that come with practice. The harmony, balance, and awareness that yoga infuses into its practitioner’s lives allow them to exist with more understanding, self-awareness, and personal fulfillment. The positive outlook that comes with yoga practice is an invaluable asset to many of its students.
Marlize Sturman feels that yoga is capable of being truly beneficial to everyone’s life. Yoga encourages people to open their eyes to their surrounding and, more importantly, to themselves. It allows people to become more attuned to who they truly are and their spiritual needs.Marlize feels that with yoga, a person can live more in their present and be more aware of how to encourage balance and true enjoyment in their lives; living in the future only makes life feel shorter.
Yoga has been an important aspect of Marlize Sturman’s life since 1995. Though she had tried yoga before, Marlize overlooked the joy of the poses, transitions, and balance as she worked her way through other forms of the healing arts. Her love for yoga came to her unexpectedly in a class inBrentwood, and has been a guiding and transforming presence in her life ever since.
In her travels, Marlize Sturman has studied many different modalities of grounding, hoping to encourage balance and peace in her life. While capable of several healing arts, yoga is perhaps the most influential inMarlize’s personal life. She came to yoga hoping to find some outside influence that would be calming and that would be able to make her a better person.
Marlize likes to emphasis that yoga is not that outside force. Instead, yoga is capable of revealing the forces within a person that is their strength,collectedness, and beauty. What she and other many students of yoga are searching for is what Sturman deems pure love. Yoga is capable of opening people’s awareness to this pure love that is pre -existent in them; yoga peals away the layers of a person which conceals this pure love, and allows its students to realize their potential.
Currently, Marlize’s favorite style of teaching is Vinyasa flow and inversions. Marlize Sturman has her own unique take on presenting yoga to her students. With each class, Marlize infuses her teachings with her own playful attitude. To encourage creativity and a sense of fun and daring, Marlize incorporates arm balances which challenge her students. She also likes to keep her students tension-free with a Pranayama practice.
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