Please find the English version after the Japanese text.
こんにちは！
台風は無事に過ぎ去り、今日は最高の陽気ですね！
日も長くなり、最近は毎日息子たちを家の中に入れるのが大変です。就寝時間は20時なのに、お風呂のあとも気づけばパンツ一丁で庭を走り回っています。
子どもにとって今の季節は、毎日がパーティーなのかもしれませんね。
先日、吃音症のあるママさんと知り合い、吃音症について少し学ぶ機会がありました。
その方は、ご両親や学校の先生をはじめ、吃音症について正しく理解している人が少なく、「恥ずかしがっているだけ」と思われることも多く、ずいぶん苦労されたそうです。
言葉を発することも、身体を自由に動かすことも、すべては脳から指令が出て、神経を通じて筋肉へ伝わることで成り立っています。当たり前すぎて忘れてしまいますが、この仕組みは本当にミラクルだなと思います。
私自身、アメリカ滞在中に英語を話す機会が増えると、日本に帰国して最初のヨガレッスンでは驚くほど噛んでしまうことがあります。
「吃音症も私のこの体験に少し似ているのでしょうか？」と尋ねると、そのママさんは「そうだと思います」と話してくださいました。
大人になってからは症状もだいぶ落ち着くそうですが、普段あまり使わない言葉や、特定の音（例えば「つ」など）は今でも出にくいことがあるそうです。そのため、言い換えられる言葉は別の表現にしたり、詰まりやすい音を避けたりしながら、スムーズに話せる工夫をされているとのことでした。
先月は新規の方もたくさん参加してくださりました。最初は思うように身体が動かず、つらく感じるかもしれません。
それは、まだ十分に使われていない筋肉に対して、神経の伝達がスムーズではないからです。よく使う動きほど脳の神経回路は発達し、その動きはどんどん上手になります。
ラサリラヨガでは基礎を大切にしながら、毎回ひとつかふたつ、少し難しいアーサナにも挑戦します。
それは、普段あまり使わない筋肉を動かし、新しい神経回路を育てる「脳のトレーニング」でもあるからです。
6月のテーマは『腰を守る・体幹強化』。多くの方が人生で一度は経験する腰痛。肩こりと同じように、腰痛対策にも「伸ばすこと」と「鍛えること」の両方が大切です。
そして今週末のお稽古は、あつし先生による『本場インドで感じたヨガ』です！
予約不要、いつものチケット・都度払いでご参加いただけます。
ぜひ、あつし先生がインドで体験してきた“ヨガ最前線”のお話と実践を楽しみにいらしてくださいね！
皆さまのお越しをお待ちしております。
Hello everyone!
The typhoon has safely passed, and today’s weather is absolutely beautiful!
The days are getting longer, and lately it has become a daily challenge to get my boys back inside the house. Their bedtime is 8:00 PM, but even after their bath, I often find them running around the yard in nothing but their underwear.
Perhaps for children, this season feels like a party every single day.
Recently, I met a mother who has a stutter, and I had the opportunity to learn a little about stuttering.
She told me that many people including her parents and school teachers did not understand what stuttering was and often assumed she was simply shy or nervous. As a result, she faced many challenges growing up.
Whether we are speaking or moving our bodies freely, everything begins with signals sent from the brain, traveling through the nervous system to the muscles. It is such a normal part of life that we rarely think about it, but when you stop and consider it, the whole process is truly miraculous.
Whenever I spend a lot of time speaking English during my visits to the United States, I notice that when I return to Japan, I stumble over my words during my first yoga class back home.
I asked her, “Do you think stuttering feels a little bit like that experience?” and she replied, “Yes, I think so.”
She explained that her stutter has improved considerably as an adult, but some words and sounds especially ones she does not use often or certain sounds such as “tsu” can still be difficult to say. To communicate more smoothly, she sometimes chooses alternative words or avoids sounds that tend to cause difficulty.
Last month, many new students joined our classes. Some of them had never practiced yoga before in their lives!
At first, your body may not move the way you want it to, and yoga may even feel challenging or uncomfortable. One reason is that the communication between your nervous system and muscles is not yet fully developed for those movements. The more frequently we perform a movement, the stronger those neural pathways become, and the easier and more natural the movement feels.
At Rasa Lila Yoga, we focus on building a strong foundation while also practicing one or two more challenging asanas in each class.
We do this because moving muscles that we do not normally use helps create and strengthen new neural pathways. In a sense, it is training for the brain as much as it is training for the body.
Our theme for June is “Protecting the Lower Back & Building Core Strength.”
Most people experience lower back pain at some point in their lives. Just like with shoulder tension, improving back health requires both stretching and strengthening. Both are equally important.
And this weekend’s class will be led by Atsushi sensei:
“My first yoga experience in India”
No reservation is required, and you can join using your regular class pass or drop-in payment.
We hope you’ll come and enjoy Atsushi sensei’s stories and insights from his recent experience in India, along with a taste of yoga from the source itself.
We look forward to seeing you in class! 🙏🧘♀️✨
