Well, most folks would say to look better or younger, to wear a smaller size, or just'cause my doctor told me to do it. But the truly serious reasons above and beyond our dreams of looking like a movie star are the chronic health factors that are killing us in startlingly huge numbers, and costing us a not so small fortune in curative medical care. Infectious diseases used to be our most prolific killers, but these days, it's behaviour based diseases.

Coronary heart disease and cancer are now the top killers of Americans. A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that higher levels of physical fitness were beneficial even in those with other risk factors such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, cigarette smoking, and a family history of heart disease. In other words, unfit people with or without these risk factors had higher death rates than fit people with them. Fitness appears to compensate even for other risk factors that might shorten life.

WHAT IS GUIDED RELAXATION?

Guided Relaxation used in a secure and positive environment, can help the mind to create specific mental imagery, or visualization, that can assist in dealing with stress, simple problem solving, and open the pathway to deep relaxation. In our harried, pressured lives, learning to relax is one of the finest tools you can add to your arsenal of coping mechanisms for living today. Yoga For Stretch is a fabulous way to unkink tight muscles, unblock vital energy tied up by unnecessary tension, improve balance, gently increase muscle tone, and with guided relaxation/visualization, clear the mind and increase concentration.