The goal of yoga is to quiet the mind. It’s about self-realization and living life at the most profound level. Yoga is about opening up, diving within and experiencing a deep connection with your true self. It’s about feeling that interconnectedness with all things and beings. It’s about being one with the Universe and at peace with ourselves.

Besides getting our minds to slow down and improving our overall mental health, yoga has numerous physical benefits as well. A regular hatha yoga practice helps increase your body’s flexibility, helps improve posture, helps relieve and heal back aches, helps reduce blood pressure, helps lower cholesterol and decrease body fat, helps prevent injury and helps to stabilize blood glucose levels (which are an important factor in the prevention or minimalization of diabetes). Being a low-impact form of exercise, hatha yoga helps to prevent arthritis and bone loss. In addition, a regular yoga practice will strengthen, lengthen and tone the muscles in the body. Yoga also promotes better sleep and improves digestion and, often times, metabolism.

At Yoga by Degrees, it’s also about sweat. We like to turn up the heat during our yoga classes for a number of reasons. Heat allows for a deeper cleanse of the body. Heat boosts the body’s circulation, loosens up the muscles and detoxifies the organs. Heat allows for greater range of motion in joints, muscles, ligaments and other supporting structures of the body. Heat also has a calming effect on the mind. When the mind slows down and the heart rate picks up you have the perfect combination for a hatha yoga practice. Our classes are heated from 80º F to 105º F. Check out our Class Descriptions to find the right class with the right amount of heat for you.