"Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled."
-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
"The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what's been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga - the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body - you initiate a process that turns the fight-or-flight system off and the relaxation response on. That has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms."
-Richard Faulds
"Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode."
-Melanie Haiken, about yoga and anxiety, "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006
"Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without."
-Ymber Delecto
"Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions."
-B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala
