By JESSICA DAMICO

Staff Writer

Students at SaKula Yoga Studio in Metuchen take on the three-legged downward-facing dog pose. Long gone are the days when yoga was reserved for swamis and spiritual seekers in India. Having made its way west, the practice has become popular with everyone from fitness freaks to chronic-pain sufferers to those seeking yoga in its literal interpretation of union with the divine.

So much has the discipline caught on in its many forms that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recognized September as National Yoga Month.

Current research suggests that a carefully adapted set of yoga poses may reduce low-back pain and improve function, the NIHs National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine states.

Other studies also suggest that practicing yoga might improve quality of life; reduce stress; lower heart rate and blood pressure; help relieve anxiety, depression and insomnia; and improve overall physical fitness, strength and flexibility.

And these benefits are accessible, with yoga studios in virtually every town throughout the state.

One in particular, located in the Iselin section of Woodbridge, brings the practice all the way from its roots in India.

Unless you experience God, you would not know what it is, said Tanvi Shah, proprietor of TanviYoga. Its the same thing with yoga.

Shah grew up in Gujarat, India, home of what was then the countrys only ayurvedic university and hospital. Yoga was commonplace, and Shah often practiced asanas, or postures, along with her family.

Original post:
Local practitioners hold positive position on yoga