Fitness specialist promotes health and harmony

By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

This past January, Alice Hixson, fitness specialist at Fox Run Village, introduced a new class called Yoga with Guided Meditation. Wednesday mornings, an hour-long session of yoga followed by a 30-minute “guided meditation” is held in the community’s worship center.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines yoga as “a Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility.” Meditation, often practiced in conjunction with yoga, is described as a “state of concentrated attention on some object of thought or awareness. It usually involves turning the attention inward to the mind itself.”

Fitness expert: ‘A mind/ body approach is ideal’
For 14 years, Hixson served as a fitness specialist for the Farmington Public School system, working with adult community education students, most of them 65-plus.

When Hixson presents the class to community members at Fox Run, she cites a Harvard study which found that 60%-90% of all health care visits are related to mind/body stressed-induced conditions such as hypertension, cardiac rhythm irregularities, chronic pain, depression, some cancer symptoms, and insomnia.

Hixson says that a mind/ body approach is an ideal one. Here are the primary benefits of practicing yoga:

• Physical—improves flexibility, strength, and balance.

• Mental—improves alertness and calms the mind; creates increased awareness.

• Spiritual—improves inner peace and creates a connection with a higher self through meditation.

Ultimately, Hixson says, “Yoga unites body, mind, and spirit.”

Yoga participants gain relaxation
Margo and Tom Gray, who moved to Fox Run from Canadian Lakes, Mich., enrolled in Hixson’s yoga/ meditation classes as soon as they were offered.

“It was a great experience,” Mr. Gray says, who experienced a severe back injury two years ago. “Alice does a great job.”