By Anu Chitrapu

BURLINGTON, MA–INE Mega Health Expo starts with India’s best and most popular gift to the world… Yoga. Yoga is one of the top 5 health modalities per NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. “Looking at all the clinical data, it’s the real blockbuster medication of our times” says Jay Gupta, a pharmacist and yoga therapist. To learn more and experience the clinical benefits of yoga, please join us on April 3, 2016 at 10 am.

Jay Gupta

A very experienced team of yoga teachers will lead this session to give all the participants an experience of peace and ease in their body and mind. Session has been designed to suit the needs of the beginners. However advanced yoga practitioners may also find it highly rewarding. Jay Gupta will start the program with a brief yogic warm-up session. This will be followed by asanas with special focus on healthier back, led by Ritu Kapur. Ritu’s session will help you align your spine, decompress it and strengthen it safely and effectively.  She will masterfully help you release muscle tension and relieve back pain with emphasis on stretching and flexibility in harmony with your breath. She will also share important tips to keep the back pain in check.

We’ll move from gentle asanas to pranayamas led by Harshal Morparia. After energizing pranayam session, Jay Gupta will lead the group into a pratyahar practice augmented by a Gong bath by Missy Dabilis. Pratyahar is the fifth element of Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga. Pratyahar means withdrawal of the senses. It’s a prerequisite for meditation and induces deep relaxation. According to Jay, lack of relaxation is the biggest cause of health problems in the modern times. Most people wake up in the morning after hours of sleep (if they are lucky) tired and might have to rush towards their daily caffeine fix. That is an indication of a sub-optimal sleep. Pratyahar practices naturally help relieve this problem by inducing a relaxation response.

Sounds of the Gongs have been used since time immemorial to call us to prayer, to meditation, into battle and even to dinner.  Gongs gently touch us and draw us together into our own-Self.  Divine vibrations of the gongs will augment the practice of pratyahar, increasing the healing potential of the body at cellular, and even at atomic level. Jay and Missy will put together two practices to give a deep relaxation experience to all the participants. In the end, we’ll save a few minutes for questions and feedback.

Ritu Kapur

Ritu Kapur is the owner of Sohum Yoga and Meditation Studio located in Westborough, MA.  She is an occupational therapist by profession for over 20 years but her passion is yoga.  She is a Registered Yoga teacher and has been teaching therapeutic yoga to combine her love of yoga and OT for more than 7 years.  You can check her schedule at www.SOHUM.org and contact her at [email protected]

Melissa “Missy” Dabilis

Melissa “Missy” Dabilis is the founder and director of Open Space Yoga – a co-op studio in Nashua, NH. Over the years, Melissa’s passion for practicing yoga has evolved into a passion for teaching yoga. Through the experience of living her yoga, she shares with her students what she has learned about releasing stress and tension in the physical body, practicing compassionate self-acceptance, calming the thinking mind and moving into a state of stillness. She is a life-long learner and a certified Yoga teacher.

Jay Gupta and his wife Terry Gupta, co-founders of YogaCaps and RxRelax, are on a mission of integrating yoga and meditation into the mainstream healthcare. While Jay enjoys being a pharmacy professional, his passion for yoga has brought clinically significant relief for hundreds of people suffering from chronic physical and mental health conditions. Jay and Terry Gupta work in collaboration with major hospitals in New Hampshire, not just to serve the patients, but also the healthcare professionals and caregivers. Their collaboration with Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (MCPHS) is exploring the benefits of RxRelax Therapeutic Yoga in a clinical trial for insomnia in people actively being treated for cancer. Guptas travel nationally, lecturing about the health benefits of yoga and teaching yoga to the underserved populations, including people who use wheelchairs.

It’s very important to warm-up before we get into the postures. So please do come on time… and bring a yoga mat. See you all at 10 am on April 3. You owe this session and day to your own body and mind.