Story highlights Partner yoga was developed to use touch to bring you two closer together These moves will increase the intimacy between you and reduce your stress

Dana Santas is the creator of Radius Yoga Conditioning, a yoga style designed to help athletes move, breathe and focus better. She's the yoga trainer for the Atlanta Braves, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, Orlando Magic and dozens of pros in the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.

Partner Yoga is a style of yoga designed to connect people -- especially couples -- via the somatosensory system, otherwise known as your sense of touch.

Not only can physical contact reinforce intimate emotional connections and increase dopamine release to enhance pleasure sensations, but studies have shown it also reduces stress.

In 2006, Dr. James Coan, director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Virginia, conducted an experiment with 16 married couples and found that holding your partner's hand reduces anxiety by mitigating the stress response.

According to Coan, subsequent research has shown that hand holding between loving couples also promotes enhanced health, overall well being and, even, increased life expectancy.

The Partner Yoga moves I've included below all involve hand holding and/or intertwining arms as the foundation for connection, so you and your partner can partake in your own touch-response experiment.

Partner Yoga is about intimately tuning into one another so we can be guided by our partner's breathing and tactile reaction and respond appropriately.

Coordinated Breathing

Sit across from your partner in a seated straddle position with your feet touching your partner's feet.

Read more from the original source:

Partner yoga: Double the pleasure

The Sonima Foundation has given the Encinitas Union School District about $2 million to teach yoga as a health and wellness program for its students.

ENCINITAS Complaints from a vocal group of parents about an Encinitas school yoga program took a new twist Tuesday when a 14-year-old student asked the Encinitas Union School District board to halt the program for health and safety reasons.

About 20 parents descended on the districts board meeting to support Katie Prince, now an eighth grader at Diegueno Middle School. She tearfully told the board that yoga exercises she performed at Flora Vista Elementary School in the 2012-2013 school year had caused a cartilage tear in both of her hips.

She and her parents told the U-T that she participated in a variety of yoga warm up and stretching exercises over five months that caused the cartilage tear.

I spent a number of nights crying, said Katie, who played soccer and basketball and was nearly a black belt in karate before the injury.

Her parents, Darryn and Karen Prince, said they didnt actually discover the hip problems until Katies seventh grade year at Diegueno Middle School when she continued to complain about pain. Her diagnosis didnt come until late 2013 following visits to a pediatrician and an orthopaedic surgeon.

We didnt know it was coming as a result of yoga until we were told this, said Karen Prince.

The family was joined at Tuesdays meeting by about 20 supporters most of whom were wearing yellow t-shirts with Im for P.E. printed on the front.

Other critics of the school districts yoga program also were in attendance, including lawyer Dean Broyles, who is representing Jennifer Sedlock and others in a lawsuit seeking to toss out yoga on religious grounds. He and district lawyers last week appeared before the Fourth District Court of Appeal to make their arguments. Neither Broyles nor Sedlock spoke at Tuesdays meeting.

The board listened to the comments, but said at the start of the meeting that they would not be responding Tuesday.

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Yoga critics raise health issues

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Yoga can be such a helpful tool for people battling all sorts of chronic illnesses. It was a big help to FOX16's Donna Terrell's daughter when she was dealing with colon cancer.

And now with help of people like yoga instructor Breezy Osborne, people can realize it's benefits and think about really focusing on their body, mind and spirit. That's why Breezy is one of the instructors for our upcoming yoga fundraiser.

But if you've never tried yoga before or you're afraid you can't do it, listen to what the expert says.

"I think a lot of the time people have a misconception that usually when they see yoga they see some type of a pose that looks like a pretzel and you've got your foot behind your head or something and really it's not about that. If you can breathe you can practice yoga," explains Breezy.

Donna Terrell's Yoga Warriors Fighting Colon Cancer is set for April 11th at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Little Rock.

There will be two yoga sessions with two different instructors starting at 10 a.m. It is totally free. But if you want you can make a donation and all the money raised will support cancer patients in central Arkansas.

And Yoga Warriors has gone social!

You can find Yoga Warriors on Twitter @yogawarriors_.

On Facebook, just look for Yoga Warriors under the name, "Donna Terrell's Yoga Warriors Fighting Colon Cancer."

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Yoga Warriors: "If You Can Breathe, You Can Practice Yoga"

Boonton Township Recreation has scheduled yoga and relaxation sessions on Mondays, March 2,3 through Monday, April 27, 7:30-8:45 p.m. at Rockaway Valley School.

Sheila Hamill, yoga instructor of 24 years, who is with Rivers Edge Hatha Yoga in Boonton, will lead the sessions.

Yoga will stretch and strengthen muscles, realign and strengthen bones, and give participants time to slow down, relax and reduce stress. Keeping stress levels low is good not only for the psyche but also for the immune system.

During these six weeks, participants will do gentle yoga and incorporate relaxation techniques. New and continuing students are welcome.

Bring a mat or towel. The cost is $65 for the six weeks. Call Kristin Groeneveld at 973-402-4002 to request form to attend.

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Learn to relax with six weeks of yoga in Boonton Township

THIS month becomes re-start of my yoga sojourn. Last week, I went into an Ashtanga yoga Challenge with Teacher Jang Samson, then I am now completing my 10-day Ashtanga Challenge in the island born of Fire Camiguin.

Let me share some lessons from the past days. As a yogi, there are times I asked myself in my daily practice, is this enough? How deep is my practice? Should I continue this or not? These are doubts and questions about how my Yoga journey has been.

I do home practice if I can go the studio. Sometimes its hard to find a good place to be in your mat, but it doesnt matter as long as you do practice.

Your home yoga practice should be an ecstatic expression of who you are, in the present moment.

That means that it, like you, can and should change over time and whatever the time that you want. I do practice in the morning, the yogi hour at 4 a.m., sometimes 10 a.m. or even mid-afternoon. Your yoga practice does not have to look like anyone elses. Nor should it! It should be uniquely and divinely you. So get creative and express yourself but try to stay within some structure.

The beauty of yoga is that it is different for everyone. Yes! Precisely, and correctly true. We see this first in classsome students will be flowing through a full vinyasahopping back into chaturanga dandasana and then upward facing dog, while others will be blessed out in child's pose, sending their hips to their heels and resting their foreheads on the mat. I know it is okay to come to rest pose as long as you want.

I found these questions relatable and borrowed them from Yoganonymous.

So before you begin, answer some simple questions. This is not a test; this is an assessment, asking you what you need to create a sustainable home practice. Take out a journal and start writing answers, stream-of-consciousness style, not letting your egos or the shoulds of your life get in the way.

Let's beginand remember: there are no wrong answers:

Why would you like to practice yoga?

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Lessons with Yoga: Questions before practice