A relaxed mind, the body of a twenty-something and the heart rate of an athlete - is it any wonder why Sally Griffyn traded in her 9-5 for a life full of yoga, meditation and wellbeing?

Of course, like any true well-meaning yogi, she has a conscience and is keen to give back - helping others to change their lives for the better, as she did.

As the director of Sacred Mastery Yoga, Sally runs a regular London-based yoga masterclasses and retreats in the UK and beyond.

She also has big dreams based around how yoga can help teenagers with body anxiety and aggression.

You used to work as a full-time professional photographer and director in a property company, why did you leave to take up yoga as a a full-time career?

I wanted to transform my lifestyle to one of health and vitality, and I get immense physical, emotional and wellbeing from yoga and meditation.

Since getting out of my 9-5, going freelance and setting up Sacred Mastery Yoga - I really have never looked back.

You say you traded the gym for yoga, why is this?

Running round on a treadmill or lifting weights certainly shaped my body but the workouts and gym yoga classes didn't do anything for my soul.

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My Life: Sally Griffyn, Director Of Sacred Mastery Yoga

A conference in Hollywood will show the nation what many South Floridians already know: South Florida is experiencing a yoga boom.

Even during the recession, new yoga studios were opening up; at least 12 opened in Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2009 and 2010 alone. Most are flourishing, with an assortment of styles and levels of challenge offered for every age group: hot yoga, paddleboard yoga, yoga at school, acrobatic yoga, chair yoga for seniors with limited mobility and lunchtime yoga at corporate headquarters.

"Yoga studios are popping up everywhere," said Leslie Glickman, 48, owner of Yoga Journey in Boca Raton. "Our market is exploding, like Los Angeles and New York."

Along with many of South Florida's yoga instructors and students, Glickman will attend the Yoga Journal Florida Conference at the Westin Diplomat Hotel and Spa in Hollywood, a four-day convention beginning Oct. 31 that brings some of the country's most famous instructors and offers a taste of trends that are making it big nationally. Hiking yoga, anyone? How about yoga and chocolate?

"South Florida is up and coming, an emerging yoga market," said Elana Maggal, Yoga Journal's event director. "There has been a lot of interest. Enrollment is strong."

Yoga Journal offered South Florida conventions in 2008 and 2010, but the recession and scheduling problems kept enrollment under 1,000, Maggal said. The magazine kept monitoring the market, observed the opening of numerous new yoga studios and decided to restart its South Florida conventions, booking the Diplomat annually through 2016. Maggal said 1,300 to 1,500 participants are expected; 69 percent are from South Florida.

A 2012 study by Yoga Journal found 20.4 million Americans practice yoga, up 29 percent from 2008. And they seem to have money: Yogis spend $10.3 billion a year on classes and gear, up from $5.7 billion in 2008.

Most practitioners are women, 82 percent, and the majority are youthful: 62.8 percent are ages 18 to 44.

Yoga Journal's conference is attracting famous names from the yoga world, including Rodney Yee, Seane Corn and Ana Forrest. Several South Florida instructors also will get a chance to show their styles to a national audience, including Rina Jakubowicz and Cat Haayen of Miami, Emily Large of West Palm Beach, and Kino Macgregor of Miami Beach.

Ernesto Bustamante, 44, a Fort Lauderdale instructor, will be at the convention to assist his beloved teacher, Aadil Palkhivala, who teaches Purna Yoga, a mixture of postures, meditation, breathing exercises and nutrition guidance.

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National conference shows South Florida yoga boom

It's easy to overindulge, and feel bloated and puffy after a big meal. The main cause? Not-so-savory reasons like gas and acid reflux. Instead of popping a Tums and flopping back on the couch, think about trying a natural cure for stomach troubles.

"Fifteen minutes of yoga will help ease your pain," says Zayna Gold, creator of Healing Through Movement and a Boston-based yoga instructor. As a long-time sufferer of Crohn's disease, she's created this yoga sequence to beat bloat, flatten your middle, and ease your stomach pains.

Health.com: Yoga Poses that Fight Cellulite

Benefits of yoga

Gold recommends starting from a reclining position. "This gives you a chance to take a deep breath and feel energized," she says. Then, she progresses from seated to standing positions. Some, like the bridge pose, are stretch moves that stimulate your abdominal organs. Next are twist poses that massage and tone your abdomengreat therapy for gas, bloating, and constipation. The remaining poses work out your back, neck and spine. "You will feel less stress when your nervous system is relaxed. The health benefits will spread to the rest of your body and ease your digestion," says Gold.

Knees hugged to chest or "Apanasana"

You'll want to do this simple stretchalso known as the wind-relieving poseto gain relief from bloating and gas pains.

How to do it: Lie down, relax and inhale, placing your hands on your knees. Exhale, and hug your knees to your chest. Rock your knees from side to side to maximize the stretch. Stay for five to ten breaths, and release your knees. Repeat this move a few more times.

Modification: Bring up your knees as far as it is comfortable. To vary the stretch, you can do one side at a time. Leaving your left leg extended, bring up your right knee and hold it for five or more breaths. Then, switch to the other side.

Spinal twist

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How to beat bloat with yoga

Yoga: The Art of Transformation, an exhibit at the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, is the first to look comprehensively at yoga visual art.

Before yoga became the chosen fitness pastime of suburban yuppies, it was a driving cultural force, shaping literature, religion, philosophy and other facets of society, first in India, and then the rest of the world.

[READ: Alec Baldwin, Wife Prescribe Yoga for Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz]

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery explores how yoga practice and culture manifested itself in visual artifacts sculpture, paintings, illustrated manuscripts, photography and film over the last 2,000 years. Called "Yoga: The Art of Transformation," the exhibit is the first ever to comprehensively examine yoga-influenced visual art.

"There hasn't been much work done on this visual culture and our understanding of yoga's manifestation in history is also quite spotty," explains exhibit curator Debra Diamond. "It's like a whole other archive that hadn't been used before."

The exhibit tracks the way yoga practices and teachings were disseminated throughout the Indian subcontinent. "We know that at least as early as the 5th century B.C. that there's this huge shift in Indian soteriological thought," Diamond says. "There's this notion that we, ourselves through our own bodies and minds have the power to get out of this horrible cycle of death-rebirth."

"Yoga: The Art of Transformation" looks not only how the lifestyles of yoga practitioners have been depicted in Indian art, but also how they became embedded in Indian culture. "For me [it] is a way of thinking through some of the issues surrounding yoga in the United States today how yoga is getting embedded into our culture," Diamond says.

[SLIDESHOW:5 People Who Are Changing the Face of Yoga]

Many of the pieces, 130 in all, celebrate yoga culture from a spectacular 12th century sculpture depicting the attainment of spiritual enlightenment to Mughal empire court paintings that have rulers rubbing shoulders with ascetic sages.

However, the exhibit also uncovers a dark side to how yoga inhabited the Indian imagination. "There's definitely always a strand of evil, sinister yogis, at least in the imagination," Diamond says. This includes paintings and illustrations of fictional yogis who doubled as spies, incinerated cities and engaged in other forms of taboo acts.

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Sinister Yogis: The Dark Side of Yoga Art