Why Do Yoga?

Contrary to what people think, yoga goes way beyond just simply stretching. Yoga benefits both the physical and psychological sides of a person.

Your overall wellbeing, from the outside to the core, will be affected when you do yoga. It targets all aspects of health: body, mind, breath, and awareness.

Body: Among many other things, yoga will help increase your balance, strength, and flexibility.

Mind: Yoga’s main focus is to teach you how to attain a calm mind or a mind at peace. Yoga will help relieve your mind of confusion and distress.

Breath: Yoga will help your breathing to become more efficient (by engaging your whole abdomen and diaphragm to breath), which will increase your lung capacity and reduce anxiety.

Awareness: Yoga will help with awareness by connecting the mind and body, making you aware of both. When mind and body start working together, the abilities of both will increase.

“Words fail to convey the total value of yoga. It has to be experienced.” – Prashant S. Lyengar
Yoga benefits people of all ages, personalities, and conditions; so go out and give yoga a try. Try different types of yoga: power yoga, aquatic (water) yoga, vinyasa yoga, etc. “Shop around” and find what type of teacher and form of yoga you enjoy most.

*If you don’t want to go to a class try a video or do some simple yoga poses at home.

Laughter – The Ultimate Medicine

One of my professors once shared that “just 20 seconds of laughter is the cardiovascular equivalent of 3 minutes of strenuous rowing.” Some experts refer to laughter as a “total body workout.”

Laughter not only brings joy to our lives, but it also has physiological effects on our immune system. Scientists have found that laughter:

- turns on the cells (T-lymphocytes) that fight foreign invaders
- increases the # and activity of natural killer cells that help fight against tumors and viruses
- increases the concentration of IgA, which protects against upper respiratory infections
- increases amount of gamma interferon, which helps turn on the immune system
- decreases stress because the body can’t produce stress hormones as easily

The great news about these benefits is they don’t just happen while you are laughing but the effects can last up to a day or so after.

A physiologist (Robert Ornstein) and a physician (David Sobel) noticed, “When confronted with a threatening situation, animals have essentially two choices: to flee or fight. Humans have a third alternative: to laugh.”

Develop your sense of humor.

Basics of Acupressure

Acupressure is just like acupuncture but instead of using needles you use your fingers. Acupressure developed from traditional Chinese medicine.

The belief is that chi (energy) runs through your body in pathways called meridians. All of these pathways have points called gates. If these gates are not working properly, then the flow of energy throughout the body can be disrupted. Through mild pressure with the fingers on certain points, the gates can be adjusted to allow energy to flow smoothly throughout the body.

Below are some points you can try called Golden Points. Next to the points are the name and reason for use. Remember to press on points with mild pressure and breathe deeply.

-LU1 Letting Go: difficulty breathing, fatigue, clears chest, emotions



-BL2 Drilling Bamboo: sinus headaches, foggy vision
-ST3 Facial Beauty: head congestion, stuffy nose, clears sinus swelling on face

-GB21 Shoulder Well: softens hard muscles, nervousness, irritability, shoulder pain
-GB20 Gates of Consciousness: headache, side ache, ankle pain, shoulder pain

-SP6 3-Yin Crossing: water retention, menstrual cramps, diarrhea

The 3 chakra (shaw-kra) points that connect in the center of the body
-GV20 Crown Chakra: headache, vertigo, calms and relaxes
-CV17 Heart Chakra: depression, grief, emotional trauma
-CV6 Hara Chakra: low back pain, weakness, replenishes energy

Prevention is The Key

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In old China, doctors used to get paid for keeping their patients well. If one of their patients got sick, the doctors had to treat them without getting paid. That is some health program! It’s crazy how health is viewed so differently now.

In our world today, prevention isn’t in the spot light. We get so focused on curing things that we forget about prevention. The book, “Staying Healthy with the Seasons” talks about the five building blocks to preventative medicine.

1. Nutrition- A natural balanced diet that avoids excess of any kind.

2. Exercise- It’s not just having an exercise program; it’s exercise being a part of your lifestyle. This includes strengthening, aerobic exercise, and stretching.

3. Sleep- Get a good amount of sleep each night. This is your body’s time to recharge for the next day.

4. Stress Management- Learning how to balance your life with work and play. Part of stress management is also learning how to relax. Find activities that you enjoy and make them a part of your life.

5. Attitude- Treat yourself and others around you well. Attitude determines how well the first four steps will be lived.

Preventative medicine helps the body to not reach the state of “dis-ease” or disease. The way to really prevent this state of “dis-ease” is to always be aware of how your body is feeling. If you take time to listen to your body, you will learn more about how to take care of yourself. Prevention is the key to having a healthy lifestyle. Stop and Listen.

Elson M. Haas, Staying Healthy with the Seasons. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2003.

Combining Eastern and Western Medicine

Myth: Western Medicine is better than Eastern Medicine or Eastern Medicine is better than Western Medicine.

When I was in Thailand studying some aspects of Eastern Medicine, they still emphasized the need for Western Medicine as well. One of my Thai teachers said to strive for a good balance of Eastern and Western Medicine in order to achieve “Total Health” (physical, spiritual, mental, emotional and social health).

Eastern Medicine deals with prevention and treatment of diseases but is more concerned with prevention. Eastern Medicine sees health as the body and the spirit working together, and when a disharmony comes between them, sickness can enter the body. When it comes to healing (treatment), the Eastern way of thinking is to let the body heal itself with the aid of the therapy or medicine. Prevention is met with a certain lifestyle not a “magic pill.” The Eastern lifestyle addresses all aspects of health – physical, spiritual, mental, emotional and social.

Western Medicine also deals with prevention and treatment of diseases but is more concerned with treatment. Western Medicine mainly sees health as physical. A person is said to be healthy if they are not sick and they are “in shape.” Western Medicine is a science that has brought a lot to the world of health in treating different diseases and other health problems.

As you can see both sides have their positives. This is why we need to combine Eastern and Western Medicine to achieve our best results in health.