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.

Ways To Manage Stress

Too much stress can start to harm your body physically, mentally, and spiritually. Therefore, it’s important to learn how to manage stress in stressful situations.

Ways to manage stress:

1. Exercise – gives the body a positive outlook about stress. When you are exercising your body is going through stress – your muscles are tight…your blood pressure is raised…your breathing is fast. You are forcing your body and mind to adapt to stress. Exercise is one of the best ways to manage stress.

2. Imagery – can help when you are stuck in stressful situations, like being in traffic while in a hurry. Image a place where you feel the most peace. Use all five senses: feel the sand, taste the salty air, watch the waterfall cover the rocks, smell the flowers, and hear the leaves rustle from the breeze.

3. Yoga – can help to relax the mind and body. If you are not the yoga type, you can always do a little stretching.

4. Meditate – and think about what is happening in the present time instead of thinking of things you have to deal with in the future or past. Also, you could ponder thoughts such as ‘this will pass’, ‘control yourself, not others’, ‘let go’, ‘it’s not a perfect world’, etc.

5. Deep Breathing – by filling up your whole stomach (instead of chest) with air, and then letting it all out in a long sigh.

6. Massage – your hands by interlacing your fingers and using your thumbs to massage your palms. Or you could go get a massage.

7. Music – usually helps if it is relaxing or soothing, but everyone’s different.

8. Reading

9. Art, Drawing, Doodling, or Painting

10. Express Emotions – by crying, laughing, writing, or talking.

There are many other ways to manage stress. Everyone is different, so find what helps you manage stress the best.

Let stress make you stronger.

Stress – Good and Bad

Most people hate stress and wish their life to be ‘stress free.’ However, stress is not always the bad guy. If your life was stress free, you might get bored and have no motivation.

Actually, stress is a fundamental part of life.

When you are weight lifting, you are tearing down your muscles so they build up stronger. The same thing happens with stress. With a good amount of stress, your body will tear down physically and mentally and then build back stronger.

Good stress consists of: exercise, deadlines, tests, presentations, sporting events, etc.; as well as joy, excitement, thrill, fear, happiness, etc.

This good stress is referred to as eustress. The bad stress, which we normally refer to as just ‘stress’, is referred to as distress.

Distress occurs when too much stress is placed upon the body – mentally and/or physically.

How distress can harm the body:
- increase fat distribution in the midsection
- raise blood pressure
- possibly damage blood vessels
- decrease mind’s ability to think rationally, realistically, and clearly
- disrupt digestion, leading to irritable bowel syndrome
- increase headaches
- increase allergies
- …etc.

Distress can be very harmful; thus, we need to be able to recognize when eustress is turning into distress. Try to notice what stress you can handle and when the stress is becoming too much. When you feel you are falling apart physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually; then you are going through distress.

Once you start to recognize distress, you can learn ways to calm down or manage stress; so you can build your body stronger instead of damage your body.

To be continued… ‘Ways To Manage Stress’ will be posted tomorrow.