our-yoga

Dearest readers,

Well, I've been absent from the blog for much longer than I intended! Life has been busy these past few months, both personally and professionally. But in any case, I'm back and have some reader-requested posts lined up for you!

Thanks to all of you who have continued to visit and comment on the blog while I've been away - I especially appreciate those of you who have reached out by email or on Facebook to ask your questions! Keep them coming.

So without further-ado, a long-awaited reader request: 7 simple stretches for tight shoulders that you can do right at your desk! It's a simple sequence that takes about five minutes - enjoy!

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by Nina

Sand Dollar by Melina Meza

I don’t have a particularly exciting story about why I started practicing yoga. (It’s kind of humorous actually. When I was in my late twenties, I was working at a small software company and we wanted to start an on-site exercise class. One of our co-workers said that his wife could come and teach us, so we decided to give it a go. We had no idea she was a yoga teacher! So there we were, for our first class, and she asked us to stand in “Mountain pose,” with our big toes together and our heels slightly apart, which was the opposite of the foot position I was used to doing in ballet and modern dance, my previous forms of preferred exercise. And just standing that way felt so wonderful for my body, I thought, whatever this is, this is for me!). However, I do have a more dramatic story about why I decided to become a yoga teacher.

During the period when I was studying yoga with Rodney Yee and writing our first book together, Yoga: The Poetry of the Body, Rod helped me understand how my yoga practice was benefiting me in emotional and spiritual ways, as well as physical ones. It turned out that by practicing regularly at home—something I had taken up intuitively rather than with any specific goals in mind—I had been learning to manage my stress, balance my emotions and cultivate equanimity without even realizing it. (If you read the dialogues in the book Yoga: The Poetry of the Body, you can witness Rod helping me toward that realization.) And as someone who had suffered in the past from chronic stress (working full time at a software start-up while raising two children!), which had led to a bout of agitated depression, I began to see the tremendous power yoga had for helping people with emotional difficulties of all kinds, including stress, depression, anxiety, anger, and general dissatisfaction or unhappiness.

Then, one morning when I was practicing yoga with Rod and his best friend, Ian, Ian began talking about how he had just learned that a colleague of his had committed suicide.  (Yes, sorry to disillusion you, those guys chatted constantly while they were practicing.) And while I was in Shoulderstand, I kept thinking about about Ian’s story, and filled with compassion for his friend—for the suffering he must have experienced to lead him to take his life—I began to cry. I realized then that while I could not help Ian’s friend, I did have quite a lot of knowledge that I could use to help other people who were suffering. And while I had no particular ambition to become a yoga teacher per se, I understood at that moment that I really should look into finding a way to share what I knew. Yes, it was one of those actual epiphanies (and I had it while I was doing a yoga pose).

After that, I started doing two things. First, I began taking as many workshops as I could from teachers like Patricia Walden, who teaches workshops on Yoga for Depression (I took that more than once!) and Yoga for Emotional Healing, and Roger Cole, who teaches about the physiology of inversions. Then, I enrolled in a three-year teacher training program at The Yoga Room, in Berkeley. Clearly I believe in being thoroughly prepared! Finally, when I felt ready (and when I got the go-ahead from Patricia, who was informally mentoring me) I did begin teaching workshops on Yoga for Emotional Wellbeing, Yoga for Stress and Yoga for Better Sleep. Those were rewarding—there is nothing like having even just one person tell you that you made a difference in their lives by teaching them a simple practice, like breath awareness—and I still teach them occasionally. But I eventually realized that writing is still my forte and that I could reach a larger audience through my writing than by teaching local workshops.

When Baxter and I came up with the idea of starting a blog, I realized that a blog could be the perfect venue for me; having our own blog would allow me to give myself the power to write about what I wanted to write about, the way I wanted to write about it (frankly, the way some publications edit/rewrite you can be positively painful). And because the blog was free and accessible world wide, I could reach people who would never be able to study with me in person.

Because I not only write for the YFHA blog but I’m also the Editor in Chief, I work on the blog at least five days a week (and sometimes behind the scenes on the weekends). And that takes a lot of dedication. But that original epiphany I had in Shoulderstand and my ongoing passion for sharing what I know about the emotional and spiritual benefits of yoga—as well as the physical ones—are a wellspring that never runs dry.

by Nina

Peeling Paint by Melina Meza

Yesterday I read this article Yoga: Changing the Brain’s Stressful Habits in Psychology Today by a neurobiologist, Alex Korb, who took his first yoga class (which, surprise, surprise, turned out to be much more difficult than he was expecting!) and had a little epiphany:

“I came to realize that yoga works not because the poses are relaxing, but because they are stressful. It is your attempts to remain calm during this stress that create yoga's greatest neurobiological benefit.”

Ignoring for the moment that fact that this dude obviously knows very little about yoga (duh, some yoga poses ARE relaxing) and has only experienced an active asana class—from a single teacher yet—I hope he does his scientific research a little more thoroughly—I found what he wrote rather intriguing.

“Your brain tends to react to discomfort and disorientation in an automatic way, by triggering the physiological stress response and activating anxious neural chatter between the prefrontal cortex and the more emotional limbic system. The stress response itself increases the likelihood of anxious thoughts, like "Oh god, I'm going to pull something," or "I can't hold this pushup any longer". And in fact, your anxious thoughts themselves further exacerbate the stress response.”

In the past, we’ve written extensively about how to use yoga to trigger the relaxation response (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga) to help you manage your stress. In this case, we’re not talking about “stressful” practices but rather relaxing ones, whether that means restorative or supported inverted poses, meditation, breath practices, Savasana with a mental focus, or yoga nidra. But most of us also know from experience that an active asana class that includes some very challenging poses can relieve stress. We’ve mentioned that in that past, explaining that an active yoga practice is a form of exercise so it releases endorphins, the allover stretching you experience releases held stress from your body, and the mindfulness you bring to your practice gives you respite from your everyday concerns—and we’re not taking that back. However, this idea Dr. Korb expresses that by doing challenging yoga poses mindfully, with attention to breath and physical sensations, you’re teaching your nervous system to react more calmly to stressful situations is an interesting one:

“Even actions as simple as changing your posture, relaxing the muscles on your face, or slowing your breathing rate, can affect the activity in your brain (beyond, of course, the required activity to make the action).  These changes are often transient, but can be long-lasting, particularly if they entail changing a habit.”

This reminded me of what I have already written about samskaras (the ingrained habits of the mind) in my posts Meditation and Brain Strength and A Pathway in the Mind. In case you haven't read those posts, here is Stephen Cope’s definition of a samskara:

“Yogis discovered that consciousness is dominated by highly conditioned patterns of reactivity—patterns that are deeply grooved, and very difficult to change once established. 



“Every action based on craving or aversion leaves a subliminal impression on the mind. These impressions are called samskaras, or literally, “subliminal activators.” Yogis sometimes think of these subliminal activators as being pressed into the “hot wax of the mind.”



“Samskaras are like little tracks, little vectors, little ruts in the muddy road. The next time the car travels that road, these muddy ruts will have hardened into permanent fixtures, and the car wheels will want to slide into them. Indeed it’s easier to steer right into them than to try to avoid them.”

It seems to me that what Korb is saying here is that by using our breath and mindfulness to stay relaxed as we encounter “stressful” yoga poses, we are unconsciously retraining our nervous systems to stop reacting in our habitual way to stress. And that this retraining can help us handle stress more effectively in our everyday lives.

“Some people might think that the stress response is an innate reflex and thus can't be changed.  To clarify, the response is partly innate and partly learned in early childhood.  Yes, the stress response comes already downloaded and installed on your early operating system.  However, this tendency is enhanced, by years of reinforcement.  In particular, you absorb how those around you, particularly your parents, react to stressful situations.  Their reactions get wired into your nervous system. However, just because a habit is innate, and then reinforced, does not mean it is immune to change. Almost any habit can be changed, or at least improved, through repeated action of a new habit.”

This seems like a worthwhile way to approach the practice of active asana, especially if you’re someone who habitually “stresses out” when encountering difficulty. I’ve worked this way myself in my own yoga practice, as I’ve faced down my fears of doing poses that scared me, such as Headstand in the middle of the room, and poses that were difficult and stressful for me, such as Upward Bow pose (Urdva Dhanurasana). So I’ve long been an advocate of incorporating challenging poses—and those vary from person to person—into your practice for this very reason. So if you’re not already doing this, as you notice a stress reaction to a new pose, to a pose you already hate (yeah, that happens to the best of us) or to holding a pose for a longer time than usual, focus on slowing your breath, especially your exhalations. It’s nice to know that this will not only make your experience of the dreaded pose more pleasant, but that you’ll also be retraining your nervous system to handle stress with more equanimity.

Okay, now that I’ve said some nice things about Korb’s epiphany about how “yoga” works, it’s time to return to some snark. Because now that he’s figured it all out, Korb concludes by saying:

“The good news is that you don't actually have to go to a class to practice yoga. The poses most people associate with yoga are just a particular way of practicing yoga called the asana practice ("asana" translates to "pose"). The asana practice challenges you in a specific way, but life itself offers plenty of challenges on its own".

Well, thank you very much Dr. I haven’t even finished my post-doc yet! I’m so glad you learned everything you needed to know about yoga in just a few classes with one teacher. I, on the other hand, have been taking yoga classes for decades, and continue to read and study on my own as well. And while I agree that you can use your breath and mindfulness to retrain your nervous system while facing life’s challenges, essentially practicing a form of “yoga” outside the yoga room, I’m pretty sure there is more to yoga than just that. I asked Dr. Ram Rao, a scientist who not only has finished his post doc, but who has also trained to become a yoga teacher, what he thought of this article, and here’s what he said:

People practice yoga not for the challenge per se, but for its overall profound effects, which they do not get from other life's situations.

by Nina

Two Mice by Hokusai

Recently a friend sent me a link to this video on stress by Dr. Kelly McGonigal because she thought I might find it interesting. Well, I started to watch it thinking I might share it on Facebook, but I was so troubled by what Dr. McGonigal said during the first minute that I switched it off. What Dr. McGonigal said—and perhaps she was just being dramatic—was that she had entirely changed her mind about how stress affects our health because of a study she read that showed that people only got sick from stress when they believed that stress was bad for them.

I just found that hard to believe! Now I know Kelly’s a Stanford psychologist and all, but I’ve been married to a scientist for a very long time so I tend to be very skeptical about some of these types of studies. So I decided to do a reality check with said scientist (for our newer readers, that would be Brad Gibson, a medical researcher at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging). I told him about what she claimed, and asked if that was possible.

“It’s BS,” he said firmly. “After all, most of the studies on the effects of stress have been done on mice.”

I understood his point: they didn’t exactly divide the mice into two groups, one who they told that stress was bad for mice and the other who they just stressed out without telling them that stress was bad.

And just as I was starting to wonder how you stress out a mouse, he said, “For example, in some studies they make it impossible for a mouse to create its little nest.”

I thought that was fascinating—a mouse needs to go off by itself for periods of time into its cozy little place in order to stay sane.

Brad went on, “If they disrupt a mouse’s ability to nest, it becomes very stressed out and there are obvious chemical changes they can measure. If they continue the disruption for only a short period of time, the mouse’s chemical balance will return to normal. However, if this goes on for a very long period of time, the imbalance can become permanent.”

Well, we’ve been talking on this blog about the negative effects of chronic stress since the early days (see Chronic Stress: An Introduction and Stress, Your Health and Yoga). But what this particular story about the experiments on mice made me think of was my own yoga practice. Yes, my regular home practice is my refuge, not unlike the little nest a mouse makes for itself to retreat to. Spending that quiet time alone, feeling my body and my breath, almost never fails to make me feel better than before I practice. And when I am experiencing stressful events—that is unavoidable of course, and maybe the point Kelly McGonigal was trying to get to—I tailor my practice to calm and comfort myself. And this yoga as a "refuge" concept is one of the main reasons I’m on a mission to encourage people to start practicing yoga at home, even just for short sessions.

Restorative yoga in particular, with all the blankets and pillows and comfy bolsters, is a little bit like nesting, isn’t it? If you’re not familiar with restorative yoga, read Restorative Yoga: An Introduction and see Mini Restorative Practice for a mini restorative practice that is suitable for most everyone. Even just a brief session of Supported Child’s pose can be extremely calming and comforting.
P.S. I suppose that some of you will or have already watched the entire video, and may want to straighten me out about what Dr. McGonigal's real message was. Feel free! But this post isn’t really a response her video so much as a little tale of mice and men.

by Nina

New Bay Bridge by Melina Meza

As you can probably tell from my post yesterday on non-holding, I'm in a philosophical mood. To be honest, as much as I value the physical benefits I get from my asana practice, I think I value even more the benefits I've gained from studying yoga philosophy. This is why when Baxter and I describe what I might call the pillars of yoga for healthy aging, we always include "cultivating equanimity" along with strength, flexibility, balance, agility, and stress management. And as I was looking for something to write about this morning, I found a quote from B.K.S. Iyengar that perfectly summed up my reason for holding yoga philosophy in such high esteem:

Yoga recognizes that the way our bodies and minds work has changed very little over the millennia. The way we function inside our skin is not susceptible to differ either in time or from place to place. In the functioning of our minds, in our way of relating to each other, there are inherent stresses, like geological fault lines that, left unaddressed, will always cause things to go wrong, whether individually or collectively. The whole thrust of the yogic philosophical and scientific inquiry has therefore been to examine the nature of being, with a view to learning to respond to the stresses of life without so many tremors and troubles. —B.K.S. Iyengar, from Light on Life

by Baxter

Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Cobbler's Pose)

The stress dis-ease

Stress is a huge issue for millions of people around the world. Health professionals now know that elevated levels of stress have a huge physiological impact on the body as well as the mind. If the stress is not relieved, the body engages in a "fight or flight" response, drawing energy away from other vital functions. After only a few days or weeks of elevated stress a person will start to experience notable side effects: body aches from clenched muscles, headaches, insomnia, digestive problems. Over time, the immune system is weakened and we become prone to illnesses, have increased or decreased appetite and our basic bodily functions like the bowels, hormone production and menstruation can be affected.

And of course, stress also affects our relationships, as we are prone to mood swings, irritability, depression, outbursts of anger, anxiety and uncharacteristic behaviour. Stress has also been linked to serious and chronic conditions like heart disorders and ulcers.

The good news is that there are some simple techniques (including movement, meditation and breath work) that anyone can use to help reduce the physiological condition of stress.

 

Breathing away Stress

The following pranayamas - techniques for working with the breath - can be practiced by anyone and are effective at calming the mind and the body (although if you feel any strange side effects or/and have a medical condition, caution is of course the best way forward!). They can be practiced one by one, or in the sequence suggested here. I also recommend you get a timer - use a function on your watch or phone, or download a free app - so you're not spending energy thinking about the duration of the exercises. Also, please note that the effects of each breath, given in parentheses, are generally accepted but not universal - the results will be different from person to person. In addition, these are results of a regular practice - a one-off attempt may not lead to noticeable improvement although you should be able to feel some calming effects even after only once.

These can be practiced together or individually, any time, anywhere! On the train, on a plane, in a long line, with the kids, at your desk, even in your car (with the eyes open of course)! But for absolute best results, find yourself a nice quiet space, maybe light a candle or two, play some relaxing music, and get some comfy blankets and pillows so you can sit and lie down comfortably.

1. Belly breathing (3-5 mins)
(Calming, relieves anxiety, reduces anger, stabilises mood swings)

[Once you've practiced this technique for a bit, belly breathing can be done sitting or standing and is super-effective if you need a quick calm-down breath, because you can do it anywhere, even mid-meeting or conversation, without anyone else really noticing. But to begin with, try it lying down. The first few times, it can also be helpful to place both hands on the belly, although eventually you may not need them anymore.]

Begin lying down with both hands on the belly, eyes closed. Take a few moments to become aware of your breathing. Then as you inhale, try to channel as much of your breath as possible into the belly, feeling the hands rise as the belly expands. As you exhale, feel the hands fall back towards the body. Once you are comfortable, make the breaths slower and deeper.


When you practice this breath, your chest and shoulders should remain fairly still, since you are channeling the breath into the belly. To check this, try doing belly breathing with one hand on the belly and one hand on your upper chest. If you are belly breathing correctly, the hand on the belly should rise and fall, while the hand on the chest should stay relatively still.

2. Chandra Bhedana Pranayama - moon breath (5-8 mins)
(Calming, cooling, improves sleep, reduxes anxiety or panic)

Begin this pranayama kneeling on the floor, with your hips resting on your heels. Put cushions underneath your feet and knees, and between your heels and buttocks if that's more comfortable. If you're not comfortable on the floor, sit on a chair with both feet on the ground, about hip width apart. Take a few deep breaths here.

Once you are comfortable, raise your right hand and place your index and middle finger on the forehead. Your right elbow should be hanging loose in front of your body. Use the right thumb to close the right nostril. Breathe deeply and slowly in through the left nostril. At the end of your inhalation, release your thumb and use your ring finger to close your left nostril. Exhale a long deep breath through the right nostril. Continue breathing in through the left, out through the right. For best effects, keep the spine straight and the belly completely relaxed.

When you are done (Try about 3 minutes to begin with, working to 8 minutes which is considered a good time for the breath to be effective), sit quietly and breathe normally, and observe the effects.  This is a good one to practice about 20 minutes before you go to bed - or even in bed if you can't sleep!

3. Bastrika - the bellows breath (3-6 repetitions)
(Reduces stress, depression, anxiety, headaches, and boosts the immune system. This is an energising breath so best not performed at night - try it first thing in the morning, or use it in the office during a break!)

If you can, sit in a kneeling position to perform this breathing technique, with your buttocks resting gently on your heels. If that's not comfortable for you, sit on a chair with both feet flat on the ground, about hip distance apart.

I've given you two variations here to try. For both, begin by taking a long full breath in through the nose, filling the belly and chest as much as possible.

Variation 1 (classic variation): Raise your arms all the way above your head as you inhale, taking a deep, full breath. Exhale rapidly in one go, "blasting" air out through the mouth and bringing the arms down rapidly as you do. As you inhale again, raise the arms all the way up. Repeat 10 times initially, building to 3 sets of 10 with resting breaths in between.

Variation 2:  Bring your hands to your hips. Take a deep, full breath in, and as you exhale, "blast" the breath out through the mouth in short bursts. As you do so, begin to bend forward at the waist. It may take a few tries to get the rhythm that is right for you, but when you do, you should end up "blasting" the breath out in 6-9 short bursts, with the last of the air leaving your lungs as you reach the lowest point (lying on your knees, with the head resting on the floor or a pillow). Repeat 3-6 times.

After the last repetition of either variation, remain folded forward with your head resting on a pillow or the floor. Breathe normally and observe the effects for a minute or so.

 

How it works

 

Stress and Yoga Asana - a postscript

Many health professionals nowadays recommend yoga for people who are overly stressed. However, your average yoga class today may not actually be a stress-reducing experience. Dynamic forms of yoga, especially if there is not a lot of time for relaxation at the end of the class (10 minutes should be the minimum, but I've been to many classes where only 5 mins, or 3 minutes are left for relaxation!) may not bring your body and mind out of stress. Some of the most dynamic forms also seem to bring out in us a competitive and self-critical edge as we are challenged by the postures - not exactly a way to let go of anxiety!

If you are seeking a yoga class for the explicit purpose of reducing your stress, give yourself the gift of really doing it right! Find a class that is relaxing and breath focused. Yin Yoga and restorative yoga are especially good for stress relief because the long, supported stretches activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is concerned with rest, nurture and healing.

Blog image from: http://lessonsonstress.tumblr.com/

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It has been a big week for me.  Since this time last weekend, I was bitten by a stray dog, I attended a traditional ceremony that included animal sacrifice and the President getting tipsy on moonshine, I worked all weekend (interspersed with some quick yoga practices and a great brunch with friends) and now I'm straight back into a working week.

I'm working on a big project right now, and still teaching my regular classes, and my yoga practice is suffering drastically - and that is making me cranky and even more stressed!!  The cycle of stress is just astounding - high stress = no sleep = no yoga = high stress.  Etc.  Working at a computer a lot also really gets into my shoulders and my lower back where my scoliosis is - I hardly ever feel it when I am more active but chair marathons just make it ache.

Anyway, here is one of my favourite little yoga tricks that is quick and gives instant stress relief.  It's also excellent for headaches and neck tension.

Brahma Mudra

Precede with 10-20 rounds of a calming pranayama, such as Nadi Shodana (alternate nostril breathing) or Chandra Bedhana (breathing in through the left nostril, out through the right).  Sit in easy pose, with your eyes open and focusing into the distance.  Ground through the sitting bones and from the foundation allow your spine to lengthen up, and then soften your shoulders back and down.  Establish a smooth rythym with the breath.

Step 1
As you inhale, look all the way to the right hand side with your eyes, and then let your head follow, turning all the way to the right.  As you exhale gaze to the tip of your nose, and bring your head back to centre.  Repeat on the left hand side.

Step 2
As you inhale, look all the way down with your eyes and then gently lift your head up.  Keep looking down as you lift the chin all the way up.  Exhale, come back to centre.  Inhale, look all the way up and then gently bring your chin to your chest. Exhale, come back to centre.  [NB - I have also seen this with eyes up - look up, eyes down - look down.  I was taught this way.]

Repeat 3 times.  Follow by closing the eyes, or for maximum effect, with Savasana or tratak (candle-gazing cleansing).

 
I like to include brahma mudra at the end of my morning pranayama, but these days it's all I can do to sneak in a downward facing dog during the day, so it works well on its own!

What do you do to relieve stress?

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