Health Benefits of Yoga

Wondering how yoga may benefit you, especially while we are experiencing a pandemic in 2020? Inner Connections Yoga & Wellness, ROCK Salt Therapy & CommuniTEA is here to help you on your journey to better health.

There are many benefits of yoga, including:

• Stress relief: The practice of yoga is well-demonstrated to reduce the physical effects of stress on the body. The body responds to stress through a fight-or-flight response, which is a combination of the sympathetic nervous system and hormonal pathways activating, releasing cortisol – the stress hormone – from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is often used to measure the stress response. Yoga practice has been demonstrated to reduce the levels of cortisol. Most yoga classes end with savasana, a relaxation pose, which further reduces the experience of stress

• Pain relief: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have shown that practicing yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions.

• Better breathing: Yoga includes breathing practices known as pranayama, which can be effective for reducing our stress response, improving lung function and encouraging relaxation. Many pranayamas emphasize slowing down and deepening the breath, which activates the body’s parasympathetic system, or relaxation response. By changing our pattern of breathing, we can significantly affect our body’s experience of and response to stress. This may be one of the most profound lessons we can learn from our yoga practice.Flexibility: Yoga can improve flexibility and mobility and increase range of motion. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen, increasing elasticity.

• Increased strength: Yoga asanas use every muscle in the body, increasing strength literally from head to toe. A regular yoga practice can also relieve muscular tension throughout the whole body.

• Weight management: While most of the evidence for the effects of yoga on weight loss is anecdotal or experiential, yoga teachers, students and practitioners across the world find that yoga helps to support weight loss. Many teachers specialize in yoga programs to promote weight management and find that even gentle yoga practices help support weight loss. People do not have to practice the most vigorous forms of yoga to lose weight. Yoga encourages development of a positive self-image, as more attention is paid to nutrition and the body as a whole. A study from the Journal of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine found that regular yoga practice was associated with less age-related weight gain. The lifestyle study of 15,500 adults in their 50’s covered 10 years of participants’ weight history, physical activity, medical history and diet.

• Improved circulation: Yoga helps to improve circulation by efficiently moving oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.

• Cardiovascular conditioning: Even a gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.

• Presence: Yoga connects us with the present moment. The more we practice, the more aware we become of our surroundings and the world around us. It opens the way to improved concentration, coordination, reaction time and memory.

• Inner peace: The meditative effects of a consistent yoga practice help many cultivate inner peace and calm.

From Yoga Alliance: https://www.yogaalliance.org/LearnAboutYoga/AboutYoga/Benefitsofyoga#:~:text=Improved%20circulation%3A%20Yoga%20helps%20to,improving%20oxygen%20uptake%20during%20exercise.

Reduce Inflammaging with Yoga & Meditation

Aging is a natural process that every human being experiences, however, in today’s modern world, we’re dealing with a phenomenon that has sparked a lot of interest in the field of science, known as inflammaging– a chronic and low-degree proinflammatory state which occurs with increasing age and is closely associated with multiple diseases. Inflammation is known to be an invisible common denominator for an enormous number of age-related chronic and acute conditions, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, heart disease, type-II diabetes, osteoporosis and many other diseases. The combination of inflammation and aging can make it more likely that you develop these conditions and more likely that they progress faster.

The complex mechanisms behind inflammaging are not yet fully understood. We do know that as we age, our immune systems transform. This invisible change dramatically increases the number of proinflammatory cytokines circulating in our systems. Other theories point to a degradation of the sensors that tell the immune system that the body is being attacked, or the increase in molecular “garbage,” or molecules within the body that have been damaged, altered, or are simply extraneous.

Yoga helps reduce inflammation in the body in the following ways:

1. Yoga reduces stress. High stress and inflammation go hand in hand. Yoga decreases stress levels.  Research shows a regular yoga practice increases levels of leptin and adiponectin and these natural chemicals work to alleviate inflammation in the body.

2. Pranayama (the art and science of yogic breathing techniques) has been scientifically shown decrease stress, lower blood pressure, and improve immunity. Now, a study conducted by the researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that yoga breathing may also lower stress-related inflammation in the body. The study found that yoga breathing for just 20 minutes was able to lower stress-related markers of inflammation measured in the saliva. Tuning into your body and breath during yoga goes a long way towards restoring your peaceful state of mind and reducing inflammation.

3. Yoga improves blood sugar balance. Excess sugar in the bloodstream causes inflammation and exercise uses up blood glucose preventing it from getting stored in fat cells.  Yoga is a gentle exercise that does not negatively stress the body and the postures (asanas) help balance the endocrine system. Yoga asanas massage and tone the abdominal organs like the pancreas and liver and stimulate the nervous and circulatory systems which help improve blood sugar balance.

4. Yoga helps you sleep better, and good sleep is key to reducing inflammation. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be healthy.  Research shows that losing sleep triggers pro-inflammatory cytokines that produce tissue-damaging inflammation. Inflammation is increased in people with insomnia and sleep apnea. Having a good night’s sleep keeps you calm, reduces cortisol, and helps keep your blood sugar in balance.

Meditation has a calming effect on the body and the mind, enabling greater relaxation. Dr. David Creswell, a professor of psychology, and his colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, who study the impact of mindfulness meditation on the brain and the body, found that daily practice of mindfulness lowers inflammatory molecules and stress hormones by about 15%. The researchers found that inflammation seems to be the key factor, as mindfulness reduces it by way of impacting changes in the brain’s functional connectivity between two brain areas that typically work in opposition: the default mode network (which is involved in mind-wandering and internal reflection) and the executive attention network (key to attention, planning and decision-making). The researchers concluded that the changes in functional brain connectivity seemed to help the brain manage stress (a known inflammation trigger), and therefore is responsible for the reduced levels of inflammation.

Meditation teaches participants how to be more open and attentive to their experiences, even difficult ones, which may result in a more lasting impact on inflammation. Developing compassion towards self and others through yoga and meditation can greatly help with psychologically inflammatory conditions as well. Love towards Self and others can transform even the most difficult life situations and have wonderful effects on the world.

Next blog: a Yoga practice to reduce inflammation.

The Art of Doing Nothing

The value of teaching without words and accomplishing without action is understood by few in the world.                                                                                                       ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 43

You are a human being, not a human doing. Don’t equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren’t what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don’t…you aren’t.
                                                                                                                                        ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Most of us need to work, and money is a much-needed tool for survival. However, what is the cost we are paying for staying trapped in this busyness? What if we miss an essential part of our lives? What if we start disconnecting from our true nature (dharma)?

We live in a world where time has become a scarce commodity, and most people are in a permanent hurry, yet we never seem to have enough time. Our modern society has transformed us into doers, performers, and overachievers. Always running somewhere, always busy to get more, and achieve more. Many of us have been conditioned to evaluate our human worth through how well we do in life (based on personal and professional goals, results and achievements), our possessions, or job title on a business card. We want to do more and to get more and tend to attach our happiness to a projected future we don’t even know will be there when we arrive. The need for DOING is energy consuming, and it can be exhausting for both body and soul. Ancient sages taught about the art of BEING.

Practices of being in stillness, like yoga or meditation, or connecting to our dharma, have become something we need to learn. Instead of listening and following our natural need for slowing down, we tend to define worth through social status and profession, so we work harder, longer, and live life in action. We forget how to BE. It may take time to get rid of the guilt of choosing to take things slow, doing things you enjoy, and allowing your BEING to recharge.

Ideas to consider:

1.      Attend Inner Connections Yoga’s Dharma workshop on April, 2019.

2.      Be okay with good enough (let go of perfection, of identifying your worth through professional accomplishments)

3.      Understand that taking care of your own needs, including long sleep, is not selfish (this is a learned misperception).

4.      Listen to your body and recharge the batteries of your soul.

5.      Set healthy boundaries with the outer world and say no to things you don’t really want or need to do.

6.      Value your time as an asset, knowing that, once gone, it’s never coming back.

7.      Stop trying to accomplish a hundred more things in a day.

8.      Cease comparing yourself to others.

9.      Reconnect to yourself to get grounded, to reflect, and to recharge.

10.  Your life is yours – don’t feel that you owe anyone an explanation or apology for the way you choose to live it.

 Doing nothing is an action as long as it comes from an empowering place of choice– your own choosing. Take time to breathe, relax, and recharge: mind, body, and spirit.

Tools to recharge:

1.      Take breaks between working hours.

2.      Walk in nature.

3.      Play with children and pets.

4.      Treat yourself to something relaxing: massage, cup of Chai at ICY, our Rock Salt Therapy Room, or a yoga class.

5.      Watch a good movie or read a good book.

6.      Listen to relaxing music (did you know that listening to raga or yoga music reduces your risk for heart issues, according to a recent European study?)

7.      Take a nap in the middle of the day.

8.      Enjoy a candle, incense, or aromatherapy for some olfactory connection to relaxation.

9.      Spend time alone.

10.  Seek out positive, non-judgmental people who love you as you are.

11.  Be aware of your preprogrammed self-talk, let it go, and take time to BE.

Treat life as a gift worth enjoying and celebrating today. Stop living for the weekends and instead live for each day, each moment. Smile more. Laugh more. Have fun. View every morning as a fresh start and a wonderful opportunity to learn new things and grow. Life is to be lived, not just to exist and to accomplish tasks.

Choose to live life to the fullest!