Americans Connecting with Yoga
January 26, 2008
at the
Yogashakti Yoga Center
Ma Yoga
Shakti International Mission
(MYSIM)
Serving the Community for 25 Years
114-41 Lefferts Blvd., S. Richmond Hill, Queens NY
Tel: 718 529-2153
e-mail info@teachyoga.org
FREE CLASSES ALL DAY from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m.
Door Prizes every Hour
Refreshments
The Yogashakti system of hatha yoga concentrates
on alignment of the body and harmonizing movement with breath. We also believe
in having fun at the same time.
Our classes are suitable for all ages and levels of training. One doesn’t
have to be flexible or strong, just willing.
All instructors are sensitive to the needs of each person and adjust the
exercises accordingly.
Students get as much individual attention as they need and are encouraged
to recognize their own limits, work within them, and gently extend them.
You leave not only feeling refreshed and relaxed but also knowing just a
little more about yourself than when you came in.
9:00 a.m.
- Gentle Yoga with Anne
10:00 a.m. - Hatha Yoga with Mokshapriya
11:00 a.m. - Vigorous Yoga with Senta
12 Noon - Hatha Yoga with Kumar
1 p.m. - Meditation
and Meditation Techniques
with Mokshapriya
2:00 p.m. Hatha Yoga with Anne
3:00 p.m. Energizing Yoga with Valerie
4:00 p.m. - Chetan Nidra with Mokshapriya (deep relaxation)
Americans
Connecting with Yoga
Stress Down, Fitness Up for Millions Who Practice
From Hollywood to the heartland, yoga
has become mainstream in America, with over
16.5 million people practicing regularly. According to a recent Yoga Journal/Harris
poll,
over twice that number has heard about yoga’s benefits and would like
to give it a try. A
nationwide celebration, Yoga Day USA, set for Saturday, January 28 will
give them an
opportunity to do just that. Free or low cost workshops are scheduled nationwide.
Yoga teachers, studios and schools all
across the country will offer introductory
workshops in a broad spectrum of yoga topics and styles for those new to
yoga and
those who practice regularly but would like to try a different style. Many
workshops are
free while others may request a small donation to help raise funds for a
charitable cause.
The seventh annual Yoga Day USA is sponsored
by Yoga Alliance. A non-profit
organization, Yoga Alliance is the leader in setting educational standards
for yoga
schools and teachers. A complete listing of teachers, studios and schools
offering free
workshops is available at www.yogadayusa.com.
Mariel Hemingway is national spokesperson
for the 2006 event. The Academy Award nominated actress has practiced yoga
for over 20 years and credits it not only with
helping her stay fit, but with bringing balance and calm to her life.
“Yoga is deeper than simple exercise.
It encourages all kinds of health benefits. In our
high anxiety, multitasking world, it helps you to slow down and know yourself
better,”
Hemingway said. “It opens an awareness of your body and your mind.”
While many, including Hemingway, first
came to yoga in search of just a good physical
workout, they soon realize that the workout is mental as well as physical.
“In the
process of trying to get good at it, stay in shape and look cool in the
class, it began to
change me,” she said “I started to realize that the way I felt
at the end of a yoga class was different than
the way I felt after doing any other physical activity. I started to feel
peaceful, to have a different perception of who I was and that was the key
for me. I feel
an exhilarating connection to myself when I practice. It makes me feel better
about me
as a human being.”
She is not alone. Over 90% of the people
surveyed in a 2005 American Psychological
Association poll, believe that perceptions and thoughts affect physical
health. For
millions of Americans of all ages, from all walks of life, yoga is integral
to helping them
manage their stress, manage their weight and increase their overall sense
of well being.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by
the Harvard Medical School found that people who
practice yoga find it helpful for health conditions including back or neck
pain, arthritis,
anxiety, depression and fatigue. Yoga challenges the body and calms the
mind while
also providing a sense of relaxation and rejuvenation. This mind/body connection
has
brought about life-changing results for many who practice regularly.
Hemingway encourages those who are curious
but haven’t taken the plunge to attend a
free class during the January 26 Yoga Day USA celebration. “There
is a style of yoga to
suit everyone regardless of your age, body type or fitness level. You don’t
need to be
flexible, you just need to be open to the possibilities,” she said.
In addition to Yoga Alliance, Yoga Day
USA sponsors include Yoga Journal, Yoga
International, Gaiam, Inc., Wellness Business Systems and LA YOGA, Ayurveda
and
Health magazine. For additional information about Yoga Day USA, please visit
www.yogadayusa.org.
top
Top
10 reasons to "Make the Connection"
Give yoga try and discover what it can do for body and mind.
A central premise in yoga is "everything
is connected." That's clear when looking at the health and fitness
benefits of yoga that have long been reported by practitioners and are now
being confirmed by scientific research.
1. STRESS RELIEF. Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body.
By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress
hormone cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart
rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as easing
symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and
insomnia.
2. PAIN RELIEF. Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated 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, carpal
tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and other
chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that even emotional pain can
be eased through the practice of yoga.
3. BETTER BREATHING. Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths.
This helps to improve lung function, trigger the body's relaxation response
and increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.
4. FLEXIBILITY. Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing
range of movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can't touch
their toes during their first yoga class. Practitioners begin to use the
correct muscles to make the movement and, over time, the ligaments, tendons
and muscles gradually lengthen and elasticity is increased. These gradual
changes can mean that more and more poses are possible.
5. INCREASED STRENGTH. Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body,
helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. And, while the
postures practiced in yoga strengthen the body, they also provide an additional
benefit of helping to relieve muscular tension.
6. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT. Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control
efforts by reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories
and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides
a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.
7. IMPROVED CIRCULATION. Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result
of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body's
cells.
8. CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING. Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular
benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving
oxygen uptake during exercise.
9. BETTER BODY ALIGNMENT. Yoga helps to improve body alignment, resulting
in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
10. FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become
more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved
coordination, reaction time and memory.
top
The feeling of stress is a combination of our perception of events or situations and our body’s physiological reaction. Work issues, difficulties, challenges, obstacles, deadlines, papers, tests, athletic events, performances, family problems, and tragic events are only a few of the situations that can instigate stress. Even joyous events like holidays, weddings and new additions to a family can also exacerbate stress. Natural disasters, world conflicts, tragedies, and stories of suffering and heartbreak, even those occurring on the other side of the world, can have wide-ranging impacts, affecting people’s mental health.
One of the ways in which we respond to stress is through our fight-or-flight response. This is a combination of the activation of our sympathetic nervous system and specific hormonal pathways which result in the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. Cortisol is one of our primary stress hormones, and is often used to measure the stress response.
Stress in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Immediate, or acute stress, can often be motivating, as it can be activating. We hear stories of people being able to accomplish physical feats in emergency circumstances because cortisol increases blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar, as well as increasing mental focus. Because the stress response increases mental focus, it can often help us meet a deadline or finish a project. But too much stress, or constant stress with no respite for the body and mind, can interfere with numerous physical and mental abilities.
On a long-term basis, chronic stress
can be damaging. Stress hormones including cortisol decrease the responsiveness
of our immune system. They also increase blood sugar levels as well as blood
pressure and heart rate, helpful in a crisis, but not for long-term health
and wellbeing. This is where how we respond to stress can have a significant
impact.
The practice of Yoga is well-demonstrated to reduce the physical effects
of stress on the body, and has even been found to lower cortisol levels.
This effect is noticeable, and it is one of the primary reasons why people
often take up Yoga. People find that they feel more relaxed after practicing
Yoga. The asana, or physical postures of Yoga, are helpful for reducing
muscular tension, which reduces stress. We have a tendency to store stress
not only in our nervous system, but distributed throughout the musculature
and other tissues of the body; our digestive system, for example, responds
very quickly to stress. Yoga can be a valuable and effective tool for releasing
this stored stress. This can be true even for post-traumatic stress and
recovering from the after-effects of traumatic events.
Yoga includes not only the asana or physical postures, but most Yoga classes end with savasana, or a pose of relaxation. Some classes include a guided relaxation where the teacher leads students through a progressive relaxation of the body, which further reduces the experience of stress.
Yoga also includes meditation and breathing practices (pranayama) as well as a set of ethical precepts and observances (yamas and niyamas). Meditation, the ethical precepts and observances, focused relaxation techniques, and working with the breath all have beneficial stress-reducing qualities, through improving our relationships with the various aspects of our inner nature as well as affecting our psychology and physical body.
Yoga, the Breath and Stress
Working with the breath can be a particularly effective method for treating
a negative response to stress. When we are experiencing stress, our breathing
tends to become shallow and rapid. Shallow and rapid breath further stimulates
the body’s stress response, and we can become caught up in an ineffective
breathing pattern that only causes more stress. Many yoga techniques emphasize
slowing and deepening the breath, which activates the body’s parasympathetic
system, or relaxation response. Just 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 from yoga practice.
Selected Research Investigating
Yoga and Stress
Studies of Yoga have demonstrated that Yoga practice has the ability to
reduce stress. As mentioned earlier, Yoga can reduce cortisol levels, a
finding which was documented in the October 2004 issue of the journal, Annals
of Behavioral Science. In the June 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical
Psychology, researchers found that caregivers for people with dementia (a
very challenging condition) improved physical and emotional functioning
after practicing Yoga. February and August 2005 studies published in the
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine analyzed the breathing
techniques of a specific Yoga practice, Sudardhan Yoga Kriya, which the
authors maintain reduce stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Another Yoga-based program that has been widely studied in the use of stress reduction is the mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR), which is taught, studied and popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The mindfulness-based stress reduction program includes guided instruction in mindfulness meditation practices, yoga and gentle stretching, inquiry exercises to enhance awareness, individual instruction, group dialogue and home assignments.
The effectiveness of the MBSR has been studied in a variety of different scientific studies both at the University of Massachusetts as well as other medical centers around the world. Results that they have reported on their website which are still in the process of being written about include improved ability to react effectively under high degrees of stress. Published studies have found that program participants experience lower levels of stress. Kabat-Zinn and colleagues also found that people who practiced a meditation technique while receiving treatments for the skin disorder psoriasis (which is sensitive to stress) had skin that healed faster than people who did not listen to the meditation tapes during treatment.
Selected References
Brown, R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment
of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part I-neurophysiologic model. Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(1):189-201.
Brown, R.P. and Gerbarg, P.L. Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment
of stress, anxiety, and depression: Part II: clinical applications and guidelines.
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2005; 11(4): 711-7.
Kabat-Zinn, J., Wheeler, E., Light, T., Skillings, A., Scharf, M.S., Cropley,
T. G., Hosmer, D., and Bernhard, J. HYPERLINK "http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/bibliography/abstracts/abstracts9.cfm"
\o "Click here for the ABSTRACT" Psychosomatic Medicine. 1998;
60: 625-632.
Robert-McComb, J.J., Tacon A; Randolph P; Caldera Y; A pilot study to examine
the effects of a mindfulness-based stress-reduction and relaxation program
on levels of stress hormones, physical functioning, and submaximal exercise
responses. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine; 2004; 10(5),
819-27.
Robert-McComb, J.J., Tacon, A., Randolph, P., and Caldera, Y. Mindfulness-based
stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress
and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin
in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychoneuroendrocrinology. 2004;
29(4): 448-74.
Waelde, L.C., Thompson, L., and Gallagher-Thompson, D. A pilot study of
a yoga and meditation intervention for dementia caregiver stress. Journal
of Clinical Psychology. 2004; 60(6): 677-87.
West, J., Otte, C., Geher, K., Johnson, J., and Mohr, D.C. Effects of Hatha
yoga and African dance on perceived stress, affect, and salivary cortisol.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2004; 28(2):114-8.
Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
Web site: www.umassmed.edu/cfm.
top
All participants are eligible for door
prize drawing after each event
Prizes include:
Yoga Classes
Yoga Book by Ma Yoga Shakti - Yoga Syzygy
T-Shirts
and more
top