Yes! Yoga is good for relieving Stress!
Soon after I became a yoga teacher I began to notice peoples reactions whenever I even mentioned the word Yoga. Whether I was heading off to a class as a student or if someone found out I was a teacher, the very first words I would hear were, “Ugh, I can’t even touch my toes!” This would often make me giggle because I haven’t had a student yet who wasn’t able to touch their toes. Whilst I do still hear that, what I am hearing more of is people coming to me and saying, “I hear yoga is good for stress.” There is no mention of toe touching or looking like a pretzel, imagine that!
So what is that simple sentence saying? To me, it says this:
Society is stressed. Plain and simple. We have way more going on now then ever before. I read recently that Australia is now ranked #26 on the highest annual work hours, with countries such as USA, UK, Mexico & South Korea beating us with only a few hours ahead of us per annum. Between long working hours and social & family commitments, we are left with little to no time for ourselves. So we work, a lot, and this may not be something that we can easily change, however, we can change how we manage our stress levels.
When I first moved here in January of 2005, I used to email my friends and family back home and commend Aussies on how well they balanced work and play. I haven’t written that in an email in a very long time. Not only are work days longer, those that have children are running around after school taking them to all their lessons; sport, swimming, music, dance, martial arts, singing, the list goes on. I’m exhausted when I hear my clients tell me all their kid’s activities. We are creating stressed out kids, but that’s another blog post.
We are realising that we are stressed and want to do something about it. Hallelujah! And whats even better is that some of us are clueing onto the fact that stress effects our health. Yes, it’s true, stress makes you sick. Actually, one of stress’ biggest impacts on our body is a weakened immune system and I know first hand how it effects our colons. If our gut is off, so is the rest of the body. You can read more on that in a previous blog post from me, Fear, Anxiety and your Colon. Adding to our stress levels, we now have more social engagements (often involving alcohol), that we just can’t say no to. I call bullshit on that one by the way, you can say no. Go ahead, so it out loud now, NO. See you can say it! There is nothing wrong with saying no, it will actually built upon your own self worth and news flash… you are the most important person you know! Take care of yourself first. Ok, I feel I’m digressing, it happens. The bottom line is, we are busier than ever.
Back to the that beautiful sentence people are now asking me, “I hear yoga is good for stress.” This amazing benefit is sometimes instant; that “yoga high” we have after a class or sometimes it creeps up. Like when you are in traffic and that person cuts you off and instead of honking the horn and flipping them off, you wave, smile & think “obviously they needed to be there”. Now take it from a former NY driver, that last one is hard to take into action, but it does happen…eventually.
3 Undeniable Ways Yoga relieves Stress:
1 – Fight or Flight
Most of us would, at some point, have heard about our “fight or flight” response. Just to clarify, what we feel as stress is a product of our sympathetic nervous system that is responsible for increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and sweating… the typical nervous/stress reactions in our body. The fight or flight response is our reaction to the sympathetic nervous system as it’s in action. In the short term, it is a good thing because it can aid in getting us out of sticky situations, cave men absolutely needed it for their survival. Today, bodies and minds are in a constant states of stress because of the reasons stated above, and as we know, in the long term, this constant action of our sympathetic nervous system IS detrimental to our health. So, how does yoga reduce your fight or flight response? Movement. Sequencing poses relieve the effects of stress by moving the spine in all directions. These movements describe the age old wisdom of yoga that teaches well being is enhanced by a healthy spine. Combining an inversion into the sequence of yoga poses encourages fluids to return to the upper body and heart efficiency is enhanced. In this way, yoga becomes active relaxation.
2 – Breathing… Consciously & Deeply
Yoga for Stress and Anxiety
Conscious breathing. Yes, that means breathing in, and breathing out. Sounds simple, Yes? However, in our everyday lives our breath is typically shallow, often forgetting to breathe out fully. Just try it now and see how it feels; Inhale… Exhale…….
We very rarely pay attention to our breath until someone mentions it. When we practice yoga, particularly Vinyasa style yoga, we draw our focus to the breath while increasing the depth of our breath throughout our practice, meaning that your focus is no longer on the distractions of the day and your body is getting more oxygen. Voilà! Scientifically, it is this simple conscious action of deeply breathing in and out that balances our sympathetic nervous system (responsible for stimulating activities associated with the fight or flight response, as mentioned above) and our parasympathetic nervous system (stimulates the body to rest and digest). This balancing encourages the two systems to work complementary to one another and encourages the heart to beat more slowly and efficiently. So, with practice yoga reduces the sympathetic response in the body! Not only that, the combination of more oxygen in the blood and a slower resting heart rate will aid in decrease your stress.
3 – Challenging Poses, Calm Mind
No matter if you’re a beginner or an advanced practitioner of yoga there are always poses that you will find challenging. But through practice, you learn to hold these poses with a clear mind. It doesn’t mean it’s no longer physically challenging, instead you have learned not to react, to remain calm and use the breath to exhale and let go. Like I said before, with continued practice of yoga, suddenly the lessons you learn on the mat will become a lesson you will take with you through life, particularly while sitting in traffic!
The benefits of yoga hardly end there, however some things need to be learned by ones self. So, need I say more? If you’re feeling stressed, get your butt to yoga.
References:
http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/which-countries-work-the-longest-hours/
